Graduation. Big time. Congratulations on a job WELL... DONE - the emphasis for parents is on WELL, but we know the emphasis for you graduates is on DONE. I appreciated what the President said to the graduates Friday at Chelsea's commencement: "I ask you at the beginning to indulge your folks if we seem a little sad or we act a little weird. You see, today we are remembering your first day in school, and all the triumphs and travails between then and now...Though we have raised you for this moment of ...
As the salesman came to the front door, he turned to the little boy sitting on the steps and asked, “Is your mother home?” The boy said “Yes,” and the salesman began to ring the doorbell. After several rings and no response, he turned to the boy and said, “I thought you said that your mother was home.” To which the boy replied, “She is, but this isn’t my house.” Sometimes we get the wrong answers because we don’t ask the right questions. In Mark 10, we read: “And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ...
An older couple was driving down the road on Sunday afternoon. She was leaning against the door on her side -- some would say polishing the chrome -- and he was driving. They were eager to get where they were going, but were slowed down dramatically by a young couple, who were cuddling in the car before them -- the young woman was almost sitting in his lap, rubbing his face, and now and then kissing him on the cheek, and ever now and then -- though it was dangerous -- he would turn around and kiss her. ...
No shout in Scripture is more familiar than the shout of the prophet Isaiah. "Get ready!", he is saying, "The Messiah is coming. Prepare the Way of the Lord." Isaiah 40 is one of the most familiar passages in the Old Testament, made so in large part by Handel's MESSIAH. It's the call of Advent: "Prepare the way of the Lord." Now I know that the coming of Christ is always gift, always grace. So we need to think a little about how the spontaneous working of God's grace, unearned, unexpected, undeserved how ...
You hear it from well-mannered guests, "Is there anything I can do?" It is the polite question to ask the hostess. She gets up to make the final preparations for the meal, leaves the living room. You say, "Is there anything I can do?" Usually the answer is, "No. Just sit there, be comfortable, everything is taken care of." That question is asked more rarely after the meal. It's 11:00 p.m., people still sitting there in the living room, talking. It is not often then that a guest will ask, "Is there anything ...
Do you remember as a child how you dressed to take trips? (You can either begin your sermon with an interactive time at this point, inviting the congregation to remember how they were dressed for trips, or you can make it personal and tell your own recollections of what kind of clothes your parents made you wear when it was time to travel.) As a child I remember having to get dressed up whenever we'd go on a family trip. If we were going in our own car, we could be more casual, but still had to look good ...
I did a little Googling recently. I put in the question "Why do they hate US?" and I came up with 21,000 links. One Web site is dedicated to answering this question "Why do they hate US?" By going country by country and giving specific reasons why people in that country would hate US so. In my lifetime, it seems like the United States has gone from being talked about by the rest of the world as "The Ugly American" to "Ugly America." After World War II, the US took a combination of capitalism, a new ...
When it comes to the subject of baptism, our Baptist friends seem to have all the fun. That is, the very nature of baptism of adults by immersion lends itself to loads of good humor. For example, there is a story of a seven-year-old son of a Baptist minister who decided to baptize his two cats. He chose the bathtub for this rite. One of the cats was a tiny kitten. It was dunked before it realized what had happened. But the older tom cat wanted no part of this strange ceremony. As the boy brought the cat ...
Nobody can write a letter like a mother. I can remember when I was in college my first year, I was so homesick I literally lived for those days I would go to the post office and get a letter from my Mom. I want to share with you one mother's letter to her son in college. This mother was a country lady, not very well educated, but she loved her son. This was the letter: Dear Son: Just a few lines to let you know that I am still alive. I'm writing this letter slowly because I know that you cannot read very ...
What I want to talk to you about today is something that God desperately desires for his people. It is one thing that Satan fears and works day and night to undo. It is something for which Jesus himself prayed for just before He went to the cross. It is the one thing the bible says that will convince people that the church has something the world does not. It is the one thing that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is meant to accomplish. What is it that I am talking about?—UNITY. Now when I speak about unity ...
I want to talk to you today about perhaps the most thorny issue confronting the Christian faith. In fact, it is the single biggest obstacle for non-Christians to overcome in order to become believers in Christ. George Barna, who is the George Gallup of the Christian world, conducted a national survey in which he asked this question, "If you could ask God only one question and you knew He would give you an answer, what would you ask?" By far and away the number one response was this one - "Why is there pain ...
One of the concerns that anyone brings to the table when they are going to be in a witnessing encounter is the possibility of objections being raised. Particularly objections that may prove to be difficult or at the time unanswerable. The first thing to remember is this: Objections are to be expected, but they are not to be feared. Much of the message that Jesus Christ Himself gave was objected to by those who heard it. The Book of Acts is full of people who objected (at least initially) to the message of ...
You might remember the old story about a man who was informed by his doctor that he had rabies. The doctor also had to inform the man that he had waited so long to go the doctor that nothing could be done about his condition. The man looked devastated but before the doctor could console him, she was called out of the room for an emergency. As soon as she could return, she did. As she opened the door, the doctor saw the noticed the patient was writing something on a piece of paper. Hesitantly the doctor ...
Most of you remember the story of the Trojan horse. The Greeks, under Odysseus, sailed over to Troy and made a huge wooden horse. They then climbed into the horse and were hidden away there. Cassandra warned the Trojans not to take the horse into the city. However, a Greek prisoner, Simon, persuaded them that the horse was sacred and would bring the protection of the gods so the pulled the horse into the city walls of Troy. That night as they slept, Odysseus and his companions crept out of the horse and ...
The year was 1846. Abraham Lincoln was running for a seat in the U.S. Congress. His opponent was a Methodist Circuit Rider by the name of Peter Cartwright. One night, Lincoln went to hear Cartwright preach. As the fiery Cartwright came to the conclusion of his sermon he said to the congregation, “Everybody here who wants to go to heaven, stand up.” The whole crowd stood up except Lincoln. Cartwright, who considered Lincoln an infidel said, “I observe that all present want to go to heaven except for Mr. ...
Characters Harry Christian Margaret Christian (Harry's wife) Fed-Up Express Man Accompanist (nonspeaking) Props Stuffed chair Newspaper Table Lamp Bible Dressing mirror Large box (containing the following items) Silver shirt Silver gloves Silver sunglasses Silver light saber Silver-wrapped instruction book Small box (containing the following item) Huge, foil-covered binoculars (Harry Christian is pacing. Margaret Christian is seated on the pulpit side of the sanctuary in a stuffed chair reading the ...
Having trouble sleeping through the night? You're not alone. Samuel did, too. Sometimes you hear a haunting phrase that sticks with you years later. I heard one like that from Gardner Taylor, that great African-American preacher who once held forth in the pulpit of Concord Baptist Church in Brooklyn. I don't even remember the sermon, which is all right — we're not supposed to remember sermons anymore than we should remember meals; we're supposed to be fed and challenged by them at the moment. I don't ...
Jesus and Moses went golfing one day. Jesus was about to hit a shot and said, “Hey Moses, watch this! Just like Arnold Palmer!” Moses said, “Jesus, you can do anything but don’t try to be like Arnold Palmer.” Jesus said, “No, watch this — just like Arnold Palmer!” Jesus hit the ball in the water so Jesus asked Moses to get the ball. Moses parted the water and got the ball. This continued for about fifteen minutes. Finally, Jesus hit the ball in the water for the seventh time. “Please get my ball for me,” ...
In your mind, I’d like you to picture a good friend. It may be a current friend or one from the past. Just take a moment, think of a good friend, and picture them in your mind’s eye. Can you see them? When did you first meet them? How did they become a friend? Let’s leave your friend hanging around for a few minutes; we’ll come back to them later. They are going to help us make sense of the scripture reading this morning. The passage from John is describing some of the things Jesus said to his disciples as ...
... he began to cry out and say, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!" (Luke 21:28) The town of Jericho was already 8,000 years old by the time Jesus and John the Baptist walked its streets. Think of it! Here in America, we were all excited a few years ago about our nation's bicentennial, our two hundredth birthday. Jericho was already 8,000 years old by the time of Jesus Christ. It remains today the oldest continually-inhabited city in the world. Jericho was built by the Canaanites as a fortified city ...
Almost 20,000 runners competed in the 1986 New York Marathon. I don't know who won, but I do know who finished last. His name is Bob Wieland. While the winner completed the race in just over 2 hours, Bob Wieland finished in four days, two hours, forty-eight minutes, and seventeen seconds. Why is that remarkable? Because Bob ran with his arms. Seventeen years earlier while serving in Vietnam, Bob's legs were blown off in battle. So, when Bob competes, he sits on a 15 pound saddle, covers his fists with pads ...
The speaker at a woman's club was lecturing on marriage and asked the audience how many of them wanted to "mother" their husbands. One member in the back row raised her hand. "You mean you really want to mother your husband?" the speaker asked. "Mother?" the woman said. "I thought you said smother." A Protestant young man was marrying a Catholic girl. They met with her priest to sign some prewedding ceremony papers. While filling out the form, the young man read aloud a few questions. When he got to the ...
There are only two characters in this short parable which Jesus told to his disciples. One is a man; the other, a woman. But what an odd pair they are. It is difficult to imagine a more striking contrast between two people than that between the judge and the widow. Neither is named, but their very titles suggest the contrast. "Judge" calls to mind authority, power, representative of the law, dispenser of justice. "Widow" in the culture of Jesus' time suggests helplessness, humility, poverty, vulnerability ...
BACKGROUND MATERIAL Jesus sometimes got into a boat and headed for the farther shore in order to be free of the demands of the crowd who now followed him in great numbers. On this day he was weary from his work and from arguing with the scribes who constantly took issue with his pronouncements. He was on the Sea of Galilee, also known as Lake Gennesaret. The lake was about eight miles wide and twelve miles long, so it would take at least an hour to make the crossing. Because of his weariness Jesus lay down ...
Luke 12:54-59, Hebrews 12:1-13, Luke 12:49-53, Isaiah 5:1-7, Hebrews 11:1-40
Sermon Aid
John R. Brokhoff
COMMENTARY Lesson 1: Isaiah 5:1-7 God's vineyard yields wild grapes. Chapter 5 closes a series of oracles beginning with chapter 1. Today's lesson is a parable of a vineyard. Yahweh planted it and did everything to make it grow and be fruitful. But, the grapes turned out to be wild, that is, sour and bitter. What more could he have done for his vineyard? Nothing. Therefore, the vineyard will be destroyed. Lesson 2: Hebrews 11:29--12:2 Surrounded by past faithful ones, we are to run the race of faith with ...