<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40" xmlns:v =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:x =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:excel" xmlns:p =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:powerpoint" xmlns:a =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:access" xmlns:dt =
"uuid:C2F41010-65B3-11d1-A29F-00AA00C14882" xmlns:s =
"uuid:BDC6E3F0-6DA3-11d1-A2A3-00AA00C14882" xmlns:rs =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:rowset" xmlns:z = "#RowsetSchema" xmlns:b =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:publisher" xmlns:ss =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:spreadsheet" xmlns:c =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:component:spreadsheet" xmlns:odc =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:odc" xmlns:oa =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:activation" xmlns:html =
"http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40" xmlns:q =
"http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:rtc =
"http://microsoft.com/officenet/conferencing" XMLNS:D = "DAV:" XMLNS:Repl =
"http://schemas.microsoft.com/repl/" xmlns:mt =
"http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/meetings/" xmlns:x2 =
"http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/excel/2003/xml" xmlns:ppda =
"http://www.passport.com/NameSpace.xsd" xmlns:ois =
"http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/ois/" xmlns:dir =
"http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/directory/" xmlns:ds =
"http://www.w3.org/2000/09/xmldsig#" xmlns:dsp =
"http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/dsp" xmlns:udc =
"http://schemas.microsoft.com/data/udc" xmlns:xsd =
"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:sub =
"http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/2002/1/alerts/" xmlns:ec =
"http://www.w3.org/2001/04/xmlenc#" xmlns:sp =
"http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/" xmlns:sps =
"http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/" xmlns:xsi =
"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:udcs =
"http://schemas.microsoft.com/data/udc/soap" xmlns:udcxf =
"http://schemas.microsoft.com/data/udc/xmlfile" xmlns:udcp2p =
"http://schemas.microsoft.com/data/udc/parttopart" xmlns:m =
"http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns:st = ""><HEAD>
<META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.18828">
<STYLE>@font-face {
font-family: Calibri;
}
@font-face {
font-family: Consolas;
}
@page Section1 {size: 8.5in 11.0in; margin: 1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; }
P.MsoNormal {
MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman","serif"; FONT-SIZE: 12pt
}
LI.MsoNormal {
MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman","serif"; FONT-SIZE: 12pt
}
DIV.MsoNormal {
MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: "Times New Roman","serif"; FONT-SIZE: 12pt
}
A:link {
COLOR: blue; TEXT-DECORATION: underline; mso-style-priority: 99
}
SPAN.MsoHyperlink {
COLOR: blue; TEXT-DECORATION: underline; mso-style-priority: 99
}
A:visited {
COLOR: purple; TEXT-DECORATION: underline; mso-style-priority: 99
}
SPAN.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {
COLOR: purple; TEXT-DECORATION: underline; mso-style-priority: 99
}
P.MsoPlainText {
MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: Consolas; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-style-priority: 99; mso-style-link: "Plain Text Char"
}
LI.MsoPlainText {
MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: Consolas; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-style-priority: 99; mso-style-link: "Plain Text Char"
}
DIV.MsoPlainText {
MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; FONT-FAMILY: Consolas; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-style-priority: 99; mso-style-link: "Plain Text Char"
}
SPAN.PlainTextChar {
FONT-FAMILY: Consolas; mso-style-priority: 99; mso-style-link: "Plain Text"; mso-style-name: "Plain Text Char"
}
SPAN.EmailStyle19 {
FONT-FAMILY: "Arial","sans-serif"; COLOR: windowtext; mso-style-type: personal
}
SPAN.plaintextchar0 {
FONT-FAMILY: Consolas; mso-style-name: plaintextchar
}
SPAN.EmailStyle21 {
FONT-FAMILY: "Arial","sans-serif"; COLOR: navy; mso-style-type: personal
}
SPAN.style3 {
mso-style-name: style3
}
SPAN.EmailStyle23 {
FONT-FAMILY: "Calibri","sans-serif"; COLOR: #1f497d; mso-style-type: personal
}
SPAN.EmailStyle25 {
FONT-FAMILY: "Calibri","sans-serif"; COLOR: #1f497d; mso-style-type: personal-reply
}
.MsoChpDefault {
FONT-SIZE: 10pt; mso-style-type: export-only
}
DIV.Section1 {
page: Section1
}
</STYLE>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></HEAD>
<BODY lang=EN-US link=blue bgColor=#ffffff vLink=purple>
<DIV>Sermon Resources for Proper 25:<o:p></o:p></DIV>
<DIV class=Section1>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal> <SPAN class=style3><B>Mark
10:46-52 - </B></SPAN><STRONG>Lord, I Want to
See</STRONG><B><BR><SPAN class=style3> </SPAN>Mark
10:46-52<SPAN class=style3> </SPAN>- Squeaky Wheels<SPAN
style="COLOR: #1f497d"> </SPAN></B><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 11pt">by Leonard
Sweet</SPAN><B><SPAN style="COLOR: #1f497d"><o:p></o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<P
class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p>_________________________________________<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Mark 10, the sermon titled “Lord, I Want to See" </P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Keller, so brave and inspiring to us in her deafness and
blindness, once wrote a magazine article entitled: "Three days to see." In that
article she outlined what things she would like to see if she were granted just
three days of sight. It was a powerful, thought provoking article. On the first
day she said she wanted to see friends. Day two she would spend seeing nature.
The third day she would spend in her home city of New York watching the busy
city and the workday of the present. She concluded it with these words: "I who
am blind can give one hint to those who see: Use your eyes as if tomorrow you
were stricken blind.”<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="COLOR: black"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="COLOR: black">As bad as blindness is in the 20th
century, however, it was so much worse in Jesus' day. Today a blind person at
least has the hope of living a useful life with proper training. Some of the
most skilled and creative people in our society are blind. But in first century
Palestine blindness meant that you would be subjected to abject poverty. You
would be reduced to begging for a living. You lived at the mercy and the
generosity of others. Unless your particular kind of blindness was
self-correcting, there was no hope whatsoever for a cure. The skills that were
necessary were still centuries beyond the medical knowledge of the
day.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="COLOR: black"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="COLOR: black">Little wonder then that one of the
signs of the coming of the Messiah was that the blind should receive their
sight. When Jesus he announced his messiahship, he said: "The spirit of the Lord
is upon me. He has sent me to recover sight to the blind."<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="COLOR: black"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="COLOR: black">The story this morning of the
healing of blind Bartimaeus would suggest to us that there are three kinds of
blindness.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="COLOR: black"> <o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="COLOR: black">1. The first kind of blindness is
the blindness of Bartimaeus.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="COLOR: black">2. The second kind of blindness is
the blindness of the disciples.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="COLOR: black">3. The third kind of blindness is
the blindness of you and me.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN style="COLOR: black"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>The rest of this sermon following the outline above can be
obtained by joining <A title=blocked::www.eSermons.com
href="http://www.Sermons.com">www.Sermons.com</A>.</P>
<P class=MsoNormal>_______________________<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Second Sermon by Len Sweet<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; COLOR: #1f497d; FONT-SIZE: 11pt"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Mark 10, the sermon entitled ‘Squeaky Wheels’ </P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Now that we're deep into fall, it's the time for an annual
battle to begin. For those of us in cold climates the yearly ritual of feeding
the wintering birds is underway. And with that tradition comes yet another
annual event - the war against the squirrels. Why it matters so much to nature
lovers that they feed only the feathered and never the furred creatures is
somewhat of a mystery. But there have been thousands of dollars spent in the
name of squirrel defense over the years. Anyone living in a rural, wooded area
can testify to the plenitude of both fur-bearing and feathered free-loaders
queuing up to the trough. <o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>From personal experience I suspect that the squirrel wars may
camouflage the ugly truth that what we are actually trying not to feed is the
squirrel's universally hated naked-tailed cousin . . . the wood rat. A bird
feeder alive with the twittering presence of juncos, nuthatches and chickadees
is one thing. A feeding station squirmingly full of fat and sassy rats is quite
another! <o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Have you seen any of those video-tapes (you can purchase
them) that chronicle the tireless, sometimes hilarious, often balletic attempts
of the wily squirrel to beat all the safety devices humans install to keep them
away from the birdseed? Demonstrating tremendous problem-solving abilities as
well as physical dexterity, hungry squirrels have figured out how to climb
around baffles, ride whirlygigs, leap unbelievable distances, and hang from
their toenails in order to reach and pillage the beckoning bird feeder.
<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>[At this point you may want to show-off some squirrel proof
feeders that either you have in your yard, or that your people have devised for
their yards. You can show pictures of these and get their inventors to tell the
story of how they created them, or just show off a couple. One of the best I've
seen was created by Paul Hammer, senior pastor at Mount Washington Presbyterian
Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, and installed off his deck. It used multiple pulleys
and was threaded through at least three trees.] <o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Our own squirrel-proof feeder took our resident fox squirrels
about fifteen minutes to figure out. Because the feeding tray has a weighted
cover that closes over the seeds if too heavy a creature sits on it, the
squirrels simply attack from above. They shimmy out to the end of the branch,
hang upside down from their back feet, stretch their bodies down just as far as
they can, reach out with their front paws, and delicately scoop the seed out
with their nimble fingers. Only very occasionally do they slip off, and then
it's probably because they are so weighted down with their full tummies that
they can't hold up their own weight anymore. <o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>The squirrels have found that their persistence eventually
pays off. If they keep working at it, keep trying new ways to beat it, keep
their minds and their muscles focused on the prize they will surely find a way.
<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>In this week's gospel text blind Bartimaeus is a bit like one
of those pesky squirrels. Hearing that Jesus of Nazareth is coming his way
this blind beggar begins hollering out into the dark that surrounds him, "Jesus,
Son of David, have mercy on me" (verses 47-48). But the crowd surrounding Jesus
tries to shush up Bartimaeus. Jesus offers spiritual sustenance to all who hear
him…<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>The rest of Leonard Sweet's sermon can be obtained by joining
<A title=blocked::www.eSermons.com
href="http://www.Sermons.com">www.Sermons.com</A>.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P
class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p>_______________________________<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>I Heard My Brother Crying<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 12pt" class=MsoNormal>Some years ago in a small village
in the Midwest, a little twelve-year old girl named Terri was babysitting her
little brother. Terri walked outside to check the mail. As she turned back from
the mailbox, she couldn't believe her eyes. The house was on fire. So very
quickly the little house was enveloped in flames. <BR><BR>Terri ran as
fast as she could into the flaming house only to find her baby brother trapped
by a burning rafter which had fallen and pinned him to the floor. Hurriedly,
Terri worked to free her brother. She had trouble getting him loose as the
flames were dancing around their heads. Finally, she freed him. She picked him
up and quickly took him outside and revived him just as the roof of the house
caved in. <BR><BR>By this time, firemen were on the scene and the
neighbors had gathered outside the smoldering remains of the house. The
neighbors had been too frightened to go inside or to do anything to help, and
they were tremendously impressed with the courage of the twelve-year old girl.
They congratulated her for her heroic efforts and said, "Terri, you are so very
brave. Weren't you scared? What were you thinking about when you ran into the
burning house?" I love Terri's answer. She said, "I wasn't thinking about
anything. I just heard my little brother crying." <BR><BR>Let me ask you
something? How long has it been? How long has it been since you heard your
brother or sister crying? How long has it been since you stopped and did
something about it? <BR> <BR>James W. Moore, Collected Sermons,
ChristianGlobe Networks, Inc.
<BR>________________________________________<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Grabbing Opportunity<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P style="MARGIN-BOTTOM: 12pt" class=MsoNormal>William Barclay once said there
are three things which cannot come back: the spent arrow, the spoken word, and
the lost opportunity. Bartimaeus could not know what lay just ahead for Jesus in
Jerusalem. He could not know that the Master would be crucified there and that
this opportunity would never come again. He did know, however, that the
opportunity was here, now, and he wasn't going to allow it to pass him by.
<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>King Duncan, Collected Sermons,
www.sermons.com<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>___________________________<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Location, Location, Location<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>A cigar-chomping realtor was driving around a young couple to
search for their first dream house. After listening to their concerns about
mortgage points, maintenance costs, and school systems, he decided to give them
a bit of advice. "I've been selling homes for 23 years," he said, "and I've
discovered only three things matter when you're buying a home: location,
location, location."<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>To prove his point, he drove the couple to see two homes. The
paint was peeling on the first house, and the driveway was heaving in spots. "It
may be a handyman's special," he said, "but look at the view." The house sat at
the foot of a purple mountain, adjacent to ten acres of untouched forest. Then
the group went to see a charming two-story stone farmhouse with five bedrooms, a
big kitchen, and plenty of closets. "Everything's immaculate," the wife
exclaimed after a brief tour inside. "In fact, we might buy it if it was located
somewhere else." Then she pulled back a curtain to see an interstate highway and
a busy airport runway.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>Location, location, location. It is a good rule in
considering real estate. It is also a good rule in biblical interpretation.
Anybody who wants to know the deeper meaning of a biblical text can benefit by
looking around its neighborhood.<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>William G. Carter, No Box Seats in the Kingdom, CSS
Publishing <o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal>___________________<o:p></o:p></P>
<P class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></P></DIV></BODY></HTML>