my sermon on the mount

so yeah, i haven't been writing much lately.. i'll get better.. really.. maybe..

yesterday i preached at the jesus freaks.. well, actually.. WE preached NEAR the jesus freaks.. we being my friend phil and i, and near being on the little hill nearby. there was finally some spring wether, so we took church outdoors. our topic was "truth" and "being real" and was a result of our vacation with God and in truth.. which i realize now i haven't blogged about yet, so i guess i should.

anyway, we had wanted to try preaching together because we often have thoughts that expound upon one anothers, complete each others, and challenge each other.. we thought it'd be good. and truth has been following us.. i hit the text in 1 john 3: 18-22 and phil took psalm 139. he started us off with a look inside, getting an honest feel for who you are and how God sees you. the i talked about being real with others- the type of honesty that goes beyond not lying.

on our trip the sub-title was "vacation of truth." this came about after a Bible study experiment where we had read the part of the sermon on the mount (mat 5:42) about give to those who ask... the group decided to give it a radical try for a week, to see what would happen. their readiness to do this (especially in the face of some of the things i witnessed happening that week) really hit me. so the next week, when we talked about honesty, i asked if we were going to do it radically for a week, too? they weren't so thrilled by the idea...... so when phil and i were on our trip and the topic came up AGAIN at his home town small group, i reasked the question. he said ok... and so we spent the next week being completely honest with each other (if at times we had to be reminded) about our thoughts, feelings, and whatever thing we were talking about. not just no lies- we took it deeper. and because the whole thing was also a trip with God (see the next post i think i will write), there was also an atmosphere conducive to truth. we were safe to be real.

so.. the sermon will be available online tomorrow.. but, well it's german, so i probably won't link it. the 8 of you who still check this blog probably wouldn't understand us anyway ;)