Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Asking the Right Questions

This sermon is from James 4:1-11. Lots of people are familiar with parts of the passage but almost every time I hear it preached they pull it to pieces. People talk about quarreling and such or talk about praying, but I find it particularly interesting that James puts the verse "You don't have because you don't ask and when you do as you are with the wrong motives wanted to have for yourself." (NTGV) right in the middle of a discourse on quarreling so it seems to me that these thoughts are intertwined.

Give it a listen to find out why we should all be working together and how we can be more effective by asking the right questions.

http://media.monkserve.com/EKK/2493/prayer-asking-the-right-question-send-workers.mp3

7 comments:

  1. An eternity in God's presence feels like and hour...awesome! Thanks for posting this.

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  2. Thanks for not commenting on my voice. :)

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  3. Hey, Nick. Powerful stuff. I, too, have had a big heart for the body of Christ working together in our community lately. I really like the question, "What am I to do next for You?" (Or however you phrased it exactly.)

    If you have time, here's a good sermon to listen to from a guest speaker at our church a couple months ago. I'm not sure it goes together exactly...but in my mind it did:
    Marvin Adams from IHOP

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  4. That really was an awesome sermon. There is a lot there to think about, pray about, and work at.

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  5. If that was an audition sermon, you totally passed. (Just kidding.) (Sort of.)

    At the Catalyst conference, someone asked Andy Stanley what he had to do to convince people at his church to reach out the community when so many of them were inwardly focused. Andy's answer to him was (paraphrasing here), "You need to stop worrying about getting fired and see your vision through."

    That's easier said than done. Good stuff, Nick.

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  6. Beth, Helen, and Katdish,

    Thanks. I'm gonna try and listen to that sermon tomorrow. I like what Andy Stanley says there. I'm fortunate that my senior pastor is very much behind what God is calling us to. It was very important to me that we have compatible visions so we talked about that during my interview with him.

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  7. Beth,

    I can't remember if I referenced the story of the 10 virgins during the sermon or after. I know I mentioned it at some point though so there is a connection.

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