Rev Bill

I have posted my sermon from this morning on my sermon blog. It’s the first in a series of sermons I’ll preach on 1 Timothy that I’ve titled “God’s Advice For Daily Living” — today’s sermon titled “Gord’s Advice For Daily Living: Be Conformed To Christ.”

Here’s a portion of it:

Do you read the “Advice” columns in the newspaper?
You know – the columns like Ann Landers and “Dear Abbey”?
Even if you don’t read these columns I’m sure you are familiar with them. People write in for advice with their problems – and the advice is given.
I don’t read these columns very often, but when I do I find that sometimes the advice is very good and I agree with it – and then again sometimes I feel that the advice is not worth the paper it was printed on and I begin thinking about what advice I would give in the situation described. Then there are times I am tempted to write and question the advice given.
I remember one letter from a member of a church where the minister made visiting members of his congregation a priority – but apparently stayed too long when he visited and visited at inconvenient times. The advice given was to politely tell the minister to call before visiting – and to tell the minister if it does not suit for him to come by at that time. I agreed with the advice – but then Ann – or Abbey – I can’t remember which column it was that the letter appeared in – proceeded to call on all ministers to not attempt to visit members of their congregations. At that point I thought her advice was wrong – and came close to writing her to tell her so. Sure – there are some ministers who fail to show common courtesies when it comes to visiting members of their churches – but that does not mean that visiting in the homes of the members is a bad thing.
Everyone is familiar with advice columns such as these in newspapers.
Some people follow the advice given and some don’t.
I wonder — what would it be like if God had an advice column in the daily papers?
What kind of answers would God give to the questions that would be sent to Him?
What advice would God give to help us live our daily lives?
The truth is that God has written advice for how to live our daily lives.
God has given us a book filled with advice on how to live our lives every day.
That book is the Bible.
For the next 5 weeks we’re going to look at one place in scripture where we can find God’s advice for daily living – the book of 1Timothy.

You can read the sermon here.

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