First Church of the Nazarene
Pastor Henecke's Sermon Outlines

| Sermon Outlines |





Pastor Henecke's Sermon Outlines

The Woodland Street Pulpit

July 4th, 2004 AM

The Timeliness of Jesus Christ

Revelation (The Apocalypse) 21 - REB

(words of scripture on slides)

Where are we going?

  1. Introduction

    1. Today is the 228th anniversary of the Declaration of the American colonies’ independence from the United Kingdom

      1. The delegates in Philadelphia declared as their rights

        2. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government …

      2. The basis of our nation is in these words

        1. Time has brought conflict

        2. Rights are now at war with principles

    2. The issue of liberty or freedom has come into conflict with the recognition that all rights and powers come from the God who gave us existence

      1. Pilate sits again before Christ and challenges:

        2. John 19:10-11

        Pilate said, " Surely, you know that I have power to release you, and power to crucify you? Do you refuse to speak to me?" Jesus replied, "You would have no power over me unless it were granted to you from above."

      2. Christ must again remind Caesar of his limits

    3. Rome found out over time:

      4. Psalm 33:12

      Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD!

      1. If all the world is yours and you have supreme power

      2. But neglect God you will perish into history

      3. Nations exist which are in harmony with reality

      4. Who would have foreseen the Kremlin’s demise?

    4. The issue is not – God bless America!

      1. Which needs which?

      2. The issue is – Does America bless God?

  2. The Source of it all

    1. You and I are temporary parts of this Cosmos – creation

      1. We exist spinning on a small ball

      2. Around a mediocre star which spins in a moderate system among the galaxies

    2. God does not orbit – he is

      1. When Moses asked his name God responded

        2. Exodus 3:14

        God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." He said further, "Thus you shall say to the Israelites, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"

        1. I exist!

        2. I am the one who is – was – and is to come

      2. Jesus was to respond with this same truth

        1. Before Abraham was (past tense) "I am!"

        2. On the sea of fear "I am!"

      John 8:24

      "I told you that you would die in your sins unless you believe that I am."

    3. Jesus is hereby saying – you exist through me

      1. I am the true reality

      2. I am the source of life

      3. I am the reason you live and I am the meaning

John 1:3-4

Through him all things came into being, and without him no created thing exists. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of mankind.

Colossians 1:16

In him everything in heaven and on earth was created, not only things visible but also the unseen orders of thrones or sovereignties, authorities, and powers: the whole universe was created through him and for him.

    1. Here we see the unity of reality
      1. The perfections of Creation are in him
      2. Our very being is from him and to him
      3. He not only created us - he planned us
    2. Herein is founded the source of right and wrong
      1. Here also is where we have gone astray

        2. Malachi 2:10

        There is one Father of us all! Did not one God create us? Why, then, do we break faith with one another, profaning the covenant of our ancestors?

        1. Our courts establish morality as if God
        2. They determine life’s existence in ignorance
          1. The third trimester is gone
          2. Life begins when it begins
      2. The issue is: will we line up with truth or have our own standards of reality – and defy our creator
    3. Hear again the Master as he spoke with us:

John 5:39-40

"You study the Scriptures diligently, supposing that in having them you have eternal life; their testimony is about me; yet you refuse to come to me to receive that life."

Shooting arrows at the Sun

  1. Let Jesus Christ reign!
    1. Can a people be humble who in the past century:
      1. Tamed petroleum and sidelined the horse
      2. Studied nature’s small units and released Hiroshima
      3. Rode a jeep on the moon
      4. Controlled birth and learned a pre-born’s gender
      5. Are we too great to still confess?

      My country, Tis of Thee, Sweet land of liberty, Of Thee I sing:

      Land where my fathers died. Land of the pilgrims’ pride, …

      Our fathers’ God, to Thee, Author of liberty, To Thee we sing: Long may our land be bright with freedom’s holy light; Protect us by Thy might, Great God, our King

    2. Is God yet King of America? Is he sovereign? Does he reign?
      1. Are we the same nation our founders created?
      2. Have our benefits now overpowered our source?
    3. To be able to do this we must understand
      1. Have we denied or forgotten where we are from?
      2. Do we no longer confess where we are going?
    4. Earth did not just happen – it was conceived
      1. He is a God with a vision
      2. He is a God with a plan

        3. Isaiah 44:24

        Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb: "I am the LORD, who made all things. I myself stretched out the heavens, I alone, fashioned the earth. I frustrate false prophets and their omens, and make fools of predictors; I reverse what wise men think and make nonsense of their theories.

        Jeremiah 1:5

        "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and consecrated you …"

        1. He knows – he does not discover
        2. He has a Divine will that will be fulfilled

      Isaiah 46:8-10

      Remember this and consider, recall it to mind … remember the former things of old. I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I declared the end from the beginning, from ancient times I knew things yet to be; I declare "My purpose shall stand, and I will accomplish all I will!"

    5. He created earth for a purpose and us with design
      1. We can walk in harmony with that will
      2. Or we can reject our destiny
      3. Not only us individually – but as a nation
  1. From all eternity
    1. God’s will creates our moral foundations

      2. Mark 10:6-10

      From original creation, God made us male and female. That is why a man shall leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two become one flesh. It follows that they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, no one must separate.

      1. Here is the issue that establishes and defines marriage
      2. To vote any other way is to sin (against creation)
    2. To know where we are going – is to understand where we must be - for it all flows from where we have been
      1. God’s plan in Eden – Paradise
      2. God’s plan in the Old Covenant
      3. God’s goal for all mankind
      4. The end of all that is
        1. Understanding his resurrection of Jesus
        2. Knowing his new creation
    3. Pointing yourself and all of yours toward his holy future

Revelation 21:22-27

I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the sovereign Lord God and the Lamb. The city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. By its light shall the nations walk; and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory. The gates of the city shall never be shut by day, nor is there night there. The glory and honor of the nations shall be brought to it, but nothing unclean shall enter, nor anyone whose ways are foul or false; but only those shall enter whose names are inscribed in the Lamb's book of life.








Back to Top
Copyright 1998-2004 First Church of the Nazarene
Last updated: July 5, 2004