[Propertalk] Tidbits for Oct. 3 gospel sermons - Part 1

[Joe Parrish]

* This is a world where 8 million children have died since the beginning of 2004, many of them from preventable diseases. 
* There are 3.4 billion people who have not been reached with the gospel. 
* More Christians were persecuted in the twentieth century than in any one prior. 
* More people died violent deaths in the twentieth century than in any century prior to the last one.

The world is in peril. "Increase our faith," the disciples ask Jesus. He responds, "If you had just a little faith, you would be able to do amazing things...if you had faith the size of a mustard seed."

http://day1.org/1062-increase_our_faith

Kenneth Carter 
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Another question: Where did our Constitution come from? We all know: Thomas Jefferson. Where did he get his ideas? The French Enlightenment. Where did the French Enlightenment get its ideas? The Renaissance. Where did the Renaissance get its ideas? The Reformation. Where did the Reformation get its ideas? From the Bible. 
http://www.sermonsfromseattle.com/series_c_the_mustard_seed.htm

Edward F. Markquart
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This thirty-something, single, successful business woman was the youngest and "least churched" daughter of the woman in a coma around whose bed we were standing.  Her mother, her mentor, her "Rock of Gibraltar" was lying victim of her own genetics, gently dying of a burst blood vessel deep within her brain.  Her mother's intellect and feelings were now in God's hands. Only her brain stem, strong heart, and respirator driven lungs were keeping her alive, and this but for a short while.  Absent a miracle, the machinery would be disconnected the next day.
We had gathered around the hospital bed, after a long and emotionally exhausting day.  As was our custom, we circled around, holding hands.  Including the patient, the beloved of God and of us, in the circle, we prayed ourselves into the watchful night.  I would gather petitions from the conversations of the day and try, difficult thought it might be, to mold them into prayers.  It was a task that required long periods of silence, and it was in the midst of those that the timid voice of the normally confident Jill rose like a bloom in the desert.  "Please Lord," she implored, "grant me faith."

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"I guess I need the faith to let mom go," she said honestly, forthrightly. I said nothing, letting her talk, nodding my head.  "I need to trust in God's promises and right now, that's just hard for me to do.  Not because I don't think God will keep them, but I wonder if he will keep them for me, you know?  I need faith to go on living, even after mom is gone.  There are people who will need me, dad for one, and I want to be able to be there for them, but that seems hard when right now I don't feel like much of a person at all.  I guess sleeping here in the ICU is a part of that.  I'm not asking for a miracle.  I just want to know that there will be life and light at the end of this long dark tunnel.  I just don't see it right now.  So, I figured, God could help."
God did indeed help.  Jill's faith came in fits and starts.  It started with leaning on the Body of Christ to carry her through the funeral.  They sat her down, weary from the hard work at the hospital until her mother's death, and waited on her and her family with the hospitality which made them famous.  Her journey continued through her finding her own church family to help her through the grief (thanks to a friend in a distant city).  God found Jill where she was hurting and led her to know his supporting hand.   Her journey was not easy.  The journey of grief never is.  But it was faithful.  That is, it was full of faith. 

http://www.predigten.uni-goettingen.de/predigt.php?id=503&kennung=20071006en

Luke Bouman
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When they come to this brick wall, they want him to wave some magic wand. They want him to give them some superhuman powers to do what they know in their hearts cannot be done. They want some blueprint-some clear manual-that offers seven steps for being a disciple.
In short, they want to be transformed, but they don't really believe they can. They have become so accustomed to seeing their world as it is that they cannot imagine the world as God wants it to be. They cannot imagine seeing the people who have wronged them as their brothers and sisters instead of villains.

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Remember in "To Kill a Mockingbird" when the white men come at night and surround the jail where Tom, an African-American wrongly accused of a crime, is held? The men are a mob. They do not see Tom; they only see an enemy-red or blue. They are blinded by rage. Scout, a little girl, watches them. Her father tells her to run away and go home. But Scout doesn't run, and she doesn't fight. Instead she finds the right word that becomes the mustard seed.

Scout looks at one of the men in the mob and says, "Hey Mister Cunningham, don't you remember me? I go to school with Walter. He's your boy, ain't he? We brought him home for dinner one time. Tell your boy 'hey' for me, will you?"

There was a long pause. Then the big man separated himself from the mob, squatted down and took Scout by both her shoulders. "I'll tell him you said 'hey,' little lady." Then the mob dispersed.

http://day1.org/809-opening_up_to_faith

Porter Taylor
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