[Propertalk] Fwd: Sermon Resources for May 22 - Part 1

Sat May 21 14:44:34 EDT 2011

Sermons for Easter 5: 

    John 14:1-14 - "A Haven for Troubled Hearts"
   1 Peter 2: 2-10 - "The Meals-on-Wheels Temple" by Leonard Sweet

John 14, the sermon titled "A Haven for Troubled Hearts" 

Eric Clapton, arguably the greatest living rock guitarist, wrote a heart wrenching song about the death of his four year old son. He fell from a 53rd-story window. Clapton took nine months off and when he returned his music had changed. The hardship had made his music softer, more powerful, and more reflective. You have perhaps heard the song he wrote about his son's death. It is a song of hope:

     Would you know my name if I saw you in heaven?
     Would it be the same if I saw you in heaven?
     I must be strong and carry on,
     'Cause I know I don't belong here in heaven.

     Would you hold my hand if I saw you in heaven?
     Would you help me stand if I saw you in heaven?
     I'll find my way through night and day,
     'Cause I know I just can't stay here in heaven.

     Time can bring you down, time can bend your knees.
     Time can break your heart, have you begging please, begging please.
     Beyond the door there's peace I'm sure,
     And I know there'll be no more tears in heaven.

Jesus has just had the Passover meal with his disciples. He has washed their feet in an act of servanthood. He has foretold his betrayal which Judas will soon perform. He has predicted Peter's denial. He has told them he is leaving. But he adds this word of hope: Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house there are many rooms. I go to prepare a place for you and will come again and take you to myself. So that where I am, you may be also.

Hardship has a way of getting our attention. Pain slows us down. Very few us, after facing a trial, come out the same way we entered in. Jesus understood this and attempted to prepare his disciples for the road ahead.

The rest of this sermon following the outline above can be obtained by joining http://www.sermons.com/signup
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1 Peter 2,  the sermon titled "The Meals-on Wheels Temple" by Leonard Sweet 

I call the world we are living in TGIF. Anyone know what TGIF stands for? That’s right: “Thank God It’s Friday” 

But I’ve re-acronymed TGIF as “Twitter, Google, iPhone, Facebook.” So let me begin this morning with some TGIF questions:

Do you blog? If you do, do you blog with people on your block? 

Are any of your immediate neighbors your Facebook “friends” or Twitter “followers?” 

Do you connect with more people digitally than you do physically?

If the answer is “no” to the first two and “yes” to the third, then you are . . . pretty typical. The good news is that now absolutely no one need be cut off from contact with others in this electronic age of “relationships.” The bad news is that if everything in our lives is part of some enormous “social network,” how do we ever differentiate the devotedly “personal” from the digitally “social?” 

It is fun to have lots of Facebook friends. It is cool to have an entourage of Twitter “followers.” But as important as these “social media” are, there are times and places in our lives when a different kind of connectedness makes the difference between life and death.

Rising Spring waters have poured across those regions of our country graced by the presence of the Mississippi River. So much flooding, in fact, that whole communities have been forced to flee their homes. Adding insult to injury some have been put under water by the deliberate flooding of less populated areas to safeguard the survival of the larger cities. The only bright spot in these regional disasters and personal tragedies has been the out-pouring of local community care and support. 

I predict that one of the greatest stories of 2011 will turn out to be this one: Love and compassion have easily overwhelmed the water-power of the Mississippi…

The rest of the sermon can be found by joining Sermons.com. 

Click here:  http://www.sermons.com/signup or call 1-800-777-7731 to join.

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Taking Our Penalty

Friday night my wife and I went to a hockey game. It was between the Colorado Avalanche and the Mighty Ducks. Colorado's goalie got a penalty for "delay of game." A penalty in hockey means your team plays short-handed while you sit in the penalty box. 

Yet, during this penalty Colorado's goalie was still in the net. Do you know why? Because another player on his team was allowed to take the penalty for him. That other player was in the penalty box, suffering the consequences of what the goalie did, as if he was the one guilty of breaking the rules.

That's a picture of Christ. We broke the rules, we are the sinners, we have offended God's majesty, we have strayed from the Way, yet it is Christ who paid the penalty. The result? Through Christ and His cross we have a way to God and heaven and eternal life. Through Christ we are saved!

Adrian Dieleman, I Am the Way and the Truth and the Life 
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You Know Your Master Is There

There is a story told of a dying man who asked his Christian doctor to tell him something about the place to which he was going. As the doctor fumbled for a reply, he heard a scratching at the door, and he had his answer. 

"Do you hear that?" he asked his patient. "It's my dog. I left him downstairs, but he has grown impatient, and has come up and hears my voice. He has no notion what is inside this door, but he knows that I am here. Isn't it the same with you? You don't know what lies beyond the Door, but you know that your Master is there."

Alan Carr, Biblical Facts about a Place Called Heaven 
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What’s With the Fork?

A woman was diagnosed with a terminal illness and had been given three months to live. As she was getting her things in order, she contacted her pastor and asked him to come to her house to discuss some of her final wishes.

She told him which songs she wanted sung at her funeral service, what Scriptures she would like read, and what outfit she wanted to be buried in. She requested to be buried with her favorite Bible.

As the pastor prepared to leave, the woman suddenly remembered something else. "There's one more thing," she said excitedly.

"What's that?" said the pastor.

"This is important," the woman said. "I want to be buried with a fork in my right hand."

The pastor stood looking at the woman, not knowing quite what to say.

The woman explained. "In all my years of attending church socials and potluck dinners, when the dishes of the main course were being cleared, someone would inevitably lean over and say, 'Keep your fork.' It was my favorite part of the meal because I knew something better was coming—like velvety chocolate cake or deep-dish apple pie.

"So, when people see me in that casket with a fork in my hand and they ask, 'What's with the fork?' I want you to tell them: 'Keep your fork. The best is yet to come!'"

Alan Carr, Biblical Facts about a Place Called Heaven
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One Way Out

The year was 1275 BC, before Christ.  The land was Egypt.  The ruler was Pharaoh.  The leader of the Jews was Moses.  The Jews had been in slavery for four hundred years to the Egyptians, building their cities and pyramids. But God had sent the plagues, and now the Jewish nation was beginning their exodus from slavery.  And at this particular moment, they were stopped by a body of water, the Red Sea, the Red Sea, and the Egyptian chariots and horses were rapidly coming to attack and bring death and extinction.  It seemed there was no way out and then a miracle. Suddenly, before them, the Red Sea opened up and there was only one way. Only one way out.  Only one way to avoid death and extinction and that was through the Red Sea.

That paradigm, that visual image of only one way out of death and extinction is deeply woven into the theology of the Old Testament and New Testament.  I still can clearly see a picture poster from a Bible Series that I used to teach of a high piece of land on the left, a deep chasm in the middle and a high piece of land on the right. The high piece of land on the left represented Earth; the high piece on the right represented Heaven; and then there was a bridge in the form of a cross that went from Earth to Heaven.  It was only on the cross of Christ that we moved from Earth to Eternity.  It was the only way.  It is the only way.

Edward F. Markquart, Only One Way Out
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