[Propertalk] Fwd: Sermon Resources for September 16 - Part 1

Tue Sep 11 19:02:52 EDT 2012

September 16, 2012

Mark 8:27-38 - "Why Must We Carry a Cross?"
James 3:1-12 - "Good Gossip" by Leonard Sweet

Mark 8, the sermon title "Why Must We Carry a Cross?"  

Mark 8: You might remember comedian Yakov Smirnoff. When he first came to the United States from Russia he was not prepared for the incredible variety of instant products available in American grocery stores. He says, "On my first shopping trip, I saw powdered milk--you just add water, and you get milk. Then I saw powdered orange juice--you just add water, and you get orange juice. And then I saw baby powder, and I thought to myself, "What a country!"

Smirnoff is joking but we make these assumptions about Christian Transformation-that people change instantly at salvation. Some traditions call it repentance and renewal. Some call it Sanctification of the believer. Whatever you call it most traditions expect some quick fix to sin. According to this belief, when someone gives his or her life to Christ, there is an immediate, substantive, in-depth, miraculous change in habits, attitudes, and character. We go to church as if we are going to the grocery store: Powdered Christian. Just add water and disciples are born not made.

Unfortunately, there is no such powder and disciples of Jesus Christ are not instantly born. They are slowly raised through many trials, suffering, and temptations ...

The rest of this sermon can be obtained by joining  http://www.sermons.com/signup
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Mark 8, the sermon titled "Good Gossip" by Leonard Sweet   

One of the most popular shows from last season is returning this fall with ads asking potential audiences, "What would you do if your weren't 'handicapped' by sight?" 

"The Voice" is a talent show that keeps the judges in the dark, so to speak. It requires them to judge all the contestants only on the quality of their voices. The judges' backs are turned and they never see the performer. Power, poise, presence, emotion, erudition, excitement - it all has to be conveyed to the judges only by the sound of the voice - not by any see-me-showmanship. The power to convince, convict, and control is not in the contestants own hands. It is in their tongues.

The power of the tongue was of central concern to James in today's epistle text. And what power it has. Did you know the tongue can lift up to 80 times its own weight? In fact, did you know the strongest muscle in the body is the tongue? The only other muscle that comes close is the masseter muscle - that's the thick muscle in the cheek located at the back of the jaw that opens and shuts your mouth. But it's not technically a muscle, since it's also made up of bones. It does, however, clamp the mouth shut, and the need to clamp the mouth shut is the theme of our text from James this morning...

The rest of this sermon can be obtained by joining http://www.sermons.com/signup

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Music in the Soul

Paganini, the great violinist, came out before his audience one day and made the discovery just as the applause ended that there was something wrong with his violin. He looked at it a second and then saw that it was not his famous and valuable violin, but a cheap substitute. He felt paralyzed for a moment, then turned to his audience and told them there had been some mistake and he did not have his own violin. He stepped back behind the curtain thinking that it was still where he had left it, but discovered that someone had stolen his violin and left this old secondhand one in its place. Paganini remained back of the curtain for a moment, then came out before his audience and said: "Ladies and gentlemen, I will show you that the music is not in the instrument but in the soul." And he played as he had never played before; and out of that secondhand instrument, the music poured forth until his audience was enraptured with enthusiasm, and the applause almost lifted the roof off the building, because the man had revealed to them that the music was not in the machine but in his own soul.

Don't let anyone tell you that the soul does not exist. We were created in the image of God. That doesn't mean God looks like us. It means there is something divine within us.

King Duncan, www.Sermons.com

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The Hill of Crosses

The people of Lithuania take cross bearing a little more seriously than we do. For them the cross symbolizes faith, hope and love. There are crosses are everywhere in the countryside, on roads, in city parks and village squares. Communities and individuals erect crosses to bring them health and to commemorate events like weddings, births and christenings. Crosses are also erected to commemorate historical events. One of these is the Baltic Way, in which millions of people linked hands stretching across the Baltics from Estonia to Lithuania on August 25, 1989. About 9 monuments commemorate this extraordinary event. 

The nation's pride is the Hill of Crosses, located north of Siauliai. Lithuanians erected crosses there as early as the mid-19th century. The Soviet government couldn't tolerate that kind of spiritual expression, so they totally destroyed the hill in 1961, then again in 1973 and 1975. But people kept erecting more crosses, until in 1980 their destruction stopped. Today the crosses number in the many thousands. They are different sizes and shapes, some simple, some ornate, but they immortalize Lithuania's troubles, misfortunes, joys, hope and faith. 

For them, the cross is more than a symbol in the church. It is symbol for the world to see. A symbol that will not go away. It is a symbol of sacrifice. A sacrifice that gives each and every one of us hope and faith and courage. 

Billy D. Strayhorn, At Cross Purposes

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