<font color='black' size='4' face='Times New Roman, Times, serif'><span>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Countering the Myth of Limited Resources</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span><br>
A few years ago
I served as pastor of Lavington Church in Nairobi. One day three young
men came to my office. Although they were cheerful, they looked tired
and wore out. Their tennis shoes were dusty and their clothes needed a
wash. The first thing they asked when they came into my office was
whether they could sing a verse of "Amazing Grace" in their language.
They sang acappella in parts. It was so beautiful. Sounded like angel
music, the kind of singing that tugs at the soul and brings tears to
your eyes out of the blue. And then they told me their story. They were
university students from Rwanda, 23-year olds. Two of them had been
medical students. When war broke out in their country, they had escaped
with only the clothes on their back and the song in their heart. They
had walked for weeks without a change of clothes with no place to sleep.
They had often gone hungry, they said, and they had no clue where any
of their family members and friends were. They said they had learned to
be grateful for their life each day and they had begun singing "Amazing
Grace" as a prayer as they walked. They had seen so much violence and
death and cruelty that they could not find words to pray so instead they
sang "Amazing Grace" as they walked and they said, "God knew and that
was enough."<br>
<br>
On that afternoon in my office, these three young
men had come to church asking for assistance. They said they had found a
room to rent for eight U.S. dollars a month. They said they did not
need beds; they would gladly sleep on the floor. They were asking our
congregation to help them with a month's rent. Eight dollars and some
money for food, a total of $12 a month. I asked the three students to
come back in a few days so I could meet with the church leaders, and
when I met my church leaders, they all agreed it was a great ministry.
But someone talked about the budget. Someone said $8 was not a lot, but
if you multiplied by 12 months, the next thing you know, it would be
impossible. And someone else suggested a very Andrew-like idea. "Let's
have a special project," they said. "Let's have a special offering.
Let's tell the congregation about the situation, have these young men
sing one Sunday morning, and whoever in the congregation is willing to
help, could donate outside the usual tithing and offertory." The church
leaders talked late into the night. Some were even concerned that so
many refugees were in the city that the word would spread our church was
involved in paying rent and buying groceries and we would be swamped
with needs. Some wanted to keep church and revivals only a spiritual
level. No picnics, no food, no dinner.<br>
<br>
As I listened to my church
leaders, I learned so much about the myth of limited resources. We
often think there's just enough for some of us. Some have to go without.
We're worried we'll run out, but guess what? God's world has enough for
all of us. Someone has put it well, saying, "There is enough for all
our needs, but there is not enough for all our greed."<br>
<br>
Grace Imathiu, A Picnic on the Mountainside<br>
__________________________________</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Don't Drop the Baton</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span><br>
In the 1988
Olympics, the world assumed that the United States would be victorious
in the 400-meter relay. They simply were the best. The gun cracked and
they were off and running. After the last curve the unthinkable
happened. The United States was ahead by 10 meters with no real
competition in sight. And then, with victory in their grasp, it
happened. They dropped the baton. The thousands in the stands gasped
in disbelief. The United States team--sleek, muscular, and fast as
leopards, lost the race. Why? Someone dropped the baton. <br>
<br>
I would
hate for us as a church to be the people who dropped the baton. What is
God calling us to be and to do as God's people in this time and this
place? It's not a question of resources but a question of faith. <br>
<br>
King Duncan, Collected Sermons, <a shape="rect">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><br>
Stone Soup<br>
<br>
</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>I love the story of
a Christian missionary hiking the high Andean trails to a remote
village in Peru. He found a rock along the road, a curious geode, and
put it in his backpack as a souvenir. That evening he strode into the
village to a very unfriendly welcome. No one offered him a bed. No one
asked him to sit by their fire. He learned that a famine had plagued the
Indians for over a month. And the people were starving. Each was simply
afraid to share amidst so much deprivation. <br>
<br>
Praying to Jesus
how to help them, he got an idea. Calling the Indians around a campfire
he preached God's loving care in Christ. Then he said, "I'm going to
feed you by making some stone soup. Yummm! It's tasty! I grew up on it!
And you'll like it just fine!" Then he opened his backpack and produced
the rock he'd found that morning. <br>
<br>
The Indians scoffed, "Stone soup! Why that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!" <br>
<br>
"Trust
me," the missionary assured them. "See! I've brought the stone. But I'm
going to need a pot to put it in." An Indian woman quickly volunteered
her pot. <br>
<br>
"And I'll need about two large buckets of water to boil
the stone in." A man, shaking his head, brought the water. So, in went
the stone, in went the water, and over the fire the pot was suspended.
Curious now, the villagers began to gather around the pot, peering into
its contents. The missionary began to stir the pot and drool. "You know,
stone soup sure is good with carrots!" To which an Indian said, "I've
got six carrots!" He quickly fetched them and they were cut up into the
pot. Then the missionary smelled deeply of the bubbly broth and sighed,
"Some potatoes sure would add to the flavor." From pockets and other
hiding places came dozens of spuds. They were quickly added to the soup.
Soon people were bringing onions, celery, and bits of meat to top off
the pot of stone soup. And within the hour a community was formed around
that stew pot. All ate. And all were filled and they heard the story of
Jesus Christ. <br>
<br>
Believe John 6:1-14 as a miracle of Jesus in
multiplying the bread and fish, if you will, or believe Jesus' miracle
in the selfish human heart causing the multitudes to share. But above
all, remember this: The next time you see a need or feel inadequate,
don't look at the hillside, look in the basket. Don't count the
difficulties presented. Look at the resources possessed. Don't measure
your problems. Measure God's power! <br>
<br>
Stephen M. Crotts, Sermons for Sundays after Pentecost, CSS Publishing Company <br>
____________________________</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>No One Completes the Journey Solo</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>I am sure you are
familiar with the amazing story of the migration of the monarch
butterfly, a lovely little creature who blesses our gardens and forests
in the summer. Every autumn, millions of monarchs from all over the
eastern United States and Canada migrate thousands of miles to a small
handful of sites in Mexico where they rest for the winter. Then in the
spring, they begin their return trip to the north. The amazing thing is
that no individual monarch ever makes the trip to Mexico and back.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>A butterfly that
leaves the Adirondack Mountains in New York will fly all the way
to Mexico and spend the winter. In March, it begins the trip northward,
but after laying eggs in the milkweed of Texas and Florida, it will die.
Those butterflies will continue northward, laying eggs along the way
until some of them, maybe three or four generations removed from the
original, make it back to mountains of New York. But when August comes,
they will head south, aiming for the exact place their great
grandparents visited, a place they have never been. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Sue Halpern says:
"The monarchs always migrate in community and depend on each other.
Although a single monarch may make it from New York to Mexico, it is the
next generation who completes the journey." </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Now here is the
word for the church. She says: "No one completes the journey solo. It is
only as a community that we discover the fullness of God's plan for
us." </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>John E. Harnish, Collected Sermons, <a shape="rect">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>Walking in Circles</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>You may know the
famous story of Jean Henri Fabre, the French naturalist, and his
processional caterpillars. He encountered some of these interesting
creatures one day while walking in the woods. They were marching in a
long unbroken line front to back, front to back. What fun it would be,
Fabre thought, to make a complete ring with these worms and let them
march in a circle.<br>
<br>
So, Fabre captured enough caterpillars to
encircle the rim of a flowerpot. He linked them nose to posterior and
started them walking in the closed circle. For days they turned like a
perpetual merry-go-round.<br>
<br>
Although food was near at hand and accessible, the caterpillars starved to death on an endless march to nowhere.<br>
<br>
That
seems to be the story of many people today. They are on a march that
leads to nowhere. We need to stop for a moment, and sit down in the
presence of Jesus.<br>
<br>
Then we need to receive what Christ has to offer us, just as the multitude received the loaves and fish.<br>
<br>
</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>King Duncan, Collected Sermons, <a __removedlink__1533044081__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>Fear Not</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Our fear is a hump
we have to get over, and we have to get over it before we can go very
far with Jesus. To help an alcoholic or a drug addict, we must first get
him or her off the stuff. That is the first step, the first lesson (if
you will): to stop drinking or using. Only then does it make sense to
talk about other things. Jesus knew that people, from the day they are
born, are slaves to fear, just as much slaves as a drunkard is to his
bottle or an addict to his needle. And, until we can stop being afraid,
and trust God, nothing else works. We are simply too consumed by fear
and worry and anxiety to think about anything else. For that reason
Jesus spent a great deal of time telling us not to be afraid -- telling
us directly, and acting out God's grace by feeding people who were
hungry and rescuing those in trouble on the sea. God will be there when
we need him. Fear not. It the first lesson in the Christian primmer, the
one on which all the others build.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>William R. Boyer, Four Miles Out</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>Looking at God</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>In his excellent
little book, How Can It be All Right When Everything Is All Wrong?
Professor Lew Smedes says that one source of our salvation is to
cultivate a sense of wonder. He reminds us that Jesus was a source of
wonder to all who came into contact with Him, from the humble shepherds
who were struck with wonder at the sight of blazing angels sashaying
around the Judean hills to the Wise Men from the East who came and laid
their gifts at Jesus' feet and wondered. All His life Jesus made people
wonder. Smedes says: </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>As a boy, (Jesus)
engaged in dialogue with learned men, all ripe with scholarly "ifs" and
"buts"; but, we are told, they wondered at him...</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, as well as many additional illustrations and sermons for the whole year, can be accessed at <a shape="rect">www.Sermons.com</a>. <font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"><br>
</font></font></span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><br>
<span><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"></font></font></span></div>
</span></font>