Feb 18
Andrew J. NicewanderSermon Poems Evangelism, Love, Missions, Preaching, The Gospel, The Great Commission
Sermon Poetry, 14 February 2010
Sermon Title – “The Great Commission and the Church”
Sermon Text – Matthew 28:16-20
Preacher – Pastor Steve Garrick
Jesus Christ, Exalted King, has sent His Chosen Bride
He sends as One who rules and reigns, as One Who’s earned the right
Both God and Man, the Lamb Who died, our risen Potentate
Our slaughtered Lord, our sovereign King, our God who loves and saves
Our loving Lamb has bound the one who hates the Holy God
This devil’s bound by Jesus Christ and men are being saved
The Spirit moves and men are saved from every tribe and tongue
The Church is sent and used by Christ to call His chosen loves
Our Savior sends His holy Bride into a darkened world
So men are saved and sanctified, submitting to the Lord
Our goal is to disciples make, baptizing growing souls
So they can be more like our Lord, this work’s our worthy goal
The Great Commission’s still our goal, until our King’s Return
The Word proclaimed is till our task, the Church is going forth
Though single souls, we’re saved in One, the Bride of Jesus Christ
You love the Groom, you’ll love the Bride and work so she is saved
The Church is called to preach the Word to lost and deadened men
The Great Commission is our task, to missionaries send
We meet to pray, we hear the Word, we send to preach the Truth
The Gospel of our Lord and King to send into the World
Feb 16
Andrew J. NicewanderSermon Poems God's Grace, God's Plan, Love, Missions, Preaching, The Gospel
Sermon Poetry, 7 February 2010
Sermon Title – “The Great Commission and the Purpose of God”
Sermon Text – Romans 8:18-25
Preacher – Pastor Steve Garrick
For all of time our God above has been eternal blest
Sufficient in Himself
With happiness and joy supreme, full fellowship of Three
He made a world that fell in sin, rebellion from our race
We fell in sin and death
But in our sin, He’s glorified and we are given Grace
The world we’re in is frail and pale, it breaks and falls apart
Our hearts are weak and poor
But in our Christ, we’re made alive, the fruits of Heaven’s earth
We’re slaves to sin, corruption’s lord, this world will rot away
We can’t escape its work
Subjected firm, with Hope the goal, the futile thence to Grace
Before the world was ever made, ‘twas God ordaining sin
And all of its effects
This sin and death was worth the hope of Christ’s eternal win
Feb 02
Andrew J. NicewanderSermon Poems Christianity, Ephesians, Love, Ministry, Preaching, Serving
Sermon Title – “Christian Unity and the Pastoral Ministry, #4”
Sermon Text – Ephesians 4:12-16
Preacher – Pastor Larry Vincent
Pastors preach the Word of God to saved and fellow slaves
With Word and Prayer to minister so Christ in us is praised
The Truth of God proclaimed and heard, the knowledge of our Lord
We hear and live, obey and serve, submitting to the Word
There’s danger in the world about, and even in our hearts
Temptations to derail our faith, from devils foul and smart
We’re kept through what our God has said, the mercy of the Word
The Spirit keeps our souls secure, in Jesus Christ our Lord
In Christ we’re loved for all of time, our hearts are washed and cleansed
We’re called to love our fellow saints, though sinners all we be
The words we hear are given feet and hands to love our King
We love our Lord by loving men, the praise of God we sing
In Jesus Christ the lost are saved, we’re ragamuffins weak
We’re knit and joined into His frame, our Head is Jesus sweet
Though feet or hands, we’ve all a part in glorifying God
We love the World and love the Church, as one in Christ we trod
Jan 18
Andrew J. NicewanderSermon Poems God's Grace, Jesus, Love, Preaching, The Word, Truth
Sermon Poetry, 17 January 2010
Sermon Text – John 10:40-42
Preacher – Pastor Tom Lyon
By Grace God uses preaching of
His Word proclaimed and heard
The Power of the Word of God
Is Grace of God our Lord
The preaching of the Word of God
Is power strong and sweet
‘Tis greater than amazing works
The place where Jesus meets
The Spirit of our Holy Lord
Gives preaching power great
Without His work, the Lost won’t live
He loves the ones who hate
Amazing words and stunning dress
Are empty without Truth
Just useless words and wasted breath
Is preaching lacking Truth
True preaching sanctioned by the Lord
Tells Truth of Jesus Christ
Christ crucified must be our theme
The Lamb of greatest price
The Word proclaimed will till the ground
Of hardened sinners hearts
The Words of God are mighty seeds
That flourish, Grace imparts
The Word believed will action take
The Spirit quickens souls
It’s by His Grace that men believe
Increasing Heaven’s rolls
Dec 16
Andrew J. NicewanderEssays Christianity, Grace, Jesus, Justification, Love, Works
Religiosity devoid of Christ-enlivened spirituality always and without fail leads to damnation. This is a sobering lesson of the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. Jesus made no secret of His detestation of the teachings and theology of the Pharisees. When He was not teaching doctrines that ran contrary to the Pharisees (enraging them) or dining with sinners (deeply offending them) or teaching parables against them (confounding them), He was pronouncing woes upon them and calling them vipers and whitened sepulchers. He even saw fit to use them as an object lesson in this parable in Luke 18:9-14.
The parable in question involves two characters: a Pharisee and a Tax Collector. Pharisees were the religious leaders of their day. They were renowned for their apparent righteousness and law-keeping. They loved the honor of men and loved the sweet smell of money (Luke 16:14). They were self-righteous and devious. Jesus did not think very highly of the Pharisees. In return, they hated Him. The Gospels are filled with battles that Jesus had with these leading rulers and many of his teachings were teachings in direct opposition to the Pharisees. In Matthew 21:33-40 Jesus likened them to tenants who beat and murdered the servants of the owner of a vineyard, even going so far to murder the owner’s son. When asked what should be done to men such as those, the Pharisees ironic answer was “He will put to those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons” (Matthew 21:41). Jesus’ telling response was that they (the Pharisees) had rejected God’s chief cornerstone and that “…the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.” (Matthew 21:43). Furthermore, Jesus pronounced seven woes against them in Matthew 23:13-36, using perhaps his harshest language recorded in the Gospels. In this chilling passage Jesus referred to the Pharisees as hypocrites, children of hell, blind guides, blind fools, blind men, whitewashed tombs, serpents, and a brood of vipers. He pronounces woes on them for trying to keep people out of God’s kingdom, attempting to make proselytes into children of hell, making foolish oaths, neglecting the “…weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness” (Matthew 23:23), being men concerned only with their outer appearance, concerning themselves with external righteousness while being internally dead men of lawlessness and hypocrisy, and hypocritically distancing themselves from the murder of God’s prophets. Again, Jesus did not think highly of the Pharisees. Their doctrines were hateful to Him. Their supposed worship was a stink to His nostrils. He hated their wickedness and their hypocrisy. Yet, the Pharisees were the “big leaguers” of the Jewish religious climate. They were the professionals. If they said to jump, everybody asked how high. They were the Righteous. They were the ones close to God. They were the ones who were in and doing God’s will.
The tax collectors, on the other hand, were a despised lot. After Levi the Tax Collector was called by Jesus to be a disciple he invited Jesus and his fellow Tax Collectors (and other sinners) over to his house. The scribes of the Pharisees took offense to this and asked why Jesus would do such a thing, to eat with such a dirty group of people. Jesus’ beautiful answer is telling: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:17) Tax Collectors were a sinful lot and they knew it. They were in the employ of the Roman Empire but were Jews. They were cheats, snitches and were despised by everybody. They and everybody else knew that righteousness was impossible for them. They were not well. That Jesus would eat with them was a scandal of the highest order. Such men were worse than the Romans. Yet Jesus, because of His gracious love, came to save such men. The Pharisees knew that they were righteous. The Tax Collectors knew that they were not.
The parables of Jesus were more than quaint stories. They always had a purpose and always had a particular message and audience in mind. Quite handily, Luke very kindly interpreted this parable by mentioning the audience and purpose of this passage. In Luke 18:9 he states: “[Jesus] also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt”. This parable was (and is) intended for men like the Pharisees, who thought themselves righteous and better than everybody around them.
In particular, the Pharisee of Jesus’ parable was a stellar example of perceived righteousness. By his own loud, self-seeking, prayerful admission, he proclaimed his righteousness by thanking God for giving it to him. “God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all I get.” (Luke 18:11). This was a man convinced of his standing before God and of his own inherent righteousness. He was fair with his money (even though he loved it too much), he was just (even if it was by his own depraved standard of righteousness), he was faithful to his wife (even if he was able to find a myriad of reasons to justly divorce her) and he was nowhere near as wicked as the nearby Tax Collector. Furthermore, this man did not just fast once a year or once a month or even once a week, he fasted two times during a week and he was sure to let everybody see how much his devotion cost him. Even more impressively, he gave tithes of all he that he got, even if it meant that he did not have enough to respectively give to his parents in their need. This Pharisee in Jesus’ parable was the standard of holiness and God-likeness.
The Tax Collector, on the other hand, agreed with the Pharisees assessment of him. He knew that he did not have the righteousness of the Pharisee. He knew that he was an extortioner, that he was unjust and that he was adulterous. He was a tax collector after all. This man knew that he was sick and in dire need of a physician. It was all he could do to fall on his face and cry to God for the simple grace of underserved, unearned, unjust and completely necessary mercy. This man was at his end. He knew that there was nothing that he could do and nothing that he could offer to God to make God love him. He quite simply had nothing to give and was ready to take anything and everything that God might give to him. This man, Jesus says, went home justified, rather than the Pharisee. This man repented of the sins that the Pharisee would never admit he had committed. This man, completely unacceptable to God was accepted and went home justified and the Pharisee who by God’s grace kept all the law was found wanting and went home condemned. In exalting himself the Pharisee was humbled to the point of condemnation. In humbling himself and simply asking for mercy, the sinful Tax Collector was exalted and justified before God.
Dec 15
Andrew J. NicewanderSermon Poems Forgiveness, Grace, Jesus, Love, Mercy, The Church
Sermon Poetry, 13 December 2009
Sermon Title – “Keeping the Unity of the Holy Spirit”
Sermon Text – Ephesians 4:1-7
In Christ we’ve life that comes from God
As men once blind we see
We’re called to love our Sovereign King
The One by whom we’re free
The sin within is raging fierce
The Spirit holding strong
Lord, give us strength to keep Your Word
Your worship be our song
In Christ we’re one, we’re unified
Once sinners all, we’re free
How do we love the ones of God?
How do we love our King?
We hate and lie, we cheat and steal
Despising Jesus’ own
Once enemies, now brothers all
We praise our Lord enthroned
We’re children of our Lord and King
Of every race and tongue
But now, in Christ, we all are His
In Christ the Church is one
We all were sinners foul and rank
Depravity was ours
But now in Christ we’re saved and cleansed
His mercy on us poured
We’re called to join with Jesus’ own
Submitting one to all
Forgiving fellows’ heinous sins
And asking love for ours
We’re bound to do the dirty work
Of loving fellow men
We’re called to build relationships
With those redeemed from sin
Lord please forgive us when we lose
The point of Jesus’ love
When pride and arrogance is strong
O’er others placed above
Lord humble us, Your mercy heal
In spirit make us poor
Relying on Your loving grace
To others place before
Your grace convict me to repent
And turn from all my sin
In self-control to love Your own
My family and my kin
You saved my soul, You made me live
You’ve loved me as Your son
In Christ my heart is born again
Redemption You have won
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