[Propertalk] Fwd: Sermon Resources for January 16 - Part 2

[Joe Parrish]

Jesus Calls the Common Man
 
In May 1855, an eighteen-year-old boy went to the deacons of the church in
Boston. He had been raised in a Unitarian church, in almost total ignorance of the gospel, but when he had moved to Boston to make his fortune, he began to attend a Bible-preaching church. Then, in April of 1855, his Sunday school teacher had come into the store where he was working and simply and persuasively shared the Gospel and urged the young man to trust in the Lord Jesus. He did, and now he was applying to join the church. One fact quickly became obvious. This young man was almost totally ignorant of biblical truth. One of the deacons asked him, "Son, what has Christ done for us all - for you -which entitles him to our love?" His response was, "I don't know. I think Christ has done a great deal for us, but I don't think of anything in particular that I know of."
 
Hardly an impressive start. Years later his Sunday school teacher said of him: "I can truly say that I have seen few persons whose minds were spiritually darker than was his when he came into my Sunday school class. I think the committee of the church seldom met an applicant for membership who seemed more unlikely ever to become a Christian of clear and decided views of gospel truth, still less to fill any space of public or extended usefulness." Nothing happened very quickly to change their minds. The deacons decided to put him on a year-long instruction program to teach him basic Christian truths. Perhaps they wanted to work on some of his other rough spots as well. Not only was he ignorant of spiritual truths, he was only barely literate, and his spoken grammar was atrocious. The year-long probation did not help very much. At his second interview, there was only a minimal improvement in the quality of his answers, but since it was obvious that he was a sincere and committed (if ignorant) Christian, they accepted him as a church member.
 
Over the next years, many people looked at that young man and were convinced that God would never use a person like that. And in doing so they wrote off Dwight L. Moody. But God did not. By God's infinite grace and persevering love, Moody was transformed into one of the most effective servants of God in church history, a man whose impact is still with us today.
 
Gary Inrig, Hearts of Iron, Feet of Clay
 
___________________
 
Party Tonight! 
 
I was once staying in a motel in a large city and was surprised to find, posted to the elevator door, a small, handwritten notice which read, "Party tonight! Room 210. Eight o'clock p.m. Everyone invited!" I could hardly picture who would throw such a party, or for what reason, but I imagined that at 8:00, room 210 would be filled by an unlikely assortment of people - sales representatives seeking a little relief from the tedium of the road; a vacationing couple tired of sightseeing; a man stopping overnight in the middle of a long journey, looking for a bit of festivity; a few inquisitive and wary motel employees, there because of professional responsibility; perhaps some young people who had slipped out of their parents' rooms, anxiously curious about what was happening in room 210.
 
Alas, the sign by the elevator soon came down, replaced by a typewritten statement from the motel staff explaining that the original notice was a hoax, a practical joke. That made sense, of course, but in a way it was too bad. For a brief moment, those of us staying at the motel were tantalized by the possibility that there just might be a party going on somewhere to which we were all invited - a party where it didn't make much difference who we were when we walked in the door, or what motivated us to come; a party we could come to out of boredom, loneliness, curiosity, responsibility, eagerness to be in fellowship, or simply out of a desire to come and see what was happening; a party where it didn't matter nearly as much what got us in the door, as what would happen to us after we arrived.
 
Perhaps if there is to be such a party, the church is going to have to throw it.
 
Thomas G. Long, Shepherds and Bathrobes, CSS Publishing Company, Inc.
_______________________________________
 
Dance the Offering Forward
 
A missionary in Africa was preaching his first sermon in a mission church. When time came for the offering, the people danced their offerings forward. They danced and sang praise to God as they brought their offerings to the altar. It was a beautiful moment. What do you think? Should we get our ushers to do that?
 
After the service, he asked one of the people, "Why do you dance and sing when you bring your offering forward on Sunday morning?" Back came the answer: "How could we not dance? We are so grateful to God for what He has done for us in sending Jesus Christ to save us that we have to dance and sing our thanksgiving and besides it says in the Bible, God loves a cheerful giver."
 
Let me ask you something. Do you feel gratitude to God that strongly? Do you have a strong case of the "can't help its" when it come to gratitude? When you are Christians, gratitude is the spirit of your lifestyle. When you are a Christian, you can't help but be grateful!
 
James W. Moore, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com

__________________ 
 
Word of Mouth Evangelism
 
Everyone knows that the best form of advertising ever invented and the one that is still most successful is word-of-mouth - people telling other people. About forty years ago there used to be an automobile named the Packard. Packard was the last car manufacturer to get into advertising. It didn't happen until old man Packard died, because whenever he was approached to buy some advertising for his cars he always said, "Don't need any; just ask the man who owns one." After his death, "Ask the man who owns one" became the Packard slogan.
 
Our Lord Jesus Christ is also known through word-of-mouth advertising. That's how the word about him gets out. Only the Shepherds at the first Christmas heard the good news from angels. Only the Wise Men were led by a Star. Just a comparative few were touched by miracles. Almost everybody came to know Jesus Christ.
 
Daniel G. Mueller, Just Follow the Signs, CSS Publishing Company
 
_____________
 
Jesus the Sin Stealer
 
The primary emphasis of John's declaration is to say who Jesus is (the Lamb of God) and also to say what Jesus does (takes away the sin of the world). This is all well and good, but the old Adam in me gets nervous when I have an encounter with a "sin stealer." I want to be as graphic and as plain as I can be about this Jesus is the ultimate sin stealer, and that troubles me. You can certainly use language that describes this reality in different terms, like "Jesus removes our sins," or "Jesus washed my sins away," but Jesus "rips us off" as far as our corporate and personal sins are concerned. I am a witness to this, because I was reared by a sin stealer my mother. Now Daddy was a "sin reactor and responder," and I was the not always grateful recipient of his reactions and responses, but Mama was the sin stealer, the one who had the spiritual discernment and psychology to see that I would live in the benefits of John's declaration and Jesus' action.
 
This sin stealing was shown most clearly on an early spring day long ago, when my mother had made my favorite lunch for school. It was a small container of chocolate milk, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies. I went off to Public School 129, but a block and a half away, eager for the morning to pass so I could sink my teeth into one of those delicious cookies, but as I turned from Stuyvesant Ave on to Quincy Street I was face to face with Junebug, the bully of the block.
 
"Gimmie that lunch, punk!" he said.
 
"But, Junebug, that's my lunch."
 
"You better gimmie that lunch!"
 
"But it's mine. My Mom made it for me, and she made me my favorite--."
 
Junebug's right uppercut sent me and the lunch to the ground. He picked up the lunch and said, "That's what you get for not listening to me!" and went off to school. I also went off to school with no lunch and lots of anger.
 
At home that late afternoon I was very silent. Mama, knowing something was up, said, "What happened at school today?"
 
"I'm gonna kill him!"
 
"What?"
 
"I'm gonna kill him!"
 
"And who do you plan to kill?"
 
"Junebug. He beat me up, he stole my lunch, and I'm gonna kill him!"
 
Mama thought for awhile and then said, "Here, have some food. Don't start your homework right away--there is something we need to do together, but you must do it as I say...
 
The conclusion to this illustration and many additional illustrations and sermons for Epiphany 2 can be accessed at www.Sermons.com. 



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://stsams.org/pipermail/propertalk_stsams.org/attachments/20110111/54db016b/attachment.htm>