[Propertalk] Fwd: Sermon Resources for March 3 - Part 1

Tue Feb 26 10:40:23 EST 2013

Lent 3

March 3, 2013

Sermons for Lent 3

Luke 13:1-9 - "God Doesn't Ask a Fig Tree to Produce Bananas" 
Luke 13:1-9 - "The 5 Worst Things Christians Say After a Tragedy" by Leonard Sweet

Luke 13, the sermon title "God Doesn't Ask a Fig Tree to Produce Bananas"  

A man borrowed a book from an acquaintance. As he read through it, he was intrigued to find parts of the book underlined with the letters YBH written in the margin. When he returned the book to the owner, he asked what the YBH meant. The owner replied that the underlined paragraphs were sections of the book that he basically agreed with. They gave him hints on how to improve himself and pointed out truths that he wished to incorporate into his life. However, the letters YBH stood for "Yes, but how?"

Those three letters could be writ on the margins of ours souls: "I ought to know how to take better care of myself, but how?" "I know I ought to spend more time in scripture reading and prayer, but how?" "I know I ought to be more sensitive to others, more loving of my spouse, more understanding of the weaknesses of others, but how?" These are all good qualities and we know that, but how can we acquire them? As Christian people we know the kind of life we ought to live, and most of us have the best of intentions to do so, but how? We are afraid because we know where the road paved with only good intentions leads!

This morning we hear Jesus' parable of the fig tree, telling us to repent and bear good fruit. We know what the Christian life requires of us and yet, if we are honest with ourselves, we also know how far short we fall. So the question that confronts us this morning is: "Yes, but how?"
It's a dilemma that has confronted God's people throughout the ages. Even Saint Paul found himself trapped. In Romans 7 Paul writes: It seems to be a fact of life that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love to do God's will so far as my new (redeemed Christian) nature is concerned; but there is something else deep within me, in my lower nature, that is at war with my mind and wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. In my mind, I want to be God's willing servant, but instead I find myself enslaved to sin. So you see how it is; my new life (the redeemed life in Christ) tells me to do right, but the old nature that is still inside me (my sinful human self) loves to sin. Oh, what a terrible predicament I'm in! Who will free me from this slavery to sin? Thank God! It has already been done by Jesus Christ our Lord. He has set me free!

"Repent," Jesus says. "Acknowledge your sinfulness." That's the first step in beginning to live the Christian life. None of us is without fault. And yet how difficult it is for us to admit that. We know better than to openly admit our wrongs. If we want to get ahead in this world and be accepted by others, it's generally better to conceal our shortcomings and put on a good front for others...

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

_______________________

Luke 13, the sermon titled "The 5 Worst Things Christians Say After a Tragedy" by Leonard Sweet   

In the immediate aftermath of the Super Bowl, a reporter asked Ray Lewis, star player of the Baltimore Ravens, "How does it feel to be a Super Bowl Champion?" He responded "When God is for you, who can be against you?"

Excuse me? God had a favorite team? You mean God liked one Harbaugh brother over the other? 

Candidate Richard Mourdock in his losing attempt to win a Senate seat in Indiana, said this: "Even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that is something that God intended to happen."

Excuse me? If something happens, then God intends it to happen? Sandy Hook Elementary? Hurricane Sandy? God willed these things to happen? 

Where do these professed Christians get this stuff? Where do they learn their theology? Learn their bad theology? If there is any greater evidence of the failure of Sunday school, it is the theology that gets expressed in the wake of a tragedy. What Christians say right after a disaster is disastrous and downright embarrassing. 

The most horrible things are said about God when people try to say the nicest things about Him...

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

______________

Our Chaotic Life

This notice appeared in the window of a coat store in Nottingham, England: "We have been established for over 100 years and have been pleasing and displeasing customers ever since. We have made money and lost money, suffered the effects of coal nationalization, coat rationing, government control and bad payers. We have been cussed and discussed, messed about, lied to, held up, robbed and swindled. The only reason we stay in business is to see what happens next."

Unknown
__________________

Becoming What We Are

Somerset Maugham said it best in his autobiography, Summing Up, "I knew that I had no lyrical quality, a small vocabulary, little gift of metaphor. The original and striking simile never occurred to me. Poetic flights...were beyond my powers. On the other hand, I had an acute power of observation, and it seemed to me that I could see a great many things that other people missed. I could put down in clear terms what I saw...I knew that I should never write as well as I could wish, but I thought, with pains, that I could arrive at writing as well as my natural defects allowed." Somerset Maugham discovered the secret of genius. 

The point is that life does not ask us to become what we are not. The fig tree was only required to produce figs. No more. You and I are asked only to accomplish what our natural gifts allow, but we are asked to accomplish just that. 

King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com 

________________________ 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://stsams.org/pipermail/propertalk_stsams.org/attachments/20130226/a67e75ee/attachment.htm>