Sermon Outline  Dec 30, 2007 Morning Service

Topic: Do Something Different    

Text:   2 Kings 7:1-20 

Introduction

I.        How do you plan to serve God in the coming year?

A.       Some might feel that such a question is not fair.

B.       The fairness of the question is that it challenges our planning.

C.      But given what you know and seeing what you see, what are your plans right now?

II.       Today we’d like to offer a challenge: Whatever you have done in the last year, in 2008 do something different!

A.       In some ways 2007 was not a good year for this congregation.

B.       So now our attention turns to 2008.

C.      Today we look at a time when Israel needed to do something different.

Text

I.        We need to begin by recognizing that people respond to God differently.

II.       The Lepers’ reasoning.

A.       They asked themselves, “What are we doing here?”

B.       They had a bit of a dilemma.

C.      They considered three options.

1.       Withdraw back to the city and die in the famine.

2.       Sit here doing nothing and die from hunger.

3.       Do something different.

D.      They decided to do something different.

III.      The church today has similar options.

A.       We can withdraw.

B.       We can stay where we are and do nothing.

C.      We can get desperate and do something different.

Conclusion

I.        Imagine yourself as one of the lepers outside the city walls, what are you going to do?

A.       The Lepers didn’t realize that God had spoken.

B.       But they did realize that a change was needed.

C.      They realized that if they did nothing, things would get no better.

II.       We have the power to rectify the most hopeless situations of our lives and change things.

A.       Individually we must decide what we are going to do as servants of God.

B.       As a congregation we will go as the individuals dictate.

III.      So, they had nothing to lose and everything to gain.

A.       They did not know what was waiting for them.

B.       Who knows what would have happened if they had not gone.

C.      Christian, Clarksville is like the enemies’ camp waiting for a handful of lepers to take it.

V.       A new year provides an opportunity to reassess.

A.       Will you do the same things you have been doing even when the predictable results are disappointing?

B.       Or are you ready to step out and try something different?