James Meyer - Sermon - Meaningless - Handouts - Feb 19, 2010

8/3/2019 James Meyer - Sermon - Meaningless - Handouts - Feb 19, 2010

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1Prayer

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Meaningless?

I entitled this sermon Meaningless?, frankly because Szasza asked

me on Thursday what my sermon title was, and I didnt have an

answer.

By Friday morning, this was the best I could come up with because I

wasnt done writing it yet, but she needed to print the bulletins.

Youll notice Im going to shed some light on my method of sermon

writing while going through this. For better or worse.

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3 Disclaimer

First Sermon

Never been to Seminary

Not Ordained

Just like you

First Sermon Never been to Seminary Not Ordained Just like youWith the exception of Ralph and Miguel and any visiting pastors I

might not know about.

Francis, our pastor, along with the rest of the leaders, have beendiscussing the need to train interns in all of our church functions.

Francis method of training appears to be

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4 How did I get up here?

Just Do It.

So here I am.

Im just kidding, he offered to answer any questions I had. I just

couldnt think of any.

He also offered tips and tricks along the way.

Yesterday morning, my question was how do I end a sermon?

Youll have to stick around to see the answer.

Francis has said during his sermons I dont just write these for you,

I write these for myself as well. They challenge me as much as

they challenge you.


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5 Francis Douville (Our Pastor)

And though Francis might disagree, I think hes a wise man, so, what

do you do when you start writing your first sermon? You copy the

methodology of someone who has experience, and whose sermons

you feel touch you.

Plus, hes the only pastor Ive heard preach consistently in the last

year.

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6And so, I picked one thing that would challenge me most. But,

before I tell you what it is, Im going to give you a brief background

of myself so you can start to see how my mind works.

This is a scary thing, both for me, and for all of you, I think.

Growing up my favorite TV show was Star Trek

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7 Star Trek

and my favorite character was Data and secondly, any Vulcan,

especially Spock. Data was an android, incapable of feeling

emotion, and the Vulcans had spent hundreds of years breeding

and training to distance themselves from emotion because they

saw it was destroying their race.

They lived using only pure reason and logic in their daily life. I

wanted to emulate this behaviour; I was enamoured by their words,

their arguments, and their cold calculating approach to any

problem. They never panicked; they never let feelings get in theway.

As a teenager it was seemed like it would be easier to deny the

existence of all emotions than to learn to deal with the negative

ones. And once I got my emotions under control, this is how I

learned to argue. This is how I learned to deal with situations, and

this is how I explored my theology.

Step 1 of any problem: suppress your emotional self; it will only get

in your way.

From my perspective, if you could do this, you could get to the core

of any issue. Math problems are purely logical if youre not

frustrated.


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8People can be reduced to psychological profiles if you set aside your

feelings about them. Its easy to treat your enemies as your

friends, when you use the same cold and calculating response for

both.

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9And you can reduce God to a formula.

So, how do you get around all that love stuff in the Bible?

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10 What about the love?

Love your neighbour as yourself

Neighbour*love=self*love

Neighbour*love=self*love

Neighbour=self

\Treat your neighbour as yourself

Who remembers your grade 9 algebra? Or is it grade 3 now that

theyve pushed everything forward in school.

Find your variables and cancel out the ones that are redundant.

Ok, this is mostly a joke, but its a reflection of reality as well.

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11 Apostles Creed I believe in God, the Father, almighty,

creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,who was conceived by the Holy Spiritand born of the virgin Mary,He suffered under Pontius Pilate,was crucified, dead and was buried;he descended to hell.The third day he rose again from the dead.He ascended to heavenand is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,the holy catholic* church,the communion of saints,the forgiveness of sins,the resurrection of the body,and the life everlasting. Amen.

* that is, the true Christian church of all times and all places

Growing up, I learned the Apostles Creed, which I believe many of

the people here who came from other Denominations are familiar

with. I can recite it by heart, at least in a room full of people

reciting it. In many churches, this is considered the fundamental

body of what a believer needs to know. Love isnt mentioned once,

but there is a lot of stuff to know.

And so, I learned to debate. I learned to rationalize. I learned how

to find the loopholes in Christianity.I was born a Christian, but we dont truly become one until it

becomes our faith, not our parents, grandparents, sponsors, role

models, or whoever brought us to Christianity. And at one point, Irealized this fact, and I rationalized there was a high probability of

God.


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12

Done

And even if there wasnt a high probability, Pascals Wager still told

me I should be Christian.

Explain Pascals Wager

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13The Bible made sense to me. I didnt see any glaring holes as I had

in some of the other religions Ive been exposed to, and voila: I was

a Christian with a faith born of logic. Something I know my friend

Dom appreciates (he cant stand people who dont think about their

religion).

And I continued to grow in this regard.

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14I attended catechism classes (like adult Sabbath school here) until I was asked not to return, my

questions were too disruptive. I attended profession of faith classes until the elder and I had a

disagreement over what I felt to be a major point of doctrine, but she didnt. And finally a year later, in

my grandparents church, I finally became a member, the elder there was willing to humour me.

Fast forward a few years and Christina and I were married. We were steady attendees at my parents

(our) church. But after a few years, we started becoming dissatisfied.

Christina, who is the polar opposite of me, in that she is very empathetic, caring and very in touch with

her emotions, was annoyed that people kept asking if she was a visitor after years of attending.I was bored with recycled sermons (or at least topics) and I felt I wasnt growing intellectually. (I got tired

of hearing You just have to have faith in answer to every question I asked)

And so, we started skipping (we were not that far out of school, so it was an apt term).

First wed miss a week, then 2, then 4, then 8, then half a year.

Then, during our 4 year sabbatical from church, my mom received an invitation to


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15 Prophecy Seminar

the Leo Schreven prophecy seminar.

She attended one night and immediately called me and said James,

you have to check this out, this is right up your alley.

So, I showed up the next night, and the next, and the one after that,

right through to the end.

It was amazing.

Here was a man who had answers!

He strung verses together like they were physics formulas.

Everything was logical; everything was perfect with mathematical

precision.

This is what I was looking for: the textbook on God, and so I

immediately began attending services here, and Christina joined

shortly after resolving her job on Saturday.

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16 Since weve been here, in the past 5 years, weve been heavilyinvolved. And every job I take on here leads me further out of my

comfort zone.

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17 Positions held at Living Word

Audio Department

Cell Group Member & Intern

Church Board

Vision Committee

Sermon Based Small Groups

Youth Group

Church Board Changed

Roots Groups

Audio Department (techy)

Cell Group Member (theology discussions)

Church Board (The church manual is my textbook, very political) Vision Committee (alright, a little spirit led, but a lot of goals

oriented, I can handle this)

Sermon Based Small Groups (we have to apply this stuff?) Youth Group (Juans Advice: Just love them What does that

mean?!)

Church Board Changed (no politics, more spirit led, this is weird) Roots Groups (you want me to share what Im feeling?!)

Half way through this, Francis showed up, and began challengingthings,


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18 Dan & Verlaine Linrud

after a proper mourning period for our previous pastor, Dan. For

those who never met him, he didnt die, he just moved on to

another position.

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19Our church board read Sticky Church (parting wisdom from Dan),

Our church leadership read Sticky Teams (based on love)

Francis challenged us to Read the Bible in a year (time is about up)

(I found it really hard to ignore the message of love this time

around)

Our Roots Groups went through A Life to Die For (can you get any

more of the love message)

Francis again challenged us to Memorize the Bible (Ill admit, I

havent started this yet)

And he challenged us to Ask for Forgiveness (this one is also hard)

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20 Numbers 7:18-29On the second day Nethaneel the son of Zuar, prince of Issachar, did offer:

He offered for his offering one silver charger, the weight whereof was an hundred and

thirty shekels, one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary;

both of them full of fine flour mingled with oil for a meat offering:

One spoon of gold of ten shekels, full of incense: One young bullock, one ram, one

lamb of the first year, for a burnt offering: One kid of the goats for a sin offering: And

for a sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five he goats, five lambs of the

first year: this was the offering of Nethaneelth e son of Zuar.

On the third day Eliab the son of Helon, prince of the children of Zebulun, did offer:

His offering was one silver charger, the weight whereof was an hundred and thirty

shekels, one silver bowl of seventy shekels, after the shekel of th e sanctuary;

both of them full of fine flour mingled with oil for a meat offering:

One golden spoon of ten shekels, fu ll of incense: One young bu llock, one ram, one

lamb of the first year, for a burnt offering: One kid of the goats for a sin offering:

And for a sacrifice of p eace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five he goats, five lambs of

the first year: this was the offering of Eliab the son of Helon.

And to top it all off, Francis is excited, visibly, when he discusses the

bible. Not just theology, but the Bible. Hes excited about Bible

passages Ive never seen pastors get excited about. Hes extremely

empathetic, he cries when people are suffering, and he laughs withpeople when theyre rejoicing. He has been the model I needed to

see during the last year.

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21So, here we are. And this has all started leading to a question that

weighs heavily on my mind:


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22

Does knowledge help us

in our walk with God?

Is there any use to having any of this knowledge Ive built up?

Should wisdom be a goal. Will being logical help me in any way in

my walk with God. Does it count for anything?

This was my mindset when I started looking into this topic. This

was the topic that challenged me to my core, and frankly, it scared

me.

Its a scary question for someone like me: If the Bible says there is

no point to learning, all my books, all my studying, all my

arguments/discussions will have been for nothing. If the Bible goes

one step further and says they are harmful, I will spend the rest of

my life trying to undo the persona Ive spent the first half of my life

creating.

I was worried about what I would find. I tried to start at least 2

other sermons, but I kept going back to this topic. And in the end, I

was a little surprised by what I found.

First let me show you why I was a little worried.

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23

Done

Psalms 131:1

LORD, my heart is not haughty,

nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I

exercise myself in great matters,

or in things too high for me.

Apparently David thought there were things too great for him to

concern himself with.

Ill be honest, Ive never had that thought.

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24 Isaiah 47:10b

Your wisdom and your

knowledge, it has perverted

you; and you have said in

your heart, I am, and there is

none else besides me.

During my reading I came across passages like these:

Isaiah when prophesying about the Chaldeans stated that wisdom

and knowledge can pervert you.

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25 Daniel 1:4

Young men in whom was no blemish,but handsome, and skilful in allwisdom, and gifted in knowledge, andunderstanding science, and such ashad ability in them to stand in theking's palace, and whom they mightteach the learning and the language ofthe Chaldeans.

In the book of Daniel, 10,000 Israelites were captured. The best and

brightest.Even if we assuming 2/5

thsof them died en-route (1/5 was the

death rate of an earlier exile), that still leaves 6000 of Israels finest

philosophers, theologians, scientists and teachers. 4 of them

escaped with their faith and beliefs intact. (Daniel, Shadrach,

Meshach and Abednego).

Things are not looking so good for knowledge and wisdom.


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26

Meaningless,

meaningless, everything

is meaningless, a chasing

after the wind

During my Bible reading, I came across Ecclesiastes. And for those

who havent read it, the most popular phrase in that book is

Meaningless, meaningless, everything is meaningless, a chasing

after the wind. A lot of people find it disheartening. I loved it for

some reason except for this passage:

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27 Ecclesiastes 1:16-18

I said to myself, "Behold, I have obtained for

myself great wisdom above all who were before

me in Jerusalem. Yes, my heart has had great

experience of wisdom and knowledge." I applied

my heart to know wisdom, and to know

madness and folly. I perceived that this also was

a chasing after wind. For in much wisdom is

much grief; and he who increases knowledge

increases sorrow.

There was a point in Solomons life, who, according to the Bible,

was the wisest man in the history of mankind, where he concluded

having great wisdom and knowledge amounted to nothing. In fact,

it only increased his sorrow. This is not what I was hoping to find.

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28 Ecclesiastes 2:16

For of the wise man, even as of the

fool, there is no memory for ever,

seeing that in the days to come all

will have been long forgotten.

Indeed, the wise man must die just

like the fool!

He concluded that we will all be forgotten by men, wise or foolish.

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29 Ecclesiastes 7:4

The heart of the wise is in

the house of mourning; but

the heart of fools is in the

house of mirth.

And that wise men will mourn while fools are happy.

This is just going from bad to worse, the wise guy cant get a break.

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30 Ecclesiastes 7:16

Don't be overly righteous,

neither make yourself overly

wise. Why should you

destroy yourself?

So now we have a warning against being overly wise, IT CAN

DESTOY YOU.

Now I was worried.


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31 Acts 4:13

Now when they saw the boldness of

Peter and John, and perceived that

they were unlearned and ordinary

men, they marveled; and they took

knowledge of them, that they had

been with Jesus.

I read in Acts how Jesus picks unlearned ordinary men to be his

companions.

Is that it? Warnings to stay away from knowledge? To be happy

without wisdom?

Then I remembered Proverbs. I love Proverbs. You know why? It is

full of sayings about wisdom and knowledge.

In Solomons reasons for reading the book of proverbs he writes:

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32 Proverbs 1:4

To give prudence to the

simple, to the young

man knowledge and

discretion.

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33

Done

Proverbs 1:7 fools despise wisdom and

instruction.

Proverbs 1:22 fools hate knowledge

Proverbs 1:28-29 Then will they call on me,

but I will not answer. They will seek me

diligently, but they will not find me; Because

they hated knowledge, And didn't choose the

fear of Yahweh.

Solomon is big on wisdom, knowledge, education, instruction:

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Proverbs 10:14 Wise men lay up knowledge:but the mouth of the foolish is near

destruction.

Proverbs 11:9 A hypocrite with his mouthdestroys his neighbor: but through knowledge

shall the just be delivered.

Proverbs 19:2 Also, that the soul be withoutknowledge is not good; and he that hastenswith his feet sins.

I felt a little better after that.

I was starting to get the idea that knowledge might not be the

answer to everything, but it definitely has its uses.

So far I had nothing conclusive though, so I kept searching looking

for the answer.

I started looking at Pauls letters.

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35 1 Corinthians 8:1b

Knowledge puffs up,

but love edifies.

Paul warns against knowledge, suggesting love instead.


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36 Ephesians 3:19

to know Christ's love

which surpasses knowledge,

that you may be filled with

all the fullness of God.

Then he states love surpasses knowledge.

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37 1 Corinthians 13:1-3

If I speak with the languages of men and of

angels, but don't have love, I have become

sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. If I have

the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and

all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to

remove mountains, but don't have love, I am

nothing. If I dole out all my goods to feed the

poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but

don't have love, it profits me nothing.

Finally he just comes out and says it. If you dont have love, all the

knowledge in the world wont do you any good.

And finally, at 6 pm, sitting in the Emergency Room at Henderson

hospital with my wife,

Tell about Francis offer to have Ralph preach

on Wednesday night, I found this.

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38 2 Peter 1:5-8

And for this reason, giving all diligence, add to

your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And

to knowledge self control; and to self control

patience; and to patience godliness; And to

godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly

kindness love. For if these things be in you, and

abound, they make you that you shall neither be

barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our

Lord Jesus Christ.

This leapt off the page at me.

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39 Love is the end of a process?

Faith Virtue Knowledge

SelfControl

PatienceGodliness

Brotherly

KindnessLove

Knowledge wasnt useless, it was just step 3 of 8!

Im a software engineer, I can get behind a process, no problem.

Now Ive even got a road map.

In all honesty, that was my first thought. But after a few readings, I

no longer believe this is a step by step process.

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40Love is one component of a well

rounded Christian

I started to see instead a list of attributes a Christian should have to

be efficient and productive for God.

But now I knew that knowledge is an important aspect.

But knowledge by itself is dangerous.


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41 James 3:13-17

Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among

you? let him show out of a good life his works with

meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envying and

strife in your hearts, boast not, and lie not against the

truth. This wisdom descends not from above, but is earthly,

sensual, demonic. For where envying and strife is, there is

confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from

above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and compliant,

full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and

without hypocrisy.

If you try to gain wisdom for the sake of wisdom, or knowledge for

growing in power, to be better than others, it will turn on you.

Proper intent is key.

The flip side of this, in the beginning of the verse, tell us that if you

have knowledge, you have to use it.

My wife, Christina, said a couple of weeks ago you have really

weird hobbies. And shes right. But I think a lot of them are

directed by God.

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42 Some of my interests

Quantum Theory Explain how God can be omnipotent (know

everything, even the future)

Particle Theory and E=MC2 Explain how Big Bang th eory and Creationism

can co-exist

General Theory of

Relativity (specifically time

dilation)

Discussions on young universe theory

Neuro-Chemistry Explain why its so hard for us to break patterns

and how to retrain your brain

Military Strategies To discuss how there can be prophecy an d free

will

Sometimes people just want answers. And hugging them just isnt

enough. And if theyre anything like me, telling them You just have

to have faith will just make them more frustrated.

Right now Im learning Japanese. I have no idea why, I dont know

anyone who speaks Japanese, but maybe one day God will put

someone in my path that does.

Now, I want to show you why knowledge is important within the

context of a loving nature.

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43 Philippians 1:9-11

This I pray, that your love may abound yet

more and more in knowledge and alldiscernment; so that you may approve the

things that are excellent; that you may be

sincere and without offense to the day of

Christ; being filled with the fruits of

righteousness, which are through Jesus

Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

The Message Bible says You need to use your head and test your

feelings so that your love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental

gush.

Knowledge is necessary to know what is good and what is not.

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44 So, what did I learn?

So, what did I learn?

I learned Knowledge is good, but not absolute. I cannot rationalize

my way into heaven.

Knowledge by itself is dangerous for that very reason, and others.

It can pervert, it can destroy, and it can make you miserable.

It can cause you to reject Gods teachings because you can think of

a reason why the Bible doesnt really mean what it says.

I cant hang on to my knowledge or use it when Im dead, people

wont remember me just because I knew a lot of stuff.

So what I have, I better use in this life and I better use it helping

other people and glorifying God.


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45 Balanced Christian Life

Patience

Godliness

Brotherly Kindness

Love

Faith

Virtue

Knowledge

Self Control

Knowledge is part of a balanced life, but its not everything. We

need to constantly add to our other qualities so that we, in the

words of Peter, shall neither be barren nor unfruitful .

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James Meyer - Sermon - Meaningless - Handouts - Feb 19, 2010