Psalm 45 - The Wedding Song
630pm07-01-07.mp3
Passage: Psalm 45
Originally Preached: 07/01/07 - 630pm Service - St Stephen's Anglican, Belrose
Series: The Psalms of Summer
Description: Psalm 45 is the prophetic love song of Christ and his Church
Comment: It was a hard sermon this one. They're all hard these days.
The Psalm is a psalm that doesn't immediately jump out at you as a psalm with a clear point or application. Because it's a wedding psalm from thousands of years ago it seems to quite well restricted the antiquity.
When I discovered the link with Hebrews 1:8-9 (which I found as soon as a read a commentary, shows how well I know my Bible), it gave up a bit of a direction. But the question was still, how far do go you preaching on the New Testament application, and how much do you keep it in its original context. I wanted to to stay away from falling back on the whole "Bride of Christ" thing because it seemed like an easy place to go. But in the end as I looked at the Psalm it made the most sense in the light of Jesus. So that's the direction I went. But I did try and do the original context of the Psalm justice and talk about that, before I ran off to New Testament land. I guess I just wanted to maintain it's Old Testament foundations.
I did this sermon 3 times and the recording I've posted is the 3rd one of the day for the evening congregation of the teens and young adults. This being the last one of the day I was more tired so I stumbled a bit, bit I think it was my most passionate too, because I knew it and I was getting into the swing of it.
I found that in the later preach the jokes fell flat a lot more than the morning congregations. I think this is because I wrote it thinking mainly of the earlier congregations because they're more similar. And they found the jokes really funny. But the evening congregation are harder to please. The jokes have to be a bit sillier and a bit more "risque". So when I realised the jokes flopping I started cutting a lot of the punchlines out. It was only in the Aqua Golf illustration that I found an opportunity to chuck in some jokes that were more age appropriate. And just a note, in the mentoring program I don't really to "coughing" evangelism. I'm very well behaved an obey the rules of the program. I just thought it was a funny idea.
Anyway, the jokes aren't the point. But I think they're important. They keep people focused, at least I think so. But I just thought the comedic differences between the three congregations were interesting.
The three illustrations were interesting because they stared people who weren't me. I often think about what illustrations I can do about people, and which ones I need to get permission for. Even if I leave people's names out of things I wonder still if I'm doing the right thing. I generally try to make sure they are positive if I'm going to mention any names. If they're negative I don't identify the people involved and I still try not to make character judgments and just talk about how I found things.
I hope the mentoring program (who I am deliberately not naming in the blog post so it can't be Googled) don't mind me talking about them and what I do. I figured seeing as it was wholly positive and I kept my friend anonymous it should be alright. I hope so.
Anyway, they're my thoughts on this sermon. It was a good one to do in the end. I'm very pleased to be loved by Jesus. It was a positive way to start the year I think.
Passage: Psalm 45
Originally Preached: 07/01/07 - 630pm Service - St Stephen's Anglican, Belrose
Series: The Psalms of Summer
Description: Psalm 45 is the prophetic love song of Christ and his Church
Comment: It was a hard sermon this one. They're all hard these days.
The Psalm is a psalm that doesn't immediately jump out at you as a psalm with a clear point or application. Because it's a wedding psalm from thousands of years ago it seems to quite well restricted the antiquity.
When I discovered the link with Hebrews 1:8-9 (which I found as soon as a read a commentary, shows how well I know my Bible), it gave up a bit of a direction. But the question was still, how far do go you preaching on the New Testament application, and how much do you keep it in its original context. I wanted to to stay away from falling back on the whole "Bride of Christ" thing because it seemed like an easy place to go. But in the end as I looked at the Psalm it made the most sense in the light of Jesus. So that's the direction I went. But I did try and do the original context of the Psalm justice and talk about that, before I ran off to New Testament land. I guess I just wanted to maintain it's Old Testament foundations.
I did this sermon 3 times and the recording I've posted is the 3rd one of the day for the evening congregation of the teens and young adults. This being the last one of the day I was more tired so I stumbled a bit, bit I think it was my most passionate too, because I knew it and I was getting into the swing of it.
I found that in the later preach the jokes fell flat a lot more than the morning congregations. I think this is because I wrote it thinking mainly of the earlier congregations because they're more similar. And they found the jokes really funny. But the evening congregation are harder to please. The jokes have to be a bit sillier and a bit more "risque". So when I realised the jokes flopping I started cutting a lot of the punchlines out. It was only in the Aqua Golf illustration that I found an opportunity to chuck in some jokes that were more age appropriate. And just a note, in the mentoring program I don't really to "coughing" evangelism. I'm very well behaved an obey the rules of the program. I just thought it was a funny idea.
Anyway, the jokes aren't the point. But I think they're important. They keep people focused, at least I think so. But I just thought the comedic differences between the three congregations were interesting.
The three illustrations were interesting because they stared people who weren't me. I often think about what illustrations I can do about people, and which ones I need to get permission for. Even if I leave people's names out of things I wonder still if I'm doing the right thing. I generally try to make sure they are positive if I'm going to mention any names. If they're negative I don't identify the people involved and I still try not to make character judgments and just talk about how I found things.
I hope the mentoring program (who I am deliberately not naming in the blog post so it can't be Googled) don't mind me talking about them and what I do. I figured seeing as it was wholly positive and I kept my friend anonymous it should be alright. I hope so.
Anyway, they're my thoughts on this sermon. It was a good one to do in the end. I'm very pleased to be loved by Jesus. It was a positive way to start the year I think.
posted by Unknown at 8:04 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home