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<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>That's All I Want </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>A little girl
reciting the 23rd Psalm began, "The Lord is my shepherd; that's all I
want." Maybe she missed the wording, but she sure got the theology
right. To have Jesus as our shepherd is indeed a blessing. As he moves
towards the cross, Jesus holds up this model of the good shepherd,
reminding his listeners that a good shepherd would lay down his life for
the sheep. He would give his life to protect the sheep from thieves,
wild animals, or whatever danger might confront the flock. We can give
him our allegiance because of his commitment to us.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>B. Wiley Stephens, One Life to Give </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>________________________</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Humor: I Should Have Taken the Money</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The college faculty
gathered for their weekly meeting. A professor of archeology brought
with him a lamp recently unearthed in the Middle East. It was reported
to contain a genie, who, when the lamp was rubbed would appear and grant
one wish.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>A professor of
philosophy was particularly intrigued. He grabbed the lamp and rubbed it
vigorously. Suddenly a genie appeared and made him an offer. He could
choose one of three rewards: wealth, wisdom, or beauty. Without
hesitating, the philosophy professor selected wisdom. "Done!" said the
genie and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>All the other
faculty members turned toward the professor, who sat surrounded by a
halo of light. At length, one of his colleagues whispered, "Say
something. What wise insight do you now have?"</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The professor, much wiser now, sighs and says, "I should have taken the money."</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>King Duncan, Collected Sermons, Sermons.com </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>_________________________________</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>True Abundant Life</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>One day a man
stopped in a convenience store to get a newspaper. He noticed that the
owner of the store had tears in his eyes and kept looking out the
window. He asked what was going on.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The store owner
said, "Do you see that bus bench over there? There's a woman who comes
there every day around this time. She sits there for about an hour,
knitting and waiting. Buses come and go, but she never gets on one and
no one ever gets off for her to meet. The other day, I carried her a cup
of coffee and sat with her for a while.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>"Her only son lives
a long way away. She last saw him two years ago, when he boarded one of
the buses right there. He is married now, and she has never met her
daughter-in-law or seen their new child. She told me, 'It helps to come
here and wait. I pray for them as I knit little things for the baby, and
I imagine them in their tiny apartment, saving money to come home. I
can't wait to see them.'"</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The reason the
owner was looking out the window at that particular moment was that the
three of them--the son, his wife and their small child--were just
getting off the bus. The look on the woman's face when this small family
fell into her arms was one of pure joy. And this joy only increased
when she looked into the face of her grandchild for the first time. The
store owner commented, "I'll never forget that look as long as I live."</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The next day the
same man returned to the convenience store. The owner was again behind
the counter. Before the store owner could say or do anything, the
customer said, "You sent her son the money for the bus tickets, didn't
you?"</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The store owner
looked back with eyes full of love and a smile and replied, "Yes, I sent
the money." Then he repeated his statement from the day before, "I'll
never forget that look as long as I live." This man had discovered a
measure of the abundant life.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>King Duncan, Collected Sermons, Sermons.com </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>_____________________________________________</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>I Am the Door</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>George Adam Smith,
the 19th century biblical scholar tells of traveling one day in the holy
land and coming across a shepherd and his sheep. He fell into
conversation with him and the man showed him the fold into which the
sheep were led at night. It consisted of four walls, with a way in.
Smith asked him, "This is where they go at night?" "Yes," said the
shepherd, "and when they are in there, they are perfectly safe." "but
there is no door," said Smith. "I am the door," said the shepherd. He
was not a Christian man and wasn't speaking in the language of the New
Testament. He was speaking from an Arab shepherd's viewpoint. Smith
looked and him and asked, "What do you mean you are the door?" "When the
light has gone," said the shepherd, "and all the sheep are inside, I
lie in that open space, and no sheep ever goes out but across my body,
and no wolf comes in unless he crosses my body; I am the door."</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>George Adam Smith</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>________________________________</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Our Master Makes the Difference</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>As I have moved
among men and women from all strata of society as both a lay pastor and
as a scientist I have become increasingly aware of one thing. It is the
boss, the manager, the Master in people's lives who makes the difference
in their destiny.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>I have known some
of the wealthiest men on this continent intimately, also some of the
leading scientists and professional people. Despite their dazzling
outward show of success, despite their affluence and their prestige,
they remained poor in spirit, shriveled in soul, and unhappy in life.
They were joyless people held in the iron grip and heartless ownership
of the wrong master.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>By way of contrast,
I have numerous friends among relatively poor people-people who have
known hardship, disaster and the struggle to stay afloat financially.
But because they belong to Christ and have recognized Him as Lord and
Master of their lives, their owner and manager, they are permeated by a
deep, quiet, settled peace that is beautiful to behold.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>It is indeed a
delight to visit some of these humble homes where men and women are rich
in spirit, generous in heart and large of soul. They radiate a serene
confidence and quiet joy that surmounts all the tragedies of their time.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>They are under God's care and they know it. They have entrusted themselves to Christ's control and found contentment.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Phillip Keller, A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23, Harper, p. 17</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>____________________</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Love and Living for Others</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Archbishop Desmond
Tutu once said, "When a chap is in love, he will go out in all kinds of
weather to keep an appointment with his beloved. Love can be demanding;
in fact, more demanding than law. It has its own imperatives. Think of a
mother sitting by the bedside of a sick child through the night,
impelled only by love. Nothing is too much trouble for love." Jesus
makes it clear as he draws near the cross that his motivation is love.
He is choosing to make this sacrifice. He is choosing to be faithful to
what God has put before him.<br>
<br>
There is a tale that in the first
century a man came to Tertullian, a father in the early church. And in
trying to justify some compromises the man had felt he had to make,
commented, "I have to live, don't I?" to which Tertullian is reported to
have said, "Do you?" The challenge is to focus away from self and to
others, to ask where our real values are-survival only, or living as to
make a difference.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Leo Tolstoy said,
"The only certain happiness in life is to live for others." It is when
we see the world with a larger level than self. It is when we become
concerned with others that we find the depth of God's love for our
lives.<br>
<br>
Wiley Stephens, One Life to Give<br>
___________________________________________<br>
<br>
</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>I'm Not the Shepherd</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>A pastor was taking
a group of parishioners on a tour of the Holy Land. He had just read
them the parable of the good shepherd and was explaining to them that,
as they continued their tour, they would see shepherds on the hillsides
just as in Jesus' day. He wanted to impress the group, so he told them
what every good pastor tells his people about shepherds. He described
how, in the Holy Land, shepherds always lead their sheep, always walking
in front to face dangers, always protecting the sheep by going ahead of
them. He barely got the last word out when, sure enough, they rounded a
corner and saw a man and his sheep on the hillside. There was only one
problem: the man wasn't leading the sheep as the good pastor had said...</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span>The rest of this illustration and many additional illustrations and sermons can be accessed at <a shape="rect" target="_blank" __removedlink__1453464696__href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=0012yturtMzNk-IIvomAXVOj7nkZChJKEG7ss8-pEiY3wa4DECsxhj363J9Lizh0L1j4euWMfFx0047tF9Npih7w9wJEaoWsrQBcJ_HEdoQsR8=">www.Sermons.com</a>. <br>
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