The Bethany Bullet Sermon Message - Week of October 21, 2108

Sermon: “Sharing Intentionally”

Text: Hebrews 12:1-3

Anyone who has spent a delightful afternoon looking at a blue sky with puffy white clouds; shapes taking form and changing above, knows the joy of cloud watching. Lowering the blood pressure and engaging the grey matter seems to be a byproduct of cloud watching. When the author of the letter to the Hebrews says, "Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses..." the aim is neither to aid in passing time or assist in achieving peace of mind but allow us to find a source of encouragement and strength when life is anything but blue skies and billowing white clouds:  "Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles." 

We can all close our eyes and see faces emerge in "our cloud."  Some images are of those who reside in heaven, while others are members of our congregation; yet those images fade and a single shape emerges in our vision, or ought to according to Hebrews, "Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles...let us fix our eyes on Jesus the Author and Perfecter of our faith." 

Over the past month we've seen how the Bethany Blueprint is much more than a picture of how we want to live, it is the very definition of what Jesus did in His earthly ministry.   And nothing is more quintessentially Christ than the "last" Blueprint action of Sharing Intentionally.  The Lord who constantly sought to engage in divine conversations and use the run of the mill to discuss the eternal, does more than encourage and invite us to Share Intentionally ourselves; He commissions and commands us to do so!

In a world where we love to share, and do so with a simple push of a button, pictures of our latest meal or how we look in front of monuments or mirrors, the great cloud reminds us, we are commanded and commissioned to share the message of the Gospel:  The truth that though Jesus owed NOTHING, He gave EVERYTHING, so we wouldn't have ANYTHING standing against us before God, but would instead receive ALL THINGS from Him in Christ. 

-Pr. Kevin Kritzer