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Sermon – November 8, 2015

November 8, 2015 By Leave a Comment

BPUMC_Podcast_Logo“Rescued by the Great Commandment“, by Rev. Tom Duley

Pastor’s Message

How do we determine that which is most important thing? It’s an important and interesting question. For most Christians the answer to that question will in some way relate to our faith in God and our desire to follow Jesus. God is the ultimate reality for Christians. Our relationship with God animates and directs our lives. As the Apostle Paul says, “For in him we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:28)

But even with faith in God and our desire to follow Jesus as a starting place we will all identify that which is most important thing differently. This morning I will answer that question as well as I can. My answer is based on my faith in God, my desire to follow Jesus and the way I have experienced God in Christ working in my life. I suggest that you might want to spend some time formulating your own answer to this important question. What is the most important thing for you?

~Tom Duley

The Word

Matthew 22:34-40

When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

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Sermon – May 18, 2014

May 19, 2014 By Leave a Comment

BPUMC_Podcast_Logo_144x144“Can Christians Change the World?“, by Rev. Tom Duley

Today we end up where we started when this “Loving Large” sermon series began. The Scripture text for the first sermon in this series (and for today’s sermon) was Matthew 22:34-40. This text focuses on Jesus’ Great Commandment. In many ways it is an inexhaustible text. Christians have been meditating on the implications of the Great Commandment for 2,000 years now. In my own walk with Christ this text has played a central role in forming my understanding of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.​

There is one universal truth found in this text. The Love that we are to exhibit toward our neighbors (every other human being) is an act of the will; it is something we choose to do. We make that choice because God is love and Jesus teaches his followers to be reflections of God’s love in the world. That is how we change the world.

In the sermon we will consider a spiritual transformation that must take place if we are to be world changers. We will then consider two specific implications of Loving Large which, when lived out in the world by God’s people have the power to change the world. Can Christians change the world? I absolutely think that we can. When we act on Jesus’ Great Command to love our neighbors we can’t help but change the world. After all, that’s what Jesus did and look how the world has been changed as a result.

Matthew 22:34-40

When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe to the Podcast Android | Email | RSS

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