Sermon: How to Respond to Disaster
Herein lies one of the life messages that God has written on my heart over the course of the past year. When I chose this topic for my second sermon for Preaching III, I wanted to allow God to speak more fully into my life after having experienced a lot of significant events in 2010 and 2011:
Last spring, I lost my cousin in a motorcycle wreck.
Since the beginning of the year, I‘ve watched and prayed from afar as one of my fellow DTS graduates cancelled Ph.D plans to fight cancer.
This summer Stacy and I spent five days counseling victims of the tornado in Hackleburg, Alabama.
This fall I’ve been on a number of deployments as a Chaplain for crime events in the city of Dallas, including a homicide at a local bank.
Needless to say, seminary deals with the tough questions of life, but I wanted more than complex theological answers about sin—I wanted to formulate a message that I felt Scripture itself compellingly communicates to us when we experience tragedy. So many sermons I hear on this topic tend to shock us by delving into the messy details of the story, say a few things about God, and then end with a fluffy, feel-good ending of someone who experienced the tragedy and came out better. That can inspire us, but it usually does not ground us God’s words to us. It just leaves us feeling good for the person whose story we’ve heard.
God has a better message for us than that. God has a message that applies to all of us—not just those of us that come out of the tragedy blessed. A message that leaves the Words of the Bible ringing in our ears, so that we can hear God when the storm hits our lives.
Brace yourself…this is not a feel good message…it’s a challenge.
Don’t argue with me…argue with the Bible…that’s the source of the message.
Don’t just listen to me…my message is just part 1 of what God says to us in disaster, the essential part. There’s a lot more that needs to be said, and should be considered. If you need more answers, consider reading C.S. Lewis’ The Problem of Pain or another relevant book.
And finally…send me feedback. Your responses will make me a better preacher!
Sermon Exegetical & Theological Outlines (What the Bible says)
Sermon Homiletical Outline (How I present what God is saying)
Sermon Typed Transcript and Audio (My Presentation)
Preaching Genesis 25–Isaac and Rebekah
My final sermon of the semester was on the text of Genesis – the birth narrative of Jacob and Esau. It’s a simple passage, but one that created a lot of controversy in my class. It’s a text with many meanings…
The birth of Jacob and Esau is preceded by the prophesy that the “older shall serve the younger”. In the immediate text, this response is given to Rebekah after she inquires of the Lord regarding the pain that she is enduring in pregnancy. The prophecy in this respect is comforting: God assures Rebekah that her pregnancy is going properly—she will certainly bear children.
However, in the larger context of Genesis and in the mind of the Israelite audience, this prophecy also indicates that God is going to work through the younger son—Jacob/Israel, instead of the older son. AND, in the larger context of the Bible through the prophet Malachi and the letter to the Romans, this prophecy emphasizes God’s sovereignty in being able to direct circumstances as He desires: having control over and a knowledge of the future.
I had a hard time preaching the second meaning of the text in my sermon this semester—I didn’t feel that it represented the meaning of my specific passage: Genesis 25:19-26. I wanted my audience to walk away from the sermon thinking: Genesis 25 teaches Isaac and Rebekah’s faith and God’s comfort. I felt that if they walked away thinking: Genesis 25 teaches God’s sovereignty, they weren’t really getting the main point of the text—they were instead getting the main point of the whole Bible’s treatment of the text, or the main point of another text. I just could not see God’s main point in Genesis as God wishing to declare, “I’m in control”—I think we hear that message in the book that long before chapter 25.
Don’t get me wrong: you can use Genesis 25 to preach God’s sovereignty, but I think the audience should really walk away thinking that your main text was something other than Genesis 25—they should hear your main text as Malachi 1’s prophecy, “I have loved Jacob; but I have hated Esau” or Romans 9’s quotation of the text as it says, “…there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac; for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God's purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, it was said to her, "THE OLDER WILL SERVE THE YOUNGER ." Just as it is written, "JACOB I LOVED , BUT ESAU I HATED."”
Anyway—you’ve heard this rant before…perhaps my sermon will convince you. I hope you like the fruits of my labors, shared below…
My Sermon Preparation Documents: (Click to Download)
The specific way I chose to illustrate the passage – My Homeletical Sermon Outline
The final result: My sermon audio – Version 1 – Version 2
My sermon script – click below to read…
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