[Propertalk] Fw: Sermon Resources for June 27 - Part 2

[Joe Parrish]

What If A Stranger Came to Church?

One Sunday morning, a college student volunteered to help in worship by doing the children's sermon. She wanted to talk about how to be a friendly church, so after getting the children up front, she began by asking the question, "What would you do if a stranger came to our church?"

Immediately, one of the kindergartners raised his hand and said, "I'd run away and find my mom."

Another chimed in, "I'd say 'NO!' and go tell my Sunday School teacher!"

One after another the children told the young woman how they would avoid making contact with this stranger. She tried another tactic.

"Well, what would happen if a new child in town was visiting our church for the first time? Wouldn't you be nice to him?"

"Sure!" one of the children said. "But if he was a stranger, I wouldn't be nice to him!"

"What would happen if you were the stranger?" the young lady tried for the third time. You know that look of desperation you get on your face when you know what you're trying to do is going down the drain in a hurry? Well, that was the look she had on her face. "How would you like to be treated? Wouldn't you want them to smile at you and greet you like a friend?"

"Well, yes," replied one of the more thoughtful children, "but not if they were strangers!"

Alexander H. Wales, The Chain Of Command, CSS Publishing Company

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Priorities

An expert on the subject of time management was speaking to a group of business students and, to drive home a point, used an illustration those students will probably never forget. As this man stood in front of the group of high-powered over-achievers he said, "Okay, time for a quiz." Then he pulled out a one-gallon, wide-mouthed Mason jar and set it on a table in front of him. Then he produced about a dozen fist-sized rocks and carefully placed them, one at a time, into the jar. When the jar was filled to the top and no more rocks would fit inside, he asked, "Is this jar full?" 

Everyone in the class said, "Yes." 

Then he said, "Really?" He reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel. Then he dumped some gravel in and shook the jar, causing pieces of gravel to work themselves down into the spaces between the big rocks. Then he smiled and asked the group once more, "Is the jar full?" 

By this time the class was onto him. "Probably not," one of them answered. 

"Good!" he replied. And he reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in, and it went into all the spaces left between the rocks and the gravel. Once more he asked the question, "Is this jar full?" 

"No!" the class shouted. 

Once again he said, "Good!" Then he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in until the jar was filled to the brim. Then he looked up at the class and asked, "What is the point of this illustration?" 

One eager beaver raised his hand and said, "The point is, no matter how full your schedule is, if you try really hard, you can always fit some more things into it!" 

"No," the speaker replied, "that's not the point. The truth this illustration teaches us is this: If you don't put the big rocks in first, you'll never get them in at all.

Hmm. Jesus says, "Follow me." BIG rock. We respond, "I will follow you, Lord, but..." Priorities. Get the big rocks in first. How to make sure the priorities are appropriate? A good start will be a commitment to 'Ban the Buts', then all the rest will fall into place. 

 
David E. Leininger, Collected Sermons, www.eSermons.com

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Don't Look Back

Frankly, none of us are going to make the cut to follow Jesus. Our desires for soft pillows and comfortable beds, for fulfilling family and social obligations, will frequently have higher priorities than following Jesus -- especially following Jesus all the way to the cross. We might be willing to give up some evils in our lives to follow Jesus, but to give up all these good things -- to put them as a lower priority than Jesus? That is radical discipleship, but Paul writes about doing this in Phil 3:4-11. He considers all his past, good, religious deeds as "rubbish".

Perhaps the image of putting one's hand to the plow and not looking back (or driving forward in a car while not looking out the back window) refers to looking back both at all the very good things in our lives (and in a congregation's life), like family and friends, comforts and satisfactions, "successful" programs; but also all the sins in our lives, which have been forgiven by Christ. We can neither wallow in our past sins nor boast of our past successes if we are to be fit for the kingdom of God.

Brian Stoffregen, Exegetical Notes
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Discipleship Occurs Only In Community

Very few people are expert in anything all by themselves. They need a supporting community. Do you know a good musician who was not trained, nurtured and sustained by the music community? Show me an athlete who achieves excellence all alone, apart from the athletic community. Very few wise men become so without the accumulated wisdom of the centuries as expressed in colleges and universities and libraries. Medical people are more like ensembles and symphonies than soloists. What business tycoon does it all on his own without dedicated experts in finance, engineering, personnel, and marketing? Excellence requires participation in, and support of, a community of like-minded people.

Likewise in the church -- a forerunner of the new kingdom. Very few achieve Christian maturity all by themselves. Seldom is the Bible studied diligently without the aid of scholars and teachers. Rarely are people led to generosity by their own impulses.

Maurice A. Fetty, The Divine Advocacy, CSS Publishing Company

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Hide and Seek

Do you remember playing "Hide & Seek" when you were a child? You would close your eyes and count to a hundred if you were "it" while all the other kids would run and hide. And then when you reached a hundred, you would yell, "Ready or not, here I come!" 

Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem whether they were ready or not. For thousands of years, the Jewish people had been counting the passing days thinking they were ready for his coming, and then when he came they ran to hide and never really came out to welcome him. 

 
Rosemary Brown, Hide and Seek
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On Training Disciples

It is better to train ten people than to do the work of ten people. But it is harder.

Moody

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Moving On

Some people are not able to enjoy the present or prepare for tomorrow because they are still living in the past. Dr. Warren W. Wiersbe has put it like this: "Do not say, "~Why were the former days better than these?' You do not move ahead by constantly looking in a rear view mirror. The past is a rudder to guide you, not an anchor to drag you down. We must learn from the past but not live in the past." Or as Thomas Holdcroft once put it, "The past is a guide post, not a hitching post."

 
King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com

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Consider Paul's Commitment to the Kingdom

Five times I have received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I have been beaten with rods; once I was stoned. Three times I have been shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been adrift at sea; on frequent journeys; in danger from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brethren; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And apart from other things, there is the daily pressure upon me of my anxiety for all the churches (2 Corinthians 11:24-28).

Apostle Paul

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Dad, Shouldn't We Stop?

There was a father and his family heading home from church on a lonely highway when they passed a car with its hood up, obviously in trouble. The owner of the car looked dirty and unshaven and was sitting on the ground before his rusty vehicle. His young son saw the man and said, "Daddy, aren't we going to help him?"

The father, who knew of the dangers of stopping to help strangers on a highway, said, "No, we have to get to the restaurant before they stop serving lunch."

The little boy continued, "But he looks like he could really use some help. Shouldn't we help?"

"We just don't have time," the father snapped back.

The boy then queried.

The conclusion to this illustration and for many additional illustrations and sermons for the Proper 8 can be accessed at www.Sermons.com.




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