"No One Left Behind" - that is a universal creed that is shared by every firefighter, soldier and law enforcement person in America. Whenever they go out on a mission to fight fire, to fight crime or to fire an enemy of our nation, they are determined that when it comes to their own there will be "No One Left Behind." I don't know where this motto originated, but it could have come from the story we will study today. The Kingdom of David, which then was passed on to his son, Solomon, was known as the ...
The two most used words in the English language in the month of December without question are the words, "Christmas" and “Gift". From Ebay to Amazon, from the internet, to the mall, everybody is searching for Christmas gifts. Why do we do this? It is the only time in the year when people all over the world give gifts- oftentimes to people they barely know and many times to people they don’t even like. It all goes back to the very first Christmas gift ever given that God gave to you and to me at the very ...
A little five-year-old girl was watching her mother in fascination as she was rubbing cold cream on her face. She said, "Mother, why do you do that?" The mother replied, "To make myself beautiful." Well, to the little girl's amazement, in just a minute the mother began removing the cream with a tissue she had just put on. The girl said, "What's the matter, giving up already?" I sometimes believe that God looks at our puny prayer lives and asks the question: "Are you giving up already?" Believe it or not, ...
"With Jesus in your heart, you just can't hate anybody." That is our destination, but sometimes the journey is just as important as the destination. I want to take you on a journey through the text for today. As we continue to preach on the life of our Lord Jesus, we will basically arrive at the same destination: "With Jesus in your heart, you just can't hate anybody." This is a wonderful text, a dense text that is chock full. It's almost like a good hamburger with all that good stuff hanging over the ...
(Pursuit of Happiness Clip) If you have seen the movie Pursuit of Happiness, it is based on the true story of Chris Gardner. Chris Gardner's life is falling apart. After a business deal goes bad, he feels that the only way he can make a good life for his family is if he changes careers. So despite all the odds, Gardner enters the chase for a lucrative job as a stockbroker at Dean-Whitter. The only problem is that the competitive internship required doesn't pay anything, and there is no guarantee of ...
A father was reading the paper and decided to share what he'd been reading with his teenage son. The article claimed that children today suffered from a lack of attention and which caused low educational achievements at school. Furthermore, the article said that children today are lazy, have little concentration and barely possess any listening skills at all. When he was finished the father asked, "Well, son what do you think about that study." The boy halfheartedly lifted his head and said, "What was that ...
I just read about two Senior Citizens who were out for their usual morning walk. They both had been complaining about the aches and pains of getting older. As they passed the local funeral home one of them turned to the other and said, "Look there's no hope of recovery, we're just getting older. Let's just go in and give ourselves up." (1) I also read about a For Sale ad in the Roanoke, Illinois, Review which read: "Hope chest: Brand new, half price, long story." (2) I'd like to know the story behind that ...
Many of you know that old poem: Within my earthly temple there’s a crowd There’s one that’s humble and one that’s proud. There’s one that’s sorry for his sins, There’s one that unrepentant sits and grins. There’s one that loves his neighbor as himself. There’s one that cares for naught but fame and pelf. From much corroding cares, I would be free. If I could once determine which is me. Our Gospel story today is of a man who could have written a far more powerful poem than that: “My Name if Legion,” he ...
One day a man by the name of Kirk was having a particularly difficult time. Everything was going wrong for him and nothing was going right. And when he went to bed that night, he laid there in the dark. And he thought about all of the horrible things that had happened to him. And you know, the more he thought about it the more upset he became. He blurted out into the darkness, “Why me God? Why have you done this to me?” But there was no answer and all he heard was the silence. So he blurted out again, this ...
A Vacation Bible School teacher, one summer, taught class on Judas' betrayal of Jesus. After the lesson, she went over the review questions and asked, "Who betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver?" Without hesitating, her 7-year-old son replied, "I know! It was 'Judas the Scariest!' " (1) For me Judas was the Scariest disciple of all. He's the most frightening character of the entire Passion story. He's more frightening than Pilate or Herod or Caiaphas and the other accusers. To me, Judas is even more ...
Someone who grew up in Europe immediately after the devastation of World War II writes about the two staples that were not on ration and that could be home produced; one was potatoes and the other was bread. "We could grow our own potatoes and we could make our own bread," he writes. "And sometimes we would even make bread out of the potatoes. So, while we may have lacked many things we always had sufficient potatoes and bread." Earlier in John chapter 6, we read about food rationing of another kind. Then ...
Joy does not depend on the external events of life. Adversity may hit us with gale-like force, but the joy in our hearts will be determined by the will of our souls. Joy is a choice! In his book, Laugh Again, written in 1991, author Charles Swindoll relates that he was on the Dallas Theological Seminary's Board of Regents as they interviewed the first woman faculty member. Her name was Lucy Mabery. Swindoll chronicles the incredible journey of Professor Mabery on her ride to being a faculty member at ...
We are all about family. The truth is, the problem is, we are all about OTHER people’s families. The most popular show on television today? “Duck Dynasty.” After that there are the programs about “The Kardashians,” “Housewives,” of various zip codes, and “Hoarders.” We like to spy-glass at the inner-workings of family relationships that we can keep at arm’s length — or TIVO for a later, more convenient time. Our own family relationships cannot be put on hold. Whether it is a teething infant, a tantrum- ...
(A Dialogue Sermon) Man: Good morning! It's a pleasure to be here in the pulpit. But you may have noticed that I have someone in the lectern vying for equal time. Woman: Yes, indeed. This is a feminist age, you know — a time of equality between women and men, a time for women to catch up on centuries of lost time in subjugation and oppression. Man: That may be, but do you intend to regain all the lost time this morning? Woman: No, but at least I'd like to make some progress. Man: I don't blame you. ...
Sin Prompts Your Mouth The “second dialogue cycle” begins here as we return to the argument of Eliphaz, from whom we last heard in chapters 4 and 5. There Eliphaz operated from the assumption that humans are “born to trouble” (5:7) and therefore “reap” what they “sow” (4:8). It is impossible for “a mortal to be righteous before God.” Since even God’s servants, the angels, are untrustworthy, “how much more” are humans subject to “error” (4:18–19). As a result, Job must deserve his suffering. His only hope ...
Peter Gomes, Minister of memorial Church at Harvard, recently spoke of the Bible as "A book of the imagination" (The Good Book). Don't think of scripture primarily as rules, as lists of regulations. Think of the Bible as a book meant to speak, to stoke, to fuel the imagination. From what I see, imagination is in short supply these days. We modem folk tend toward mostly facts and figures. We're more in to statistics than symbols. We keep close to the solid stuff which we call "reality." Of course, when one ...
''And Jesus looking upon him loved him, and said to him, 'You lack one thing; go, sell what you have, and give to the poor'..." Baptist prophet Will Campbell, a man who is always an uncomfortable guest, was asked to be a visiting preacher for a series at New York's Riverside Church on "What Riverside Church Can Do To Help the Future of Race Relations in America." Here is a church with impressively activist preachers and the right sort of forward thinking congregation. Campbell took as his text Mark's story ...
Of all the sins which so easily beset us, spiritual laziness can become the most deadly and deadening. If allowed to permeate the soul, it results in spiritual slavery. There is a legend of the Greek citizen who voluntarily sold himself into slavery because he did not want to be encumbered by the problems of freedom. Many people prefer to spend their days free from mental and spiritual exertion. Tragically, such individuals become spiritual slaves. When freedom is relinquished, servitude results. ISSACHAR ...
The current President of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors is DONALD C. HOUTS. Formerly a local pastor, a chaplain-supervisor, and professor of pastoral care and counseling at St. Paul School of Theology, Kansas City, Missouri, he is presently Director of Pastoral Care and Counseling for the Illinois Area of the United Methodist Church. His sermons offered here were directed to the congregation of Wesley United Methodist Church in Champaign, Illinois, where he sometimes is asked to preach for ...
DISCIPLINE. Dirty word these days. DISCIPLESHIP. Not so dirty a word, but obviously related to the other. Discipline, discipleship, disciple...all come from the same Latin root which has to do with LEARNING. In fact, the Greek word which we translate in the English New Testament as "disciple" is mathetes, a LEARNER. What brings this subject to mind is our continuing national fascination with the just-completed Olympic games and grows out of that wonderful biblical imagery used so regularly by the apostle ...
Dr. Robert Schuller, who is known for his emphasis on positive thinking or possibility thinking as he calls it, tells about a man he once met on a flight to Los Angeles. The man was a mathematician named George Dantzig. Schuller made the observation to Dantzig that this was the first time it had occurred to him that there was a field of endeavor to which positive thinking didn't apply. Mathematical problems have only one right answer, so they can't be affected in any way by how a person thinks. Dantzig ...
In 1939, a coast guard vessel was cruising the Canadian Arctic when the men spotted a polar bear stranded on an ice floe. It was quite a novelty for the seamen, who threw the bear salami, peanut butter, and chocolate bars. Then they ran out of the food. Unfortunately, the polar bear hadn't run out of appetite, so he proceeded to board their vessel. The men on ship were terrified and opened the fire hoses on the bear. The polar bear loved it and raised his paws in the air to get the water under his armpits ...
“When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, Do you want to be made well?’” (John 5:6) It sounds like a stupid question, doesn’t it? Jesus meets this fellow at the crowded pool, this poor crippled chap who had been coming there for perhaps thirty-eight years waiting to be healed, and asks him point blank, “Do you want to be made well?” We can imagine the look the crippled man must have given Jesus. We can imagine him saying something like, “Do I want to be ...
I have selected the hymn you have just sung to bring back memories of Sunday School. Imagine this image: a little girl in a white Sunday School dress, in a church pageant, holding a little candle, singing, "This Little Light of Mine." That is the image that most of us, I imagine, have in mind when we think of this hymn, "This Little Light of Mine." It is so sentimental, and cute, even. Which is the danger of using diminutives like "little,"...."This Little Light of Mine." It is like "dear" or "sweet." It ...
The sun is shining and the sky is clear. As landowner Joe consumes his breakfast he knows he must, likewise, seize the day. My daddy called it “Making hay while the sun shines." Joe might refer to it as “Making wine before the grapes rot." Whatever the phrase, the focus is the same. Harvest won't wait. Joes finishes breakfast, climbs into his pickup truck and drives down Nolensville Road where day laborers assemble looking for work. Well, the time and place may be different, but the story is the same. And ...