No Worries

I just finished listening to a sermon from Mars Hill, given by Kent Dobson. If you have been reading and find you are anything like me, or interested in what I say, I'd encourage you to listen to this sermon.

Kent is a pretty good speaker, although not my favorite. He always touches on something very important and gets me thinking, but I don't think he takes me all the way home. It kind of annoys me, but maybe that's good. Maybe speakers/pastors shouldn't always give us the complete wrap up. This way we must wrestle with the message, as I am certainly wrestling with this one.

The sermon was based mostly n Philippians 1, Colossians 1, and Ephesians 3.

I have trouble coming to grasps with Paul saying that it doesn't matter what manner (whether selfish or selfless) you present the Gospel, as long as you preach it. Paul says that anything done without love is like a resounding gong.

In 1 Corinthians it seems to be the manner of which you preach the Gospel, but in Phillipians, it seems to be that you preach the Gospel. In the Gospel ultimately an expression of God's love? Can it be expressed without love and goodwill? Perhaps Paul is playing with expressions and understood essentials of what the Gospel is. It is true that Paul can almost contradict himself, when you don't take into account the people he is writing to and what they're dealing with.

Let's continue this discussion in the comment area...

But as to the need for this message, I think it surely speaks to our rivalry secular and Christian groups have outwardly against the other, and inwardly against each other. The mystery of God keeps all of us humble, that no matter how much we know, there is infinitely more that we do not know. This is like bragging how your spec of sand is bigger than their spec of dust. It's not that we should not desire to know more and more about God, but to realize we will never know it all. It is even more necessary to revel in God's vastness, than it is to try to embrace his wisdom. Or maybe that isn't true, maybe wisdom is reveling in God's vastness.

"You first need to learn to forgive other people for not having it all figured out."

I think that statement above is huge and necessary. It's something I need to work on.