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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Looking for an EZ Pass</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">On
many of our nation’s toll roads, rather than stopping at a toll-booth
to toss some change in a hopper, you can now purchase a transponder,
sometimes called an EZ-Pass, and zip through in the left lanes without
even slowing down to the acceptable speed limit. Instead of cash,
tickets and paper receipts, it’s a microchip tag placed on your
windshield containing pertinent data which eases your way. Your data is
quickly read by a tollbooth electronic antenna as your car zooms on
through. It automatically deducts your appropriate toll tax. This
computerized collection system then sends a monthly statement to your
home with tallies of times and places for your records. EZ-Pass is like a
debit card for your car, only quicker. No more stopping at the
tollgate, the narrow gate.<br>
<br>
Jesus says, I am the narrow gate. There’s no quick way in. There’s no
shortcut. If he wasn’t the Christ himself already, he’d be the perfect
patron saint of tollgates.<br>
<br>
Sometimes it seems that everybody wants the easy way to the front of the
line, a quick way to glory and fast track to success. Including James
and John, the brothers Zebedee, who want front-row seats numbering two
and three. Put yourself in their shoes for a moment and see if you can
identify with their self-centeredness. These guys gave up everything to
follow Jesus. They followed Jesus when nobody knew him. They followed
Jesus before his miracles. Now that he was popular, James and John were
feeling the swell of fame. After all, they were Jesus’ best friends, his
disciples! So we can understand why two of them came to Jesus with
their request.<br>
<br>
David Beckett, EZ-Pass<br>
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<br>
“Others”</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">In
just a few short weeks we will begin to see people in uniforms in
shopping malls ringing bells collecting donations for the poor. They are
doing the work of the Salvation Army.<br>
<br>
In 1878, when the Salvation Army was really beginning to make its mark,
men and women from all over the world began to enlist. A man who had
once dreamed of becoming a bishop in another denomination crossed the
Atlantic from America to England to enlist in the Salvation Army
instead. His name was Samuel Brengle. Brengle left a fine pastorate to
join William Booth's Army. At first General Booth accepted his services
reluctantly and grudgingly. Booth said to Brengle, "You've been your own
boss too long." So in order to instill humility in Brengle, he made him
work by cleaning the boots of other trainees.<br>
<br>
Discouraged, Brengle said to himself, "Have I followed my own fancy
across the Atlantic in order to black boots?" Then, as in a vision, he
saw Jesus bending over the feet of rough, uneducated fishermen. "Lord,"
he whispered, "you washed their feet; I will black their shoes."<br>
<br>
Samuel Brengle went on to establish the Salvation Army in America. At
the time of his death, the Salvation Army was thriving in both the
United States and in Canada. Just before his death Brengle sent out a
short memo to all of his top leaders. This memo had one single word
written on it: "Others." </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">King Duncan, Collected Sermons, </span><span style="font-size: 12pt"><a target="_blank" __removedlink__1139451768__href="http://mail.churchmail.com/lists/lt.php?id=Kk8CBQcHDgRRDEkNAAJKDAtXUVw="><span style="font-size: small"><span style="color: purple">www.Sermons.com</span></span></a></span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">_____________________ </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Caring Service and Its Impact</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">A
room-service waiter at a Marriott hotel learned that the sister of a
guest had just died. The waiter, named Charles, bought a sympathy card,
had hotel staff members sign it, and gave it to the distraught guest
with a piece of hot apple pie.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">"Mr.
Marriott," the guest later wrote to the president of Marriott Hotels,
"I'll never meet you. And I don't need to meet you. Because I met
Charles. I know what you stand for. ... I want to assure you that as
long as I live, I will stay at your hotels. And I will tell my friends
to stay at your hotels."</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Roger Dow and Susan Cook, Turned On, (New York: Harper Business, 1996).</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">____________________</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Power</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">On
May 18, 1980, Mount St. Helens in the Cascade Range of Washington
exploded with what is probably the most visible indication of the power
of nature that the modern world has ever seen. At 8:32 A.M. the
explosion ripped 1,300 feet off the mountain, with a force of ten
million tons of TNT, or roughly equal to five hundred Hiroshimas. Sixty
people were killed, most by a blast of 300-degree heat traveling at two
hundred miles an hour. Some were killed as far as sixteen miles away.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">The
blast also leveled 150-foot Douglas firs, as far as seventeen miles
away. A total of 3.2 billion board-feet of lumber were destroyed, enough
to build 200,000 three-bedroom homes.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Michael P. Green, Illustrations for Biblical Preaching, p. 269</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">____________________</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">George
Bernard Shaw was once asked in what generation he would have preferred
to live. The witty Irishman replied: "The age of Napoleon, because then
there was only one man who thought he was Napoleon."</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">G. Curtis Jones, "1000 Illustrations for Preaching and Teaching" p. 291</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">____________________</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Power Verses Service</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Alexander,
Caesar, and Hannibal conquered the world but had no friends....Jesus
founded his empire upon love, and at this hour millions would die for
him.... He has won the hearts of men, a task a conqueror cannot do."</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Napoleon</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">____________________</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">A
well-dressed European woman was on safari in Africa. The group stopped
briefly at a hospital for lepers. The heat was intense, the flies
buzzing. She noticed a nurse bending down in the dirt, tending to the
pus-filled sores of a leper.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">With disdain the woman remarked, "Why, I wouldn't do that for all the money in the world!"</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">The nurse quietly replied, "Neither would I."</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Donald L. Deffner, Seasonal Illustrations p. 130</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">____________________</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Service</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">"I
don't know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only
ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and
found a way to serve."</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Albert Schweitzer</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">__________________</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">I Hate To Leave This Church</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">A
Methodist pastor once wrote about power and politics in his
denomination. Methodist preachers, he notes, are under the care of a
bishop. Bishops, in turn, are Methodist preachers who are elected by
fellow Methodist preachers after an extensive campaign for the office in
which the candidate tries not to be caught campaigning. As he observes,
It is a long-standing Methodist tradition that bishops must not appear
to have sought their office and, once elected, the new bishop must make a
public declaration that "I didn't seek this office and I didn't want it
but, once the Lord calls" ... Methodist preachers take all of this with
a grain of salt, the same way Baptist congregations have learned to be
somewhat skeptical when one of their preachers moves on to a better
church claiming, "I hate to leave this church and I would rather stay
here, but the Lord calls." Baptists note t
hat the
Lord rarely calls someone out of one church into another church unless
that church has a higher salary. Methodists have likewise noted that
there have been few preachers who, once they are elected bishop, turn
the job down.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">"Teacher,
we want you to put us on your right and on your left. But keep it
quiet. Don't make it too obvious. Others may become offended that we
asked first." By telling us this story, Mark knows what you and I know:
we are prone to the same desire for privilege and protected status. We
want a Jesus who will give us what we want, a Lord who can shower a
little power on us, a Savior who can make us better than we are.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">William G. Carter, No Box Seats in the Kingdom, CSS Publishing.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">____________________</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">What's In It For Me?</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">A
number of years ago, a small book appeared for ministers. Titled The
Penguin Principles, it attempted to help naive clergy get a handle on
the people of their congregations. Most of the material in the book was
written with tongue in cheek, so it has some truth in it. According to
the book, the first principle of church life goes like this: "Despite
the pious things we say, at any given time, less than five percent of
any group in the church is operating with purely Christian motivation.
The other 95 percent is asking, 'What's in it for me?'"</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">William G. Carter, No Box Seats In The Kingdom, CSS Publishing.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">_____________________</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Service</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Have
you heard the beautiful children's story about the three trees? The
trees were talking in the forest one day about their dreams for the
future. The first tree said it would like to be made into a cradle, so
that it might go on living as a support for the fragile life of a tiny
new baby. The second tree wanted to be made into a big ship, so that it
might go on living, carrying important cargo and influential people to
exotic new lands. The third tree longed to stay right where it was,
existing only as a tree, but growing ever taller, and pointing ever
higher, to remind everyone that there is a God in heaven who loves them.
Those were their dreams: One wanted to be a cradle, one wanted to be a
mighty ship, and one wanted to be a tall tree, pointing people toward
God.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">But
then one day the woodcutters came and chopped down the three
trees...and destroyed their dreams. The first tree was not made into a
cradle, but into a simple feeding trough, a manger for animals. But the
manger was sold to a family in Bethlehem, and on the night Jesus was
born, that simple feed box became the cradle for the Christ Child.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">The
second tree was built into a boat, but not the kind it had dreamed
of--not a mighty ocean-going vessel--but a tiny inexpensive fishing
boat. A man named Simon Peter bought the boat, and on one warm afternoon
when the crowds pressed in, Jesus himself climbed aboard that small
fishing boats that he might preach good news to the multitudes.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">The third tree also was deprived of its dream…</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"><span style="color: black">The rest of this illustration, as well as many additional illustrations and sermons for the whole year, can be accessed at </span></span><span style="color: black"><a target="_blank" __removedlink__1139451768__href="http://mail.churchmail.com/lists/lt.php?id=Kk8CBQcHDgRRDEkNAAJKDAtXUVw="><span style="font-size: small"><font color="#0000ff">www.Sermons.com</font></span></a></span><span style="font-size: small"><span style="color: black">. </span></span></div>
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