Sermon and Worship Resources

These illustrations are for Matthew 28:16-20
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Sermon Opener – The Trinity - Matthew 28:16-20

A preacher proudly boasted that he does not preach doctrinal sermons. They are boring he asserts and people do not understand or relate to them. Further, he claimed, I am a preacher and not a theologian. I get down do the practical issues and simply preach Christ crucified.

His thinking is faulty at several points. First, he is wrong when he says that he is not a theologian. The fact is that everyone to a certain extent is a theologian. Theology is nothing more than what you think about God. Well, shouts one person, I don’t believe In God. That then is your theology. I would also take issue with him when he claims that he does not preach theology but gets down to practical issues. In my thinking there is no difference in good theology and good practice. Good, solid theology gets down to the very core of our existence.

Finally, I would disagree with him when he says that we should only preach Christ crucified. I know that is what the Apostle Paul said but this preacher doesn’t mean what Paul meant. He is saying that he only preaches about the cross and saving the sinner. I submit to you that the cross is not central in Paul's theology; rather, it is Christ. It has always puzzled me why some ministers preach the message of salvation to people who have been sitting in the pews all their life when they need so much more of Christ's teaching on life's other issues. There are many strings on a guitar. To make beautiful music all of them must be played and not just one. That is why in the United Methodist Church we honor the lectionary and the seasons of the church year. That insures a witness to the whole Gospel of Jesus Christ. How can one go through the season of Advent and not touch upon the doctrine of the incarnation. How can one go through Lent without touching upon the doctrine of the resurrection? Likewise, how can we embark upon the season of Pentecost, as we did last week, without mentioning the doctrine of the Trinity?

Today is Trinity Sunday…

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His Last Command...Our First Concern! - Matthew 28:16-20

In the fall of 1971, I visited Leo Tolstoy's home in Moscow. There, tied in bundles and stacked against the wall, were his handwritten manuscripts for all of his great novels - War and Peace, Anna Karenina, and Resurrection. For an hour I leafed through the mountain of paper, observing the man's handwriting, his strikeovers, and even the doodles he made in the margins.

An elderly Russian woman, the curator of the museum, noticed my deep interest in Tolstoy and began to talk to me. "He was a friend of the people, Leo Tolstoy was," she said. "Would you like to see his desk where he wrote?"

She didn't have to ask me twice! And the next thing I knew she had me seated in Tolstoy's chair leaning over his desk and holding his writing pen in my hand! I tell you, it was an awesome moment for me!

Often during the rest of my college days, my mind would wander back to that study in Moscow. I'd see myself sitting at that same desk, holding that same pen as the bearded Tolstoy himself opened the door and strode in. "Stephen," he'd say, "I'm working on a new novel and I need your help! Let's get down to work!" And I'd sit up straight, look him in the eye, and say, "Yes, Leo, I'll work with you."

That'd be a great commission, wouldn't it?

Actually there have been many persons given exciting commissions in their lifetimes. There was Michelangelo's commission to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, Sir Christopher Wren's commission to build St. Paul's Cathedral in London, Walter Reed's assignment to stop yellow fever at the "Big Ditch" in Panama, and Chamberlain's orders to stop the Confederates at Little Roundtop in Gettysburg.

But I tell you, in my life and yours, there is an even greater commission. It is found here in Matthew 28:18-20 where Jesus Christ turns to his disciples and says, "Go! Go therefore and make disciples of all nations...." Think of it! Almighty God, not Tolstoy or the Pope or the Queen, but God himself, turns and looks you and me full in the face and commissions us to work with him on his latest creative project. I tell you, when the most important thing some of us have been asked to do all week is to wash the dishes or take out the trash, this comes as quite a jolt! I know of no other statement in the Bible that can give a man more of a sense of esteem, joy, and purpose…

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Understanding the Trinity

This is Trinity Sunday. God in three persons--Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Do we fully understand this wonderful doctrine? No, but some of us will fight for it.

You may remember that ancient story about St. Augustine. One day he took a break from writing about the Trinity to take a walk along the seashore. There he came across a child with a little pail, intently scooping up a pail full of water out of the ocean, then walking up the beach and dumping it out into the sand, then going back down to scoop out another pail of water to pour into the sand, etc.

Augustine asked the child what he was doing, and the child explained that he was “emptying the sea out into the sand.”

When the Bishop tried to gently point out the absurd impossibility of this task, the child replied, “Ah, but I’ll drain the sea before you understand the Trinity.”

There’s truth to that child’s comment. We don’t understand the Trinity, but we’re ready to go to war to defend it. Well, maybe not anymore. But there was a time when battles were fought over church doctrine, and even today churches are being split over whose interpretation of the Word is correct. And it’s tragic.

King Duncan, Collected Sermons.www.Sermons.com

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Faith and Knowledge

Faith and knowledge are two different things. Faith makes us into obedient servants, but knowledge only makes us trivia experts. It’s as if Jesus is saying, “Hold your questions to the end. Right now your primary task is loyalty and obedience.”

Kenneth W. Collins, The Great Commission

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The Image of the Father

Thomas Troeger, a Presbyterian pastor and gifted preacher, tells a story of an experience he had once. He wrote:

“One day several years ago I was in a department store buying myself a new shirt when a complete stranger walked up to me and said, ‘You must be Henry Troeger's son.’

"I looked at this person and I said, ‘I don't believe I have ever seen you.’

"He said, ‘Oh, no, you have never met me at all, but a long time ago I worked with your father. I was a close colleague of his and when I saw you across the aisle of the store, I said to myself, `I'd know that face anywhere.' You are the very image of your father.’

"For several weeks after that, I would sometimes be going down the street, and maybe come around a corner, and catch my reflection in a store window. I started to see myself with the eyes of someone else. It is not like looking into the mirror in the morning. I would come around the corner, catch that reflection and I would think, ‘That's Henry Troeger.’ All of a sudden I would be seeing how I bore the image of my father.”

And so it is with us.

Each one of us is created with the image of God indelibly imprinted on our souls, so that, in some miraculous and inexplicable way, the diverse expressions of God that are you and you and you and me all come together to illustrate the mystery, to live together in community as we do our best to display for the world all the possibilities that the divine imprint on all of us could mean.

Amy Butler, A Curious Community

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Tertullian on the Trinity

Tertullian, one of the theologians of the early church, explained the Trinity in a metaphor. God the Father he described as "a deep root, the Son as the shoot that breaks forth into the world, and the Spirit as that which spreads beauty and fragrance."

Brett Blair,www.Sermons.com

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"To try to deny the Trinity endangers your salvation, to try to comprehend the Trinity endangers your sanity."

Martin Luther

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Who, Me?

Unfortunately, most of us act like the out-of shape, overweight man who decided to take up tennis. He took lessons from a pro. He read several self-help books which advised him to "think positively" and "develop a winning attitude."

A friend asked him how his tennis was going. With a positive, winning attitude in his voice, the man replied, "When my opponent hits the ball to me, my brain immediately barks out a command to my body: 'Race up to the net.' Then, it says, 'Slam a blistering shot to a far corner of the court. Then immediately jump back into position and return the next volley to the other far corner of the court.' And then my body says, 'Who, me?'"

I'd be willing to bet, if we could go back in time, that the first words out of the mouths of all the Disciples after Jesus spoke these words were the same: "Who, me?" You have to remember that the events of this passage actually took place before Pentecost and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. But the question is still pertinent. "Who, me?"

Billy D. Strayhorn, Go!

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“Feeling Like…”

I rather like the story Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick once related from his own childhood days. His father had said to his mother, upon leaving the house one Saturday in the morning hours: “Tell Harry that he can cut the grass today, if he feels like it.”

Then, halfway down the walk, his father turned once more to add: “And tell Harry that he had better feel like it.”

Well, in its own rather humorous way, there is something essential about life wrapped up in that. For there is a difference between knowing we are supposed to do something, and ‘feeling like” doing it. There is a difference between a sense of obligation and a sense of generosity. There is a difference between obedience and desire. And the one of those weighs us down, while the other lifts us up.

Christianity says to us, you do not know God, if you know Him only as a sense of authority over your life. Furthermore, you do not know God, if you merely believe intellectually that God is a God who cares and loves.

You do not know God somehow at all, unless the same spirit of His authority and His love captivates you from within, so that you live knowing the spirit of it for yourself. You do not know God, unless all this that we have been saying about Him becomes for you your own way of life and not an obligation imposed on you by the Church, or by the fear of death, or by anything else.

Paul van Dine, Not the Nature, But the Character of God – Trinity!, Cathedral Publishers.

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The Trinity: Who’s on First?

The Trinity is a mystery that is impossible to solve like a puzzle. When we examine it like a puzzle, we cannot help but be confused. It is a confusion that is not unlike that of the famous Abbot and Costello skit "Who's on First?" Someone wrote a similar skit on the subject of the Trinity that begins this way:

When you come to church you need to know the key players . . . you know, the ones who are worthy of honor and praise.

Honor and praise huh? Well who are they?

O.K., now listen closely. There is one God.

One God. That seems easy enough. What do you call this one God?

This one God is called, "God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit."

Now wait just a minute. You told me that there is only one God.

That's right!

So which is it?

So which is what?

Which name do you use for this one God?

The name I gave you.

But you gave me three names.

That's right.

What's right?

God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.

So you have three Gods?

No, one God.

So which is it?

Which is what?

Father, Son or Holy Spirit?

Yes!

Yes to what?

That's God's name.

Which God?

Our one God.

Why did you give three names.

Because they aren't the same.

But you just told me there is one God. So which is it?

Which is what?

Which name is the name of your God?

I told you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit

But that is three.

Yes, but it's only one.

Mickey Anders, The Trinity - Dancing Sarah's Circle

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Humor: What Good Is Religion?

A rabbi and soap maker who went for a walk together. The soap maker had some negative things to say about religion: "What good is religion? Just look around you. What do you see? Trouble, misery, wars - even after all these years and years of preaching and teaching about goodness, truth, peace. What good is religion with all its prayers and sermons if all this evil still exists?”

The rabbi kept quiet as they continued their walk. Then they noticed a child playing in the gutter. The child was just filthy with dirt and mud. The rabbi said to the soap maker: "Look at this child! Now you say that soap makes people clean, but what good is it? With all the soap in the world this child is still dirty. What good is soap after all?"

The soap maker immediately answered him: "But rabbi, soap can’t do its job if it isn’t used!"

The rabbi said, "The same is true with religion."

Jim Davis, The Call of Discipleship

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Safely through the Storm

Max Lucado tells the story about the time he was sailing with his son and a church friend of the coast of Miami. They were having a leisurely cruise and the weather was perfect. But out of nowhere a storm appeared. The sky darkened, the rained started and the ocean became violent. Max was terrified and looked at his friend Milt for help.

Milt was deliberate and decisive. He told the men exactly where to sit and gave them specific instructions. Last he said, "just hang on." They did what he said. Why? Because Milt was the only skilled sailor on board and knew exactly what to do in a storm. Until then Max could have boasted about his merit badge in sailing that he had received in the boy scouts. But, that was no comparison to a real storm on the high seas. He had no choice but to trust in Milt’s directions. Their safety mattered to Milt and he guided them safely through the storm. (from Come Thirsty, Max Lucado)

None of us know everything there is to know about some things. We need others who are experienced and can give us the leadership we need when we face storms in our lives. This was also true for the disciples. They had to trust that Jesus would be with them and lead them into the future.

Keith Wagner, Time to get Moving

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ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS NOT IN OUR EMAIL
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The Nano-Punch of Pentecost - Matthew 28:16-20 by Leonard Sweet

The soul has its seasons. “There is a time to be born, a time to die.”

The Bible has its seasons. The biblical New Year begins at the appearance of the first "new moon" of spring, when nature comes to life.

The West has its seasons. The New Year begins in the depths of the winter, which is often when the new comes, in the midst of winter, the soul most often coming to life in the wintry seasons of life.

The church has its seasons.

In the church our “seasons” are not determined by climate changes or a vernal equinox. Instead of fall, winter, spring, and summer, the church calendar recognizes seven “seasons:”

Advent
Christmas
Epiphany
Lent
Holy Week
Easter
Pentecost
Kingdomtide (unique to Wesleyans and Presbyterians)

Unlike those other “four seasons” that neatly divvy up the year into four equal parts, the church seasons are all of different lengths. Advent is only four Sundays long. Lent is observed for six Sundays. Epiphany and Eastertide both extend over seven Sundays. The week of Holy Week gets its own “season.” But by far the majority of the church calendar year is designated as the “Sundays after Pentecost” — depending on what church calendar you are using, up to twenty-seven Sundays in all, with this week being the first of those many “Pentecost Sundays.”

The reason for such a lop-sided division of the “seasons” in the church is explained in part by this week’s gospel text. Matthew 28:16-20 is identified as the “Commissioning of the Disciples” text. It is a hotly contested text, to say the least. The phrase “The Great Commission” doesn’t appear in the Bible, and wasn’t widely used until the early 20th century, when the phrase and the text became wed-locked forever.

In these few verses Matthew manages to encapsulate the whole of his gospel story…

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The 3 Rs of a Holy Life – 2 Corinthians 13:11-13 by Leonard Sweet

An old adage warns, “bad things always come in threes.” Have you found this true in your own experience? That bad things (and good things) like to happen in community, in bunches? You say: we invent this connection by suddenly realizing that we got a flat tire on the same day that a computer glitch devoured our hard drive, shortly after our last contact lens just slid down the drain. I say: there seems to be something significant about the power of three.

Today the church celebrates the Triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—on this “Trinity Sunday.” We recognize God as power (the Father), God as person (the Son), and God as presence (the Holy Spirit). Paul’s final benediction to the Corinthians switches this order a bit to better express each person’s unique experience of the divine. For Paul, Jesus Christ comes first, for it is through the grace of his life, death and resurrection that humans may be reconciled to God. Only grace enables us to experience “the love of God.” As we stand renewed and redeemed before this loving God, yet another gift is made available, “the communion of the Holy Spirit.” The person, the power, and the presence of God come to us in a threefold design-package.

Those forces that work AGAINST the divine have also traditionally been divided into the “big three.” How many of you remember preachers warning their flock to be on guard against the three evils—“the world, the flesh, and the Devil.” If we really do experience bad things in clusters of three, it is the result of these Big Three: The World, The Flesh, The Devil.

The Trinity of Evils

The World: This is not the world that the God of Genesis brought forth at creation. This is the “world” that turned deadly force against tens of thousands in Myanmar (Burma) this past week. This “world” is the broken world where tsunamis and cyclones and tornadoes and hurricanes pulverize the landscape. This “world” is the barren world where food disappears and famine grips every living thing. This “world” is the bleak worlds where pestilence hunts its prey.

The Flesh: This is not the Adam-flesh created in the Garden of Eden by the God of Genesis. This is the “flesh” that now knows disease and death and decay. This “flesh” is fragile, subject to infection, physical fodder for plagues and pandemics. This “flesh” breaks down, breaks apart, and breaks our hearts and spirits with its decay.

The Devil: There is no Devil, no antithesis to God’s creative power in the first creation story (Genesis 1:1-2:4a). This Devil doesn’t make an appearance until the second creation story, the tale of the serpent and the forbidden fruit and the draw-down of desire. Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit so that they might become “like God,” knowing good from evil. Willful disobedience, a passion for power, seeking to de-throne God, this was the origin of the Devil. Our own irrationalities, hatreds, fears, and despairs bring the “devil” to life.

These three evils—the world, the flesh, and the devil---look like an unbeatable team, dooming humans to a mere scratch-and-claw existence. It was subservience to this spirit, to this “tooth and claw” combativeness, that kept the Corinthian community from experiencing the full embrace of Christ. The apostle Paul was so troubled these caustic Corinthians that he penned at least two (some say three) lengthy letters to this community, offering advice, admonitions and out-and-out orders. The world, the flesh, and the Devil were doing a booming business in Corinth.

In his final letter, in his final words, in his final benediction, to this contentious community, Paul offered a positive, powerful, alternative Trinity to this struggling church. Paul’s closing command lays out a new kind of three-fold pattern, a pattern that will lead to wholeness and holy living. I call them the 3-Rs of holiness, or the 3-Rs of godly living. Here are the 3 essentials of holiness: Respect, Responsibility, and Relationship. If you want to live a holy life, a life of godliness and truth, you must learn the elementary but elemental 3-Rs of life: Respect, Responsibility and Relationship…

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Make Them Thirsty

A young salesman was disappointed about losing a big sale, and as he talked with his sales manager he complained, "I guess it just proves you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.” The manager replied, "Your job is not to make him drink. Your job is to make him thirsty.” So it is with evangelism. Our lives should be so filled with the passion of Christ that we create a thirst in others for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Bruce Ball, Cowboys and Christians

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Church of God Grill

A story was told about a church in Atlanta. A man noticed in the Yellow Pages, in the listing of restaurants, an entry for a place called Church of God Grill. The peculiar name aroused his curiosity and he dialed the number. A man answered with a cheery, "Hello! Church of God Grill!" He asked how the restaurant had been given such an unusual name, and the man at the other end said: "Well, we had a little mission down here, and we started selling chicken dinners after church on Sunday to help pay the bills. Well, people liked the chicken, and we did such a good business, that eventually we cut back on the church service. After a while we just closed down the church altogether and kept on serving the chicken dinners. We kept the name we started with, and that’s Church of God Grill."

The easiest thing in the world to do is to lose sight of the mission of the church. The clearest and most comprehensive command of our Lord is given in Matthew 28:16-20. This command was the last command given to the chosen disciples after Christ's resurrection and just before Jesus ascended to heaven.

Jim Davis, The Call of Discipleship

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Love is a Mystery

Justo L. Gonzalez, director of the Hispanic Theological Initiative at Emory University, says that some people approach the Trinity like it was a crossword puzzle. Then he counters, "Trinity is a mystery, not a puzzle. Love is a mystery, a crossword is a puzzle. You try to solve the puzzle, you stand in awe before a mystery."

Mickey Anders

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Following Orders

Have you ever been given orders for which you could get no reason? I suspect so. Everyone of us, at some time were told by Mom or Dad to DO something; we asked "Why?" and got the response, "Because I SAID so, that's why." We followed those orders because we had no choice in the matter - the one who gave them had the power to back them up. But we probably did not carry them out with as complete conviction as we might have had we understood why they were being given. As we grew older, others gave us orders...orders that were not to be questioned. "Ours is not to reason why; ours is but to do and die." One fellow, on getting out of the military, filled out an application for some insurance. When he came to the question, "What did you do in the service," he wrote in large letters, "AS TOLD!" No doubt. But again, what conviction might have been brought into the completion of any task was diminished because the superior felt no need to give any rationale for doing it. At least Jesus gave his troops a reason before he told them what their orders were.

David E. Leininger, ChristianGlobe Illustrations

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It’s Like Water

I was probably about twelve when I was in my church confirmation class, and I remember asking my pastor about the Trinity. I couldn't get how one and one and one, can be One, and not three, and I definitely couldn't get why it was important to say that God is three and God is One, if it was something that by definition was a mystery, something we can't understand.

The answer I remember well. I was told that the Trinity is like H20 – it can be ice or water or steam, but it's all water. Well, that makes sense – there’s no contradictions there!

The illustration of water, steam, and ice brought some clarity of this to me. It’s so simple. The only difference between them is the amount of energy each molecule of H20 has. Otherwise, they’re the same. God is just like that.

Ice isn’t steam and no one wants steamed soft drinks. Can you imagine what might happen if you went to a Broncos game and asked for a Coke and they put it under the cappuccino machine and hit it with a few seconds of really hot steam before giving it out to fans? When we want ice, nothing else will do.

And when you’re ironing clothes or cleaning the carpets, you need steam. Just plain water causes problems.

But in the shower, I don’t want steam and I certainly don’t want ice. Something in-between is what I’m looking for.

Steam isn’t ice isn’t water. But all three are states of exactly the same molecules. That’s only an analogy of what the God we worship really looks like. But like many, I still sometimes have a hard time understanding it, much less explaining it.

Thomas Tindell, Trinity

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Evangelism

Most people expect me and every other minister in the world to witness and do the "E" word thing. You're sort of like secret agents. Most folks don't expect you to talk about your faith or be involved in this whole Evangelism deal. But you know what, you are exactly who Jesus would have chosen. Jesus called fishermen, tax collectors, and the every day ordinary kinds of people. He didn't have a single Pharisee, Sadduccee, Priest or Levite on his staff. It was all run by the laity. And after Pentecost their ministry exploded.

William Willimon said: "In baptism we are initiated, crowned, chosen, embraced, washed, adopted, gifted, reborn, killed, and thereby sent forth and redeemed. We are identified as one of God's own, then assigned our place and our job within the kingdom of God."

Billy D. Strayhorn, From the Pulpit, CSS Publishing Company, Inc.

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A Great Commission

That'd be a great commission, wouldn't it?

Stephen M. Crotts / Stan Purdum, Sermons for Sundays: After Pentecost (First Third): Hidden In Plain View, CSS Publishing Company, Inc.

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A Marathon Not a Dash

I can't imagine a football player coming off the field in the third quarter, walking up to his coach, and saying, "Coach, I've been thinking. I've played enough. Let some other guys finish the contest. I'm going over there for a box of popcorn and relax with my girlfriend." It'd never happen! Yet it does happen in the church. "For ten years I've labored for you, Jesus. Sunday school, group prayer, worship, small groups. I've done it all. So now I'm going to buy me a sailboat and head for the beach every weekend I can. Let somebody else do your work for a while."

And Jesus says, "Until the close of the age." You see, the Christian life is not a 100-yard dash. It's a lifelong marathon.

Stephen M. Crotts / Stan Purdum, Sermons for Sundays: After Pentecost (First Third): Hidden In Plain View, CSS Publishing Company, Inc.

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Share with Me

Dr. Mordecai Johnson, the African-American educator, once told of a colleague of his. He tried to interest his friend in Christ, but he was always met with polite refusals. Finally Johnson got the man to talk. It seems that when he was growing up in a small southern town, an evangelist visited for a week of meetings in a tent. The little boy had gone, drawn by the excitement of it all, and sat in the back of the tent reserved for Negroes. At the end of the week it was announced that Sunday morning would climax the week when all those who were ready to receive Christ would be baptized in the river. Those wanting baptism were to appear on the bank dressed in white. So the little boy had hurried home to tell his mother what he wanted. His poor, old mother had to take a sheet off one of the beds to make him a little robe. Proudly, yet somewhat frightened, the child made his way to the river on Sunday morning. Oh, it was quite a meeting with singing masses of folk. Scripture reading, testifying, and preaching. One by one, many were baptized into Jesus Christ, the king of lovers. When finally the service was over and the crowd dispersed a little black boy stood alone on the riverbank in a little white robe that was all dry. He was waiting for someone to notice him, to talk to him, to baptize him.

He's still standing there, that little child. His face is many colors. He lives on every continent. His eyes still plead. "Come, love me, and share with me. Teach me faith in Jesus. Baptize me. Disciple me. Fulfill the commission of Christ!"

Stephen M. Crotts / Stan Purdum, Sermons for Sundays: After Pentecost (First Third): Hidden In Plain View, CSS Publishing Company, Inc.

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A Blanket Order

I love the story of the raw army recruit standing at attention on the drill field. The drill instructor yells, "Forward, march!" And the entire ranks begin to move, all except this one raw recruit. He's still standing there at attention. So the drill instructor strolls over to him and yells in his right ear, "Is this thing working?"

"Sir, yes, sir!" The recruit yells.

Then the drill instructor walks around to the other ear and yells, "Is this thing working?"

"Sir, yes, sir!" The soldier says.

"Then why didn't you march when I gave the order?"

"Sir, I didn't hear you call my name."

Some of us are like that soldier standing around waiting for God to call our names. But the great commission is a blanket order. It has everyone's name on it. And you can be sure that the man in charge says, "Go! Disciple! Teach!"

Stephen M. Crotts / Stan Purdum, Sermons for Sundays: After Pentecost (First Third): Hidden In Plain View, CSS Publishing Company, Inc.

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Working Together in Unheavenly Places

Harry Emerson Fosdick was pastor of Riverside Church in New York when their magnificent new building was built. But the last Sunday in their old building, before moving into the new one, he said: “My friends, it is not settled yet whether or not the new church will be wonderful. That depends upon what we do with it. If in that new temple we simply sit together in heavenly places that will not be wonderful. But if we also work together in unheavenly places, that will be.” He was right on target. The validation of what we do in here, is what we then do out there as a result.

James McCormick, Selected Sermons, ChristianGlobe Networks, Inc.

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Kierkegaard’s Story of the Prince

We affirm a belief in the Son, Jesus Christ. We say that God took on human form, came and lived among us, suffered the same trials that we suffered, experienced the same feelings that we experienced. Jesus was purely human and purely divine. Jesus was not God. Jesus was God incarnate. There is a difference. Jesus never drew attention to himself but always pointed to God.

Soren Kierkegaard, the great Danish theologian of another century tells a story of a prince who wanted to find a maiden suitable to be his queen. One day while running an errand in the local village for his father he passed through a poor section. As he glanced out the windows of the carriage his eyes fell upon a beautiful peasant maiden. During the ensuing days he often passed by the young lady and soon fell in love. But he had a problem. How would he seek her hand?

He could order her to marry him. But even a prince wants his bride to marry him freely and voluntarily and not through coercion. He could put on his most splendid uniform and drive up to her front door in a carriage drawn by six horses. But if he did this he would never be certain that the maiden loved him or was simply overwhelmed with all of the splendor. The prince came up with another solution. He would give up his kingly robe. He moved, into the village, entering not with a crown but in the garb of a peasant. He lived among the people, shared their interests and concerns, and talked their language. In time the maiden grew to love him for who he was and because he had first loved her.

This very simple, almost child like story, written by one of the most brilliant minds of our time explains what we Christians mean by the incarnation. God came and lived among us. I am glad that this happened for two reasons. One, it shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is with us, that he is on our side, and that he loves us. Secondly, it gives us a first hand view of what the mind of God is really all about. When people ask what God is like, we as Christians point to the person of Jesus Christ. God himself is incomprehensible. But in Jesus Christ we get a glimpse of his glory. In the person of Jesus we are told that God, that mysterious substance that created the stars and the universe, that God is willing to go all of the way, even to a cross, so that a single person may be redeemed, mat’s what God is like.

www.eSermons.com

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It’s a Mystery, and Always Will Be

Garrison Keillor, modern American prophet from the radio show “A Prairie Home Companion,” said of love, “We should not think that we have figured this out, because it is not a problem, it’s a mystery and always will be.”

“It is not a problem, it’s a mystery, and always will be.” Doesn’t that offend you just a little — the suggestion that there are those things in life we have not, and furthermore, will not ever, figure out? Now that we’ve become so advanced that we can put fax machines in cars and can send ourselves messages back from Venus, we are not really open to the suggestion that there are those things that always have been and always will be mysteries to us. We assume that our only limitations are time and energy, and, given enough of the two, there is really nothing we can’t ultimately know.

So when we come to a doctrinal matter like the Trinity, the temptation is to want one neat analogy that will make it all clear, one concise statement on the Trinity that will settle it for us and allow us to move on to the next problem. Well, I hate to disappoint you so early in my sermon today, but if that is what you are expecting I suggest that you join those of your friends who are already daydreaming this time away. You see, it’s just not all that easy. It’s not so simple to describe the Trinity in any meaningful way. The Trinity just isn’t one of things we can settle in short order.

Maybe if we can’t figure out the Trinity in these few brief minutes (and, given that the church in two thousand years hasn’t been able to get it straight, it’s a fairly safe bet we won’t have the last word on it today,) if we can’t settle the issue today, maybe we can at least try to point to what the doctrine of the trinity is attempting to say about God and how we experience God.

James C. Leach, Naming God, Pulpit Digest, January / February 1991, p. 55.

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Overcoming Mediocrity Means Living Differently

Once someone was talking to a great scholar about a younger man. He said, "So and so tells me that he was one of your students." The teacher answered devastatingly, "He may have attended my lectures, but he was not one of my students."

There is a world of difference between attending lectures and being a student. Likewise, there are so many so-called followers of Christ who are not one of His disciples.

Adrian Dieleman, Join the Rescue Squad!

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The Church Exists by Mission

The Swiss missionary-theologian, Emil Brunner, likened the church’s involvement in missions to the relationship that exist between fire and burning: “The church exists by mission as fire exists by burning.” In other words: No burning, no fire. No missions, no church.

James Montgomery Boyce in his preface to his book Here We Stand says this.

So what is wrong with evangelicals? The answer is that we have become worldly. We have abandoned the truths of the Bible and the historic theology of the church which expresses those truths, and we are trying to do the work of God by means of the world's theology, the world's methods, agenda instead.

Rich Carlson, The Last Word on What’s Important

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Get on with It!

A college choir was all set to present its package of music in a large church. The program of sacred song was to be carried live by a local radio station. When everything appeared to be ready, the announcer made his final introduction and waited for the choir director to begin. One of the tenors was not ready, however, so the venerable conductor refused to raise his baton. All this time, nothing but silence was being broadcast. Growing very nervous, the announcer, forgetting that his microphone was still on and that he could be heard in the church and on the radio, said in exasperation, "Get on with it, you old goat!"

Later in the week, the radio station got a letter from one of its listeners--a man who had tuned in to listen to the music from the comfort of his easy chair. When he heard "Get on with it, you old goat!" he took the message personally. He had been doing nothing to further God's work, and this startling message was enough to convict him and get him going again.

Sometimes we need a wakeup call. We need to be reminded that before Jesus left this earth, He gave us all the instructions we need. He told us we should go and make disciples. We need to get on with it! Revive us, Lord! Is zeal abating while harvest fields are vast and white? Revive us, Lord--the world is waiting!

Equip Thy church to spread the light. It's what you're doing today that counts, not what you're going to do tomorrow.

Our Daily Bread

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Who Are You Going to Believe?

I remember once I invited an aluminum siding salesman into my house to give me his sales pitch. Boy, was that a mistake, because this guy was a slick talker. He talked and talked. For each offer I turned down, he had another one to present. He nearly persuaded me to sign his contract, which was really a rip-off, but somehow I managed to resist. He wouldn’t take no for an answer, and it was 11:00 at night before I got him to leave by picking up the telephone and threatening to call the police if he didn’t go.

The salesman had no power over me at all, just the power of talk. As soon as I threatened him with the police, he left. That is how it is with Satan and his demons. They have no power, but they are slick talkers and they can persuade you to do and believe all sorts of crazy stuff. All you have to do to get rid of them is to threaten them with the authority of Jesus Christ.

If Jesus has all power and authority in heaven and on earth, then it follows that Satan and his demons have none. They want you to believe otherwise, but remember, they are liars and murderers from the beginning.

Satan says he has power in this world, but Jesus says He has all the power in this world. Who are you going to believe?

Kenneth W. Collins, The Great Commission

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The Christian Life's Three Concentric Circles

As I see it, the Christian life must [comprise] three concentric circles, each of which must be kept in its proper place. In the outer circle must be the correct theological position, true biblical orthodoxy and the purity of the visible church. This is first, but if that is all there is, it is just one more seedbed for spiritual pride.

In the second circle must be good intellectual training and comprehension of our own generation. But having only this leads to intellectualism and again provides a seedbed for pride.

In the inner circle must be a humble heart--the love of God, the devotional attitude toward God. There must be the daily practice of the reality of the God whom we know is there. These three circles must be properly established, emphasized and related to each other.

Francis A. Schaeffer, No Little People; Sixteen Sermons for the Twentieth Century, InterVarsity Press, 1974. Out of Print.

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Why the Word ‘Doubt’?

Who doubts? Most English translations render v. 17: "When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted" (NRSV).

However, the word "some" doesn't occur in the text. The little Greek word de is often translated "but," but it can also mean "and". With this understanding, the verse could be translated: "And seeing him they worshiped and they doubted."

Those who worship are also those who doubt -- like being simultaneously saint and sinner, or the divine and human natures in Jesus, or the body/bread, blood/wine of communion. We frequently talk about two things existing at the same time.

Mark Allan Powell writes about this verse in his book, Loving Jesus.

... I want to note that the word some is not actually found in the Greek Bible. Why is it in the English version? Well, Matthew uses a particular construction here that allows translators to think that the word some could be implied. He also uses that construction in seventeen other instances, though no one ever seems to think the word is implied in those cases. It could be implied here, but why would it be? I asked a Bible translator that question one time and got the following response: "The verse wouldn't make sense otherwise. No one can worship and doubt at the same time." I invited this fellow to visit a Lutheran church. We do it all the time. [p. 121]

Exegetical Notes, Brian Stoffregen

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Trinity: The Power of God Is Real

In David Dunn’s book entitled “Giving Yourself Away,” he tells of a lesson he learned from a bus driver whom he once had met.

Riding the bus this day, Dunn noticed a driver who was exceptionally cheerful in every imaginable circumstance. There was a kind and happy word from him for everyone who stepped on the bus, and again for everyone who left.

As he was about to get off, Dunn told the driver he was the happiest bus driver he had ever seen and wondered what the reason was. “Well,” the driver said, “to be honest, I read in the paper a few months ago about a man who died and left a lot of money to a bus driver who was nice to him. So, I thought maybe I would try it myself. But (now) I’ve enjoyed myself so much being nice to people, I don’t care whether anybody ever leaves me any money (anyway).’

I would suggest to you the doctrine of the Trinity tells us something about God which is akin to that. If you would know Him, you cannot fully know Him with your mind. There must be the discovery of the spirit of it all somewhere living within you.

There must come that point in your life when you know both of the love and power of God are real, and they are true--not because you have run up against God’s authority and fear to do otherwise, nor even because you have seen His love expressed and feel attracted to that in return. For to know God is to have chosen for yourself to live like that, simply because the spirit of it has become your own.

Trinity! Does it say very much to us of God? Perhaps not very much, as only a word --not very much at all.

But, if you mean by “Trinity,” this reality of how men and women have to come to know God in their own lives, if they know Him at all, then Trinity is surely a word we can scarcely do without.

Paul van Dine, Not the Nature, But the Character of God – Trinity!, Cathedral Publishers.

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M. Eugene Boring (Matthew, NIB) says this about the verse: "Whatever the nature of the resurrection event, it did not generate perfect faith even in those who experienced it firsthand. It is not to angels or perfect believers, but to the worshiping/wavering community of disciples to whom the world mission is entrusted." [pp. 502-503] We are commissioned even if we don't fully comprehend the doctrine of the Trinity or if we are unable to understand the Athanasian Creed or even if we waver in our own faith.

Brian Stoffregen, Exegetical Notes.

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The Puzzling Trinity

Augustine, while puzzling over the doctrine of the Trinity, was walking along the beach one day when he observed a young boy with a bucket, running back and forth to pour water into a little hole. Augustine asked, "What are you doing?" The boy replied, "I'm trying to put the ocean into this hole."

The Augustine realized that he had been trying to put an infinite God into his finite mind.

Michael Green, Illustrations for Biblical Preaching, Baker Book House, 1993, p. 389.

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Three Gods, yet One God

Frederick Houk Borsch, since 1988, has been Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles. I don't remember where I first read this quote on the Trinity, but my notes indicate that when he wrote it, he was a religion Professor of Religion at Princeton University and Dean of the Princeton University Chapel.

There are probably a number of people who imagine that the idea of the Trinity was thought up by ivory-tower theologians who, typically, were making things more complicated than they needed to be and were obscuring the simple faith of regular believers. In fact, it seems that the process worked pretty much the other way around. Practicing believers and worshipers were driven by their experiences of God's activity to the awareness that God related in several different ways to the creation....

Thus what these believers came to insist upon was that God had to be recognized as being in different forms of relationship with the creation, in ways at least like different persons, and that all these ways were divine, that is, were of God. Yet there could not be three gods. God, to be the biblical God and the only God of all, had to be one God. This complex and profound faith was then handed over for the theologians to try and make more intelligible. They have been trying ever since.

Brian Stoffregen, Exegetical Notes.

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Every day we rub shoulders with people who need to accept Jesus as their personal Savior. Let's ask God to fill us with the longing, "I wish you knew my Jesus." Then we will become instruments in God's hand to introduce Christ to those who do not know Him. If your Christianity is worth having, it's worth sharing.

Our Daily Bread, August 7, 1999

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Paying Attention to Business

A good many years ago now, a brilliant theologian by the name of Reinhold Niebuhr noticed and wrote about an interesting thing that happens in groups and organizations. Put any group of people together, Niebuhr said, no matter how high and noble their initial purpose may be, and it doesn’t take too long before two things begin to happen: they start becoming self-serving and self-protective. And when that happens, their own self-preservation becomes more important to them than their mission or their reason for existence. Pretty amazing, huh?

A classic example from business is IBM. They used to rule the world, with a business machine dominance nobody, anywhere, could match. But then a subtle shift started occurring. Niebuhr would say they became more fixated on their preservation and self-interest than their mission. And so for a time there, to people watching from the outside, it looked like IBM was spending more time, money, and energy building huge, impressive corporate office buildings, filled with gifted managers and executives, than improving and selling what had been state-of-the-art, cutting edge products. And in that gap, little upstart companies like Apple and then later Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Compaq and others, stepped in and took a huge slice of the pie. Now IBM’s a great company, and it was smart enough to fix that problem and regain a whole lot of their strength and market share. But it’s a classic case of not paying attention to business; of shifting away from the assignment, and worrying more about taking care of yourself than paying careful attention to your whole reason for being.

Phil Roughton, Inviting the Unchurched

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Spiritual Muscles

A woman who had gone through some shattering experiences in life once wrote a little prayer. "Dear God, this valley has been so dark and deep, but I can see the mountain-and oh, how glorious it is! Even though at times I felt I would be consumed by the demons lurking in the shadows, but you were steadfast in Your promises to this servant and sinner. You walked beside me for comfort, behind me for encouragement, over me for protection, under me for strength, and before me for guidance. If my faith was flabby when I plummeted into the pit, my spiritual muscles now have been strengthened and toned through this treacherous journey."

Jack W. Baca, How to Follow Jesus

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Who Is this God Anyway?

There’s a story about an inquisitive 3 year old who was trying to get to the bottom of the mysteries of life.

"Mom" he would ask, "who made the stove?"

His mom, would respond back, "People made the stove."

Not be outsmarted, he would ask, "Well who made the people?"

"God made the people" she would reply.

This would go on with just about everything.

"Daddy who made the TV?"

"People made the TV." his father would reply.

"Well, who made the people?"

"God made the people."

And so it went for weeks on end this interrogation by the three year old.

Finally on the way to a family reunion as they were entering the airport the young boy exclaimed, "Mommy, daddy, come quick, look at the airplane.

I can see windows and doors and wheels and wings. Who made all of that?"

For the millionth time the exasperated parents replied, "People made all of those things." There was a short silence….."And I suppose God made the people….right?" "That’s right" said his mother. But the conversation was not finished the little boy then asked: "Mom, just who is this God anyway?" That is the question before us this morning: Who is this God anyway?

Gary Shaw

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God Loves the People

The United States today is very similar to what 18th century England was like. Morals were all but gone on the part of the common man. The slave trade was at its height. A godless prison system entertained the people with public hangings. Gambling was a national obsession--one historian said that England was a vast casino. Drinking dominated the pastime of men and boys. False rumors were regularly used to manipulate the financial markets.

Also, the Anglican church was in decay. Zeal for Christ was considered professionally dangerous. 20% of the clergy had been removed or dismissed because of moral and ethical failures. Bishop George Berkeley wrote at the time, "It is to be feared that the age of monsters is not far off."

Onto that scene came some young men known as the Holy Club of Oxford. John and Charles Wesley, George Whitefield, and others made a mission statement together. It said, "We want to reform the nation, particularly the church, and to spread scriptural holiness over the land." From that small group of college students, the face of England was completely changed. Even to the point where most historians agree that the revival that happened under those young men in England saved the English people from the bloody revolution that France went through.

I really don't know what is going to happen to America in the future. But I do know that the only answer to the spirit of despondency, the spirit of separatism, the spirit of impurity, the spirit of guilt... is the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The United States of America needs the message that God loves people. And offers them the chance to start over, have their sins forgiven, and experience reconciliation.

Tom Rietveld, A Great Commission Passion

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Motivation: Time to Get Moving

Zig Ziglar tells the story of the time he was a student at Yazoo City High School in Mississippi. He was a table tennis player and could beat just about anyone. One time a new kid came to town and Ziglar couldn’t beat him. He was using the old three-ginger grip so he changed to a newer "handshake" grip. The initial results were disastrous. But, after a few weeks his game improved and he eventually was able to beat the new kid in town. He was convinced that he had to change his grip in order to improve his game. (from Something Else to Smile About, Zig Ziglar)

Sometimes we have to take an honest look at ourselves and see that what always worked in the past may not work in the future. We have to keep moving, making adjustments and corrections along our life’s journey in order to be successful. It’s the same with discipleship; some movement is necessary in order to be effective witnesses for the faith. It involves risks and requires trust, yet we can be assured that God will be with us.

Keith Wagner, Time to Get Moving

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A Renewal of Faith

Christopher Parkening is a concert guitarist. At age 30, he was at the top of his profession. His concert schedule booked years in advance. His CD's were best sellers. And then it all stopped. For three years he just disappeared. He stopped recording. He stopped performing. He said he was burned out. He did what all of us, I think, have been tempted to do from time to time in our life. He just chucked it all and went away. He had resources sufficient enough to buy a little ranch up in Montana, with a trout stream running through it. He was a champion fly fisherman. He saw himself now solving the problems in his life by fishing. He hoped to find what was missing in his life.

He did, only in a way that was unexpected. In Montana it is nice from May to October. You can fish. But the rest of the time, the other six months, it is a different world up there. You have to stay inside, or you will die. So that is what he did. He read books, and he read the Bible.

One day a neighbor asked him to go to church. The minister on that Sunday preached a sermon on the Christian life, the ways that we find to avoid living it. Parkening said, "That's me!" From that point on, he began to see things differently. He doesn't use the term, "born again." He said he doesn't like it. What he said was that he had a "renewal" of his faith. The effect on him of the renewal of his faith is the effect it has on everybody. He got his sense of mission in his life.

He went back to playing the guitar. He is a different man now. He said he was burned out because there was only one purpose in his life, being famous. "Now," he said, "my music has a purpose. Now I can give voice to what I believe in my music." He has a mission in life now.

Mark Trotter, Collected Sermons, ChristianGlobe Networks, Inc.

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Waiting to Hear Our Name

"Sir, yes, sir!" The recruit yells.

Then the drill instructor walks around to the other ear and yells, "Is this thing working?"

"Sir, yes, sir!" The soldier says.

"Then why didn't you march when I gave the order?"

"Sir, I didn't hear you call my name."

Sermons for Sundays: After Pentecost (First Third): Hidden In Plain View, Stephen M. Crotts / Stan Purdum, CSS Publishing Company, Inc.

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Humor: What to Preach

Shortly after I had gone to my pastor and talked with him concerning this vague sense of calling to ministry that I was experiencing, he suggested that I preach while he was on vacation. By doing that, I could get some sense of what preaching was about and perhaps help to determine if that was the direction God was leading me. That sounded reasonable enough, so I agreed.

As I thought about that upcoming first venture into the realm of preaching, I asked my pastor, who is now my best friend in spite of the fact that he got me into this, "What should I preach about?" With a twinkle in his eye, he replied, "Preach about God and preach about twenty minutes. Folks come to church to hear about God, but if you ramble on longer than twenty minutes, you're going to lose most of them."

Johnny Dean, Holy Arithmetic!

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Illustrations for John 3:16-18
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God in Three Persons

St. Augustine, one of the most astute thinkers the Christian Church has ever produced, was walking along the seashore one day while pondering the doctrine of the Trinity - Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost. He seemed to hear a voice saying, "Pick up one of the large sea shells there by the shore." So he picked it up. Then the voice said, "Now pour the ocean into the shell." And he said, "Lord, I can't do that." And the voice answered, "Of course not. In the same way, how can your small, finite mind ever hold and understand the mystery of the eternal, infinite, triune God?"

Many Christian churches will be celebrating today the doctrine of the Trinity. It is one of the most prized truths of the Christian faith. "God in three persons, blessed Trinity...."

King Duncan, ChristianGlobe Illustrations

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Just Doesn't Get It

The late Cardinal Cushing tells of an occasion when he was administering last rites to a man who had collapsed in a general store. Following his usual custom, he knelt by the man and asked, "Do you believe in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit?" The Cardinal said the man roused a little bit, opened an eye, looked at him and said, "Here I am, dying, and you ask me a riddle."

Charles R. Leary, Mission Ready!

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The Difference Between Believing and Believing

I grew up in the NiagaraPeninsula, and so, all through my childhood, I heard stories of barrels, wheelbarrows, acrobats and publicity stunts that happened over Niagara Falls. One of the most amazing stories I ever heard was about the French acrobat Blondin. Blondin would do amazing feats on a tightrope stretched out over the Niagara Gorge.

One day, Blondin's manager was standing on the Canadian side of the gorge, doing his best to attract a crowd for his acrobat to perform. Blondin had just done a series of stunts (walking on his hands, doing cartwheels, using a unicycle, etc.). His feats were really quite spectacular. The Frenchman took up a wheelbarrow and got onto the rope between the two sides and turned to his manager. In front of the crowd, he asked him, "Do you believe that I can push this wheelbarrow across this rope to the other side?"

The manager said, "Yes, I do."

Blondin said, "Get into the wheelbarrow!"

As you can tell from that story, there is a profound difference between believing and believing.

David Chotka

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Shall Not Perish but Have Eternal Life

In 1981, a Minnesota radio station reported a story about a stolen car in California. Police were staging an intense search for the vehicle and the driver, even to the point of placing announcements on local radio stations to contact the thief. On the front seat of the stolen car sat a box of crackers that, unknown to the thief, were laced with poison. The car owner had intended to use the crackers as rat bait. Now the police and the owner of the VW Bug were more interested in apprehending the thief to save his life than to recover the car. So often when we run from God, we feel it is to escape his punishment. But what we are actually doing is eluding his rescue.

Source Unknown, ChristianGlobe Illustrations

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Jesus Love Me

The famous theologian Karl Barth wrote massive volumes of theological reflection about the Christian faith. He was the kind of intellect who understood far more than the average person. A reporter once asked him what was the greatest theological idea. He was expecting something equivalent to Einstein's E=MC2, the theory of relativity, or some other esoteric concept that hardly anyone could understand. But Barth simply replied, "Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so."

Mickey Anders, Windborne

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We Become His Son

There is a story that comes out of the Bedouin culture. "Bedouin" is the Aramaic name for "desert dwellers." These people live much as the characters of the Old Testament did. During a heated argument, according to this story, a young Bedouin struck and killed a friend of his. Knowing the ancient, inflexible customs of his people, the young man fled, running across the desert under the cover of darkness, seeking safety.

He went to the black tent of the tribal chief in order to seek his protection. The old chief took the young Arab in. The chief assured him that he would be safe until the matter could be settled legally.

The next day, the young man's pursuers arrived, demanding the murderer be turned over to them. They would see that justice would prevail in their own way. "But I have given my word," protested the chief.

"But you don't know whom he killed!" they countered.

"I have given my word," the chief repeated.

"He killed your son!" one of them blurted out. The chief was deeply and visibly shaken with his news. He stood speechless with his head bowed for a long time. The accused and the accusers as well as curious onlookers waited breathlessly. What would happen to the young man? Finally the old man raised his head. "Then he shall become my son," he informed them, "and everything I have will one day be his."

The young man certainly didn't deserve such generosity. And that, of course, is the point. Love in its purest form is beyond comprehension. No one can merit it. It is freely given. It is agape, the love of God. Look to the cross. At the cross we encounter love in its purest form.

King Duncan, ChristianGlobe Illustrations

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God Can Make Something Out of You

Some years ago, the great boxer, Mohammed Ali, was asked by a ghetto youth how he could quit school and start a boxing career since he had bad grades. Ali smiled at the young man and said in his poetic fashion:

"Stay in college and get the knowledge,
And stay there! Til you're through
Cause if God can make penicillin out of moldy bread,
He can make something out of you."

This is the good news of John 3. Because God so loved the world, He SENT His only son to make something out of us; when we accept Him into our lives and commit our hearts to Him, then He gives us new life in this world - and new life in the world to come.

James W. Moore, Encounters with Christ

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All It Would Take To Make Me Happy

Charles Shultz, creator and author of the Peanuts cartoon characters often conveyed a message in his comic strips. In one strip he conveys through Charlie Brown the need we have to be loved and through Lucy our inability to love one another.

Charlie Brown and Lucy are leaning over the proverbial fence speaking to one another:

CB: All it would take to make me happy is to have someone say he likes me.

Lucy: Are you sure?

CB: Of course I'm sure!

Lucy: You mean you'd be happy if someone merely said he or she likes you? Do you mean to tell me that someone has it within his or her power to make you happy merely by doing such a simple thing?

CB: Yes! That's exactly what I mean!

Lucy: Well, I don't think that's asking too much. I really don't. [Now standing face to face, Lucy asks one more time] But you're sure now? All you want is to have someone say, "I like you, Charlie Brown," and then you'll be happy?

CB: And then I'll be happy!

Lucy: [Lucy turns and walks away saying] I can't do it!

What Lucy can not do, sinful as she is, God does.

What Charlie Brown needs, lost and alone as he is, God supplies.

God loves you and is telling you today, "He loves you!" "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son."

Brett Blair, ChristianGlobe Illustrations

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So Much Extra Love

We're told that when early printers, using handset type, received an order to print a collection of Alfred Lord Tennyson's poems, they immediately ordered hundreds of extra letters L and V for their presses. They knew Tennyson. He used the word `love' so often in his poetry that the average set of type could not possibly supply all the necessary letters.

It is with that same kind of extravagant love that God loves us. God so loved the world.

King Duncan, ChristianGlobe Illustrations

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All You Need Is Love

Anthony Campolo tells about a mountaineer from West Virginia who fell in love with the beautiful daughter of the town preacher. The gruff and tough man one evening looked deeply into the eyes of the preacher's daughter and said, "I love you." It took more courage for him to say those simple words than he had ever had to muster for anything else he had ever done. Minutes passed in silence and then the preacher's daughter said, "I love you, too." The tough mountaineer said nothing except, "Good night." Then he went home, got ready for bed and prayed, "God, I ain't got nothin' against nobody."

Many of us know that feeling. To love and to be loved, what joy that simple emotion brings into our lives. Then to realize that the very nature of God is love is almost more than you or I can comprehend.

King Duncan, ChristianGlobe Illustrations

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Parable of the Cafeteria

Two counter girls stood at their post of supply in the cafeteria. As they kept the display of foods replaced, they conversed.

One said, "It just aggravates me to watch these hungry wolves snatch up the beautiful salads we have made. I don't think they see any of the beauty or skill in our work. In a few moments the artistic salad is torn to pieces by their teeth."

Said the second girl, "I look at it in a different way. It pleases me to think that these hungry people will shortly leave our place feeling stronger and better able to do whatever their work may be. I like to think of our supplying the power, that they use to serve, as a result of eating our food. Each time they take one of my salads I accept it as another person who has voted in favor of my service and one who has been attracted by my display. I consider it a compliment."

The lives of all humanity are interwoven endlessly. We live in a world of many choices.

As different foods are attractive to different people and each may go forth from the cafeteria having chosen to his satisfaction; so we choose our own happiness by what we see and how we interpret it. The Christian life is ruled by a God of love and a Savior who seeks to bless all who have eyes to see and ears to hear.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

Sermons.com Illustrations

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What's Holding You Back?

In preparing for this book, I have talked to a lot of people, and the fear issue comes up front again and again. What makes people hesitate to share their faith? Here are some of the fears that have been mentioned to me:

- "I am afraid I might do more harm than good."

- "I don't know what to say."

- "I may not be able to give snappy answers to tricky questions."

- "I may seem bigoted."

- "I may invade someone's privacy."

- "I am afraid I might fail."

- "I am afraid I might be a hypocrite."

Perhaps the most common fear, however, is that of being rejected. A survey was given to those attending training sessions for the Billy Graham crusade in Detroit. One question asked, "What is your greatest hindrance to witnessing?" Nine percent said they were too busy to remember to do it. Twenty-eight percent felt the lack of real information to share. None said they didn't really care. Twelve percent said their own lives were not speaking as they should. But by far the largest group were the 51 percent whose biggest problem was the fear of how the other person would react! None of us likes to be rejected, ridiculed, or regarded as an oddball.

Leighton Ford, Good News Is for Sharing, David C. Cook Publishing Co., page 15.