Sermon Tone Analysis
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*/God’s Church as a Covenant Community/*
Scriptures: Deut.
4:1-9; 1 Cor.11:17-32.
* *
Today, on this first Sunday in the Year 2009
we begin our Prayer Week services.
The theme for these services is
“Signs of God at the Crossroads”,
based on Deut.
4:1-9.
Artur Bergen and the Pastoral Team
at Eben-Ezer MC in Abbotsford, BC
have prepared the material that we will be using
for these services.
Let me begin by reading the text from *Deut.
4:1-9*
/1 Hear now, O Israel, /
/the decrees and laws I am about to teach you.
/
/Follow them so that you may live /
/and may go in and take possession of the land /
/that the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you.
/
/2 Do not add to what I command you /
/and do not subtract from it, /
/but keep the commands of the LORD your God that I give you.
/
/3 You saw with your own eyes what the LORD did at Baal Peor.
/
/The LORD your God destroyed from among you /
/everyone who followed the Baal of Peor, /
/4 but all of you who held fast to the LORD your God /
/are still alive today.
/
/5 See, I have taught you decrees and laws /
/as the LORD my God commanded me, /
/so that you may follow them /
/in the land you are entering to take possession of it.
/
/6 Observe them carefully, /
/for this will show your wisdom and understanding /
/to the nations, /
/who will hear about all these decrees and say, /
/"Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people."
7 What other nation is so great /
/as to have their gods near them /
/the way the LORD our God is near us /
/whenever we pray to him?
/
/8 And what other nation is so great /
/as to have such righteous decrees /
/and laws as this body of laws /
/I am setting before you today?
/
/ 9 Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely /
/so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen /
/or let them slip from your heart as long as you live.
/
/Teach them to your children /
/and to their children after them.
/
In our lives we often come to a fork in the road,
a crossroads…
an intersection…
a place where we are faced with challenging decisions
that will have a significant impact on our lives
and the lives of others.
When we get to a “confusion corner” in our journey through life
we do well to stop and figure out where we are
so that we can eventually move forward
in the right direction to our destination.
This season of prayer
is a time to pause at the crossroads where we are…
it is a time to look back
to consider where we come from…
and to focus our priorities as individuals and as a congregation
on our journey forward.
On New Year’s Eve,
we reminded ourselves
that we are “Citizens of Heaven
on a pilgrimage through life on earth”.
The church’s destination is the Kingdom of God.
As a people of God on a journey towards the Kingdom,
the church’s calling is to be a sign,
a foretaste of God’s eternal Kingdom,
at the crossroads where the church and society meet.
All of us who follow Jesus together
are witnesses to the kingdom of God among us.
On this journey as a Kingdom people
the church needs to watch for
and carefully discern the signs of God’s presence and will
in each of the decisions we make.
The good news of God’s kingdom is that God’s church,
with its life-giving relationships,
is a gift of God to Christians
and through us to the world we live in.
As followers of Jesus,
we are surrounded by different signs,
urging us to follow.
The need to decide which signs we will follow
places us at repeated crossroads on our Kingdom-journey.
We can discern and choose God’s way of blessing and life,
or worldly ways of cursing and death.
To discern rightly we must slow down in our fast-paced world,
and look, really look,
for the signs God has placed for us.
We need to think together
about which signs really lead to blessing and life
and which do not.
That is why during this Season of Prayer
we focus on specific biblical texts,
like this one from Deuteronomy,
looking at them afresh so they can point us
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