Hey guys,
okay, here's the first draft outline for Friday's message. I wanted to focus on power is important in the Corinthian church and todays world and how God's wisdom is better than all of that. We live in a society based on trying to acquire power, yet God's power is based in weakness and love
I. The Wisdom of God is Greater than the Wisdom of the World
a. Story: Oscur Muriu – Coming of Christ (what would the world want in a savior)
i. Apocrypha (a la Brandon)
b. 1 Cor 1.18-31 – Wisdom of God (and weakness vs power)
i. Corinthian Christians – divisions in favor of people (Paul, Cephas) – power of men,
ii. Greeks – multiple Gods
1. Power and status (honor culture – competition for power)
iii. Christ
1. God and the Incarnation and the cross, from weakness, we place ourselves down in favor of everyone as well
iv. Our World: Place yourself above others, your needs, etc, power to control yourself, multiple gods, what’s good for you and what’s good for me
v. God: Wisdom of incarnation, living amongst, from weakness, commitment
vi. Where do you put your authority
vii. Application: Who you look up to, what you look up to. What to do if you have power
1. We do have power (American, money, etc)
2. Use for good
II. Application: Wisdom in Love (1 Co 13)
a. Love in Our culture – based on the self, happily ever after, magic, romance,
b. Love can also be abused. Not Real love
c. Love according to Christ
i. Eucharist example – not showing love
1. Community
2. Everyone for yourself attitude in Corith
a. Everyone for yourself attitude here
b. Money
3. Christianity is different
III. Choose What is Great
a. Pouncer (choosing what is less)
b. Where do you put your authority and how will you love?
Focus: God’s Wisdom is better than the Wisdom of the World
Function: To Encourage the youth to consider how they view their lives. Specifically, how power and status often work in the world and how instead love must be the key.
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Hey Brett... it looks like you have a lot of good stuff here. I love your main point about how the desire to love should replace the desire for status and power.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest though, it might be a little more than you need. I think this can be made a bit simpler.
It seems like the main contrast you're trying to develop is between our society's view of power and how God calls us to use our power. For that reason, the stuff on the apocrypha and Greeks might be excessive. I'm assuming your main goal for the first half of the message is to demonstrate how power is a worldly value. I think it's helpful to connect that to Paul's time, but a real in depth discussion of that might be more distracting than helpful.
I guess my main point is, it looks long. I think it would be really difficult to make all these points in 25-30 minutes, and the more time you spend on the first half, the less you have for the focus of your message in the second.
I still love the critique on our culture - how we seek our own control and power, even when we love other people. And I love how you counter that with the wisdom of love. Just really try to shoot for 25 minutes, especially since this looks like a great message for small groups to discuss.
yeah, I was kinda thinking that it was a bit long myself. Thanks for giving me some tips on where to trim. I was looking through an NICNT (Gordon Fee) and it helped me focus down what I have.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely will do the contrast part, cut out the apocrypha (though I've always wanted to use the apocrypha.. alas another time). cut down on a lot of expanation on ch 13's love, but basically keep it: God/Christ's loves, how we must. So a quick rundown. The eucharist example may just turn into part of that example
As for the cultural context of Paul's time, I'll limit that to a single paragraph and basically in ways that it relates to our context as well
Any other things you think might not belong?
Any other points you think might be
Yo Yo!!
ReplyDeleteHey Brett,
I think that your focus is a great focus and that you should focus on your focus. Haha. But no really, I like the point you're making about God's wisdom and challenging the youth to look at their lives differently.
showing the contrasting views is always effective. it really shows how something seemingly unrelated is actual related in our day. culture is such a big influence and in many cases not a positive one, so showing God's wisdom as greater is so key.
ReplyDeletein terms of your length, though it may be long, i think it might just appear longer than it actually is because blogger is so outline unfriendly, haha.
perhaps in III(b) you can also pose the question who/what do you love. it seems thats really at the heart of the matter--loving godly wisdom or wordly wisdom, loving godly power or worldy power, etc.
I'm not sure there is other stuff you need to cut. If the background info is closer to a paragraph, you should be fine. That seems like a good balance - I definitely do think that can be helpful. I definitely wouldn't cut examples from our world/the kids' world of what it means to value power.
ReplyDeleteAnd on top of that, the Eucharist example is a great illustration of how we do this, how something that was meant to be about love can be twisted into a power/status play.
I like Eugene's point - that could really lead into good small group time.
Looks good man... one thing I've been realizing lately is that my messages are super long because I just use too many words. A lot of times, you can include more in a message if points are just made in a simple, less verbose way.
Good luck. I'm psyched about this message... I love the angle you're taking.