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<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>God in Three Persons</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>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?" </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span><br>
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...."<br>
<br>
</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>King Duncan, Collected Sermons, <a __removedlink__1341264805__href="http://www.Sermons.com" target="_blank">www.Sermons.com</a></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>When the Person Is Right</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>One rainy Sunday
afternoon, a little boy was bored and his father was sleepy. The father
decided to create an activity to keep the kid busy. So, he found in the
morning newspaper a large map of the world. He took scissors and cut it
into a good many irregular shapes like a jigsaw puzzle. Then he said to
his son, "See if you can put this puzzle together. And don't disturb me
until you're finished." He turned over on the couch, thinking this would
occupy the boy for at least an hour. To his amazement, the boy was
tapping his shoulder ten minutes later telling him that the job was
done. The father saw that every piece of the map had been fitted
together perfectly. "How did you do that?" he asked. "It was easy, Dad.
There was a picture of a man on the other side. When I got him together
right, the world was right." <br>
<br>
A person's world can never be right
until the person is right, and that requires the miracle of new birth.
Don't you dare stop asking God for the experience of new birth until you
can shout from the housetops, "Through Jesus Christ, God has
fundamentally changed my life!" <br>
<br>
</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Bill Bouknight, Collected Sermons, <a shape="rect">www.eSermons.com</a></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>Too Short to Be Saved</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>After his
grandfather's death, Donald Hall, once the poet laureate of New
Hampshire, went into his grandfather's attic and found many, many boxes,
one of which was filled with short pieces of string. The box was marked
in an old hand: STRING TOO SHORT TO BE SAVED. He was astonished. The
box of string had caught him completely off-guard. And from his
off-guardedness and unguardedness, he was able to write a beautiful
poem.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The poem states the
obvious: his grandfather had saved the string that was too short to be
saved. If you have ever felt like you were a string too short to be
saved, you can begin to come to know what it means to be accepted by
God, in Jesus Christ.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>God will save us
all in a great attic. Nothing is ever lost to God. Nothing. Not a single
dead child. Not a single person who dies in a traffic accident. Not a
single person who drowns in the floods of a hurricane. Not a single
woman who dies of breast cancer. Not a single homeless person. Not an
estranged spouse. Not a wayward child. No one is lost to God.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>We will each appear too short to be saved many, many times in our lives. And God will still save us.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Author Unknown </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>Who Is Good Enough to Be Saved?</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>A number of years
ago, I read a newspaper account of a speech given by the president of a
well-known university to a group of influential businessmen and civic
leaders. The president told of a recent experience which he, his
audience, and the newspaper reporter found humorous. The president was
shopping during the Christmas season and happened to pass by a Salvation
Army volunteer, standing by a "donation kettle" and ringing a bell. As
he paused to make a donation, the woman volunteer asked this educator:
"Sir, are you saved?" When he replied that he supposed he was, she was
not satisfied, so she pursued the matter further: "I mean, have you ever
given your full life to the Lord?" At this point, the president told
his audience, he thought he should enlighten this persistent woman
concerning his identity: "I am the president of such and such
university, and as such, I am also president of its school of theology."
The lady considered his response for a moment, and then replied, "It
doesn't matter wherever you've been, or whatever you are, you can still
be saved."</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The most tragic
part of this incident is that both the seminary president and his
audience actually thought his story was amusing. One can imagine that if
Nicodemus had been confronted by this Salvation Army volunteer, he
would have thought - and said - just about the same thing as the
university president. Nicodemus is the "cream of the Jewish crop." One
dare not dream of having life any better than he has it. He is a Jew, a
Pharisee, a member of the Sanhedrin (the highest legal, legislative and
judicial body of the Jews), and a highly respected teacher of the Old
Testament Scriptures. Can you imagine being Nicodemus and having Jesus
tell you that all of this is not enough to get you into the kingdom of
God? Yet this is precisely what Jesus tells Nicodemus. If a man like
Nicodemus is not good enough for the kingdom of God, then who is? </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Robert Deffinbaugh, Jesus and Nicodemus</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>Religious Man</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>First, we can say
of Nicodemus he was a religious man. He clearly knew the Decalogue by
heart and the Torah by memorization. In John's Gospel he is referred to
not just as teacher but "the teacher", pointing to his religious
pre-eminence. If anyone knew the truth about God and God's people,
surely it would be this man. Yet, for all of his religiosity. Nicodemus
was not a fulfilled man. There was an emptiness within him that religion
had not filled. Master, I know all of the commandments, but there is
something missing.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>It is possible to
be a religious person and still miss the thrust of God's Word. Many
years ago all of America watched as Alex Haley's Roots came to the
television screen. There was one character that to me was particularly
memorable. Ed Asner played the role of the old captain on a slave ship.
He was a religious man. Each night he would close his door and read his
Bible. The first night on the return trip some of the crew sent him a
young slave girl to his cabin. He is incredulous and sends her away. On
the following night they sent her again, and now he no longer yells how
dare you. On another night, as he reads his Bible he hears the cries of
the suffering on deck so he closes his door so he can continue reading
his Bible.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>It is possible to
be a religious person and be an unfulfilled person. A person without a
cause. A person without a heart. "Master, I have kept all of the rules
and forms and rituals of our faith, but something is missing. Tell me
what else I must do to fill this void.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Brett Blair, <a __removedlink__1341264805__href="http://www.eSermons.com" target="_blank">www.eSermons.com</a></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>When the Wind Blows</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>I remember growing
up in the South, in cotton country, in the summer, before air
conditioning became something almost every home had. Several of those
summers I spent working on my uncle's cotton farm, down in the
Mississippi delta, just outside of my birthplace, Cleveland,
Mississippi. It was hot work, hard work, bringing in a cotton crop. It
still is, but technology has made it a lot easier than it was back then.<br>
<br>
When
the crop had been tended for another day, the weeds chopped from
between the cotton plants, in the evening everyone would gather on the
front porch. We would rock and talk and laugh in a futile attempt to
escape the ever-present heat and humidity. And sometimes, on a really
good day, the leaves of the trees would begin to rustle. And the
conversation would die down, and everyone would just sit back and enjoy
the summer breeze, the gift of the breeze. We didn't know where it came
from. We didn't know where it was going. But we knew it was there,
because we could feel it.<br>
<br>
You know what it's like to come in here
on one of those Sundays when you didn't really want to be here, when
your mind was somewhere else, and to be honest about it, maybe your
heart was somewhere else, too. Then, during the worship service, in the
hymns, or the prayers, or the communion service, or even in the sermon,
something gets hold of you, some mysterious force that somehow lifts a
burden from your shoulders, or helps you understand something that had
been puzzling you. And your step is a little lighter when you leave than
it was when you walked in. Now what was that? What brought that about? I
don't know. Or maybe I do know, but I just don't understand.<br>
<br>
Johnny Dean, The More I Understand, the Less I Know<br>
______________________________</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Life Is Unpredictable </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Life is
unpredictable. Full of surprises. Often enjoyable. Usually endurable.
Most all of them accidental. But here and there, providential. That's
because God, too, is full of surprises. Ellsworth Kalas (one of the
geniuses behind the Disciple Bible Study movement), writes: "I have
lived in the world of religion since before I was born, and in this long
period of observation (seventy years and counting), I have learned two
things for sure. First, you can't box God in. And second, we are always
trying to do so." </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>William A. Ritter, Collected Sermons, <a __removedlink__1341264805__href="http://www.Sermons.com" target="_blank">www.Sermons.com</a></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>All It Would Take To Make Me Happy</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Charles Shultz,
creator and author of the Peanuts cartoon characters often conveys a
Christian 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.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Charlie Brown and Lucy are leaning over the proverbial fence speaking to one another:</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>CB: All it would take to make me happy is to have someone say he likes me.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Lucy: Are you sure?</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>CB: Of course I'm sure!</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>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?</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>CB: Yes! That's exactly what I mean!</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>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?</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>CB: And then I'll be happy!</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Lucy: [Lucy turns and walks away saying] I can't do it!</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>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."</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Brett Blair, <a shape="rect">www.eSermons.com</a></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>Where the Spirit Moves</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>I once read
something called "Deal's First Law of Sailing." It goes something like
this: "The amount of wind will vary inversely with the number and
experience of the people you have on board the sailboat." And the second
law is like unto it: "No matter how strong the breeze when you leave
the dock, once you have reached the farthest point from the port from
which you started, the wind will die." </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Those who have the
hobby of sailing can attest to the validity of these "laws." In fact,
the art of sailing is a good analogy for the receiving of God's grace...</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 for Trinity
Sunday and the upcoming weeks can be accessed at <a shape="rect">www.Sermons.com</a>.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span><br>
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