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Jun 16, 2019

The Golden Rule

Passage: Matthew 7:12-14

Speaker: Brian Land

Series: Sermon on the Mount

Category: Grace Brevard

Keywords: love, works, grace, others, rules, paths

We all deeply want to love and be loved; know and be known. Boiled down to its essence, the Gospel tells us that God himself loved us exactly the way we needed to be loved: through unmerited sacrifice and infinite grace, inviting us to walk to, with and for Him. Now, as adopted and cherished children of God, we have the calling, motivation and empowerment to not walk the “wide path” of self-love as set ourselves upon the Kingdom’s Throne but, rather, to love Him and one another the way we’ve been loved; by sacrificially giving of ourselves without strings not “so that” but “because of.”

ORDER OF Worship

PRELUDE: The Way

CALL TO WORSHIP: Psalm 16:1-2,5,9,11

LEADER: 1 Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge. 2 I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.”

5 The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot.

9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure.

ALL: 11 You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

READING: John 10:9-11

LEADER: 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

ALL: 11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.  

MUSIC:

  • Holy Holy Holy
  • My Hope is Built (Solid Rock)
  • In Christ Alone
  • Reckless Love

Reading: The Apostle’s Creed

ALL: I believe in God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and buried.

He descended to the dead. The third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven

and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit. The holy Church. The communion of saints.

The forgiveness of sins. The resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

MESSAGE: The Golden Rule

CENTRAL TEXT: Matthew 7:12-14

“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. 13“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”

ILLUSTRATIONS: 

RESPONSE: Communion

BENEDICTION: Hebrews 13:20-21

LEADER: 20 Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, 21 equip you with everything good that you may do his will,

ALL: working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.   

ADDITIONAL SCRIPTURES:

  • Deuteronomy 30:15-20
  • Joshua 24:15
  • Jeremiah 21:8 
  • John 10:1-18  
  • John 14:1-7 

MEDIA:

QUOTES:

  • “Do unto others before they do unto you” - Archie Bunker

  • “As long as I recognize the road as the one I am commanded to walk, and try to walk it in fear of myself, it is truly impossible. But if I see Jesus Christ walking ahead of me, step by step, if I look only at Him and follow him, step by step, then I will be protected on this path.” - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  • “I believe that every human being is sufficiently depraved that when we get to heaven, no one will be able to say, “I merited this.” - Dallas Willard

  • “There is no experience you’ve had that you were not at the absolute center of. [Consequently, our] natural, hard-wired default setting … is to be deeply and literally self-centred, and to see and interpret everything through this lens of self. . . .The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day. That is real freedom.” - David Foster Wallace

  • “While it might be possible to square some religions with each other, particularly those with multiple gods, Christianity is like a puzzle piece drawn from the wrong set: however hard we try to bend the edges, it won’t fit.” - Rebecca McLaughlin (Confronting Christianity)

  • "Other religions say, try hard and you'll receive your reward. In other words, first the road then the gate. Christianity is the other way around. There was One who was killed outside the gate so we could enter in and be saved (and now walk the path in gratitude)." -  Timothy J. Keller

  • "Tirian looked round again and could hardly believe his eyes. There was the blue sky overhead, and grassy country spreading as far as he could see in every direction, and his new friends all round him laughing. “It seems, then,” said Tirian, smiling himself, “that the stable seen from within and the stable seen from without are two different places.” “Yes,” said the Lord Digory. “Its inside is bigger than its outside.” - Chronicles of Narnia: The Last Battle

  • "I willingly believe that the damned are, in one sense, successful, rebels to the end; that the doors of hell are locked on the inside . . . they enjoy forever the horrible freedom they have demanded, and are therefore self-enslaved: just as the blessed, forever submitting to obedience, become through all eternity more and more free." - The Problem of Pain

BOOKS / DOCS

SERMONS / TALKS: