[Propertalk] Fw: Sermon Resources for April 10 - Part 1

[Joe Parrish]

Sermons for the Lent 5: 

    John 11:1-45 – “It’s Time to Get Up”   
    Romans 8:6-11– “The Big “J” and the Little “j”” by Leonard Sweet

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John 11:1-45, the sermon titled "It’s Time to Get Up" 

Good News all around us and I have good news for you: God has a resurrection for you! He wants to bring you out into the light again. He wants to bring you out of that tomb of oppression and give you a new start. And listen! He has the power to do it. He can bring you back to life.

This powerful story in John 11 speaks to this. Remember it with me. Mary and Martha who live in Bethany are some of Jesus’ closest friends… They send word to him that their brother, whose name is Lazarus, is desperately ill. “Please come. We need your help. Hurry. He is sinking fast.” But by the time Jesus gets there, Lazarus has died… and has been in his grave for four days. Mary and Martha come out to meet Jesus and they express their grief: “He’s gone. We’ve lost him. O Lord, if only you have been here, our brother would not have died.”

The family and friends have gathered and in their deep sorrow, they begin to weep over the loss of their loved one, Lazarus. The heart of Jesus goes out to them… and Jesus weeps with them. He loved Lazarus, too… and he loves them… and he shares their pain. Jesus goes out to the cave-like tomb and he says to them: “Roll back the stone!” Martha, always the realist and ever ready to speak out, protests: “But Lord, we can’t do that. He has been in the grave for 4 days. By now there will be a terrible odor.” Jesus says to her: “Martha, only believe and you will see the power of God.”

So they roll the stone away… and Jesus cries out in a loud voice: “Lazarus, come forth!” And incredibly, miraculously, amazingly, before their very eyes… Lazarus is resurrected! He comes out of the tomb. He still has on his grave clothes. His head and feet are still wrapped with mummy-like bandages. Jesus then turns to the friends and family and says to them, “Unbind him and let him go. Unwrap him and set him free.”

In this graphic and dramatic story, three awesome lessons jump out at us. Three great truths emerge which can be so helpful to us today. Let me list them for us: Jesus wept with those he loved and he still does. Jesus raised people up and he still does. Jesus included others in the healing process… and he still does.

1. First, Jesus wept with those he loved...and he still does.
2. Second, Jesus raised people up…and he still does.
3. Third, he included others in the healing process…and he still does.

The rest of this sermon following the outline above can be obtained by joining www.Sermons.com. 

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Romans 8, the sermon titled ‘"Big “J” and Little “j”’ by Leonard Sweet 

A new kind of “American Idol” competition is underway this month. By the end of April there will be a new voice behind that loud, squawking Aflac duck. It seems the original duck voice actor was let go after “tweeting” several insensitive remarks immediately after that 9.0 earthquake and 80 foot tsunami struck Japan. Evidently “tweets” can silence “quacks.” 

The competition for the next famous quacker is fierce. Already over 28,000 people have inquired on the Aflac website (QuackAflac.com) about the position for “spokes duck” for the insurance company. Everyone, it seems, wants to be a “quack.”

Drive down almost any rural road that runs alongside a waterway and you are likely to see a bright yellow road sign with silhouettes of ducklings warning you “Slow. Duck Crossing.” Nothing says spring so sweetly as a line-up of little fuzzy yellow ducklings waddling or swimming behind their mother. The babies look so devoted, and are so completely lock-stepped on their parent, that they will blindly follow-the-leader right into traffic or over the edge of a waterfall.

It isn’t love that keeps those baby ducks so obediently bounded behind their mother. Flocking birds like ducks and geese are genetically programmed to “imprint” on the first creature they see after cracking out of their eggshell. Of course, that first creature would normally always be the baby duck’s mom or dad. Imprinting on their parents keeps the hatchlings from wandering off on their own, or trying to make up-close and personal friends with a cat or a Buick.

But imprinting can go very wrong. Baby ducks imprint on the first moving creature they encounter, no matter what it is. If the eggs are hatched in an incubator box then the human being caring for the new hatchlings will become the object of the babies imprinting. If the eggs are hatched by a friendly dog, then the ducklings “mom” will forever be a barker, not a quacker.

There are some Christians who think they are following Christ, when really they have simply been “imprinted” by a culture that calls itself “Christian.” Following some accepted line of “Christian” behavior is not necessarily following Christ…

The rest of this sermon following the outline above can be obtained by joining www.Sermons.com. 

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Giving Thanks for Our Trouble

Ours is a God who does not despise or abhor the affliction of the afflicted and does not hide his face from them.” There is always a sense in which great living is found in the midst of suffering and tears.

An old Yiddish folk story tells of a well-to-do gentleman of leisured much interested in the Hebrew Scriptures. He visited a wise rabbi to ask a question. He said: “I think I grasp the sense and meaning of these writings except for one thing. I cannot understand how we can be expected to give God thanks for our troubles.” The rabbi knew instantly that he could not explain this with mere words. He said to the gentleman: “If you want to understand this, you will have to visit Isaac the water-carrier.” The gentleman was mystified by this, but knowing the rabbi to be wise, crossed to a poor section of the settlement and came upon Isaac the water-carrier, an old man who had been engaged in mean, lowly, backbreaking labor for some fifty years.

The gentleman explained the reason for his visit. Isaac paused from his labors. Finally, after several minutes of silence, looking baffled, he spoke: “I know that the rabbi is the wisest of men. But I cannot understand why he would send you to me with that question. I can’t answer it because I’ve had nothing but wonderful things happen to me. I thank God every morning and night for all his many blessings on me and my family.”

 
It is true, is it not? The pure in heart see God. The humble in spirit know Christ’s joy and enter into God’s glory. “For I consider,” writes Paul, “that the sufferings of the present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”
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The Way Out

Most everyone has worked one of those mazes where you follow the right path to find your way out. As you move your pencil through the maze you keep running into dead ends until you find the one path that sets you free.

Life is a lot like living in a maze. We continue to take wrong turns which lead nowhere and often retrace our steps until we can find our way. It can be very frustrating. Sometimes we never do find our way out. Those are the times we are stuck and feel like a prisoner with no escape.

Today I want to help set you free. I believe that no matter how difficult the maze you live in may seem, there is always a way out. Not even death can stand in the way of your life’s journey.

Keith Wagner, Only One Way Out
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Sunday's A Comin'

Tony Campolo tells the story of a black Baptist preacher in the inner city of Philadelphia who preached a sermon Tony says he'll never forget. Tony preached first. He was "hot," so "hot" he says, that he even stopped and listened to himself. He sat down and said to his pastor: "Now see if you can top that one!"

"Son," said the black pastor, "you ain't seen nothin' yet." For an hour and a half the pastor repeated these words over and over again: "It's Friday, but Sunday's a comin'."

"I've never heard anything like it," Tony said. "He just kept saying it. The congregation was spellbound by the power of it."

"It's Friday. Mary, Jesus' mother is crying her eyes out. That's her son up there on the cross. He's dying the agonizing death of crucifixion as a criminal. But it's only Friday," the preacher said. "Sunday's a comin'.

"The apostles were really down and out. Jesus, their leader, was being killed by evil men. But it was only Friday. Sunday is a comin'.

"The Devil thought he had won. 'You thought you could outwit me,' he said, 'but I've got you now.' But it was only Friday. Sunday is a comin'."

"He went on like that for 30 minutes, 40 minutes, an hour. Each time he said, 'It's Friday,' the crowd began to respond, 'but Sunday's comin'. An hour and 15 minutes.

"It's Friday and evil has triumphed over good. Jesus is dying up there on the cross. The world is turned upside down. This shouldn't happen. But it's only Friday. Sunday's a comin'.

"It's Friday. But Sunday is comin'. Mary Magdalene was out of her mind with grief. Her Lord was being killed. Jesus had turned her life from sin to grace. Now he was dead. But it's only Friday. Sunday is a comin'."

The place was rocking. For an hour and a half. "Friday! But Sunday is a comin'. Friday. But Sunday is a comin'.

"The sisters and the brothers are suffering. It just isn't fair...all they have to go through, but it's only Friday. Sunday is comin'."

"I was exhausted," Tony said. "It was the best sermon I've ever heard. The old preacher was saying it and the people were with him. 'It's Friday, but Sunday is a comin'. It was powerful," Tony said. "It was personal."

Ronald J. Lavin, I Am the Resurrection and the Life, www.eSermons.com
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