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<div class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Subject:</span></b><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"> Fwd: Sermon
Resources for November 30 - Part 2A<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Where Is Authority?</span><span style="font-size:8.5pt;font-family:
"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#666666"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The British writer Arnold Lunn tells about one time he was on a
boat trip when a certain lady was plaguing him with theological questions. He
answered her with quotes from the Bible and from the teaching of the Church but
the woman would not accept what he said. Then he interrupted her to say,
"you must be a very inexperienced boat traveler. As you got on the boat I
noticed that you put your left foot on board first. Everyone knows that you
will have bad luck if you step on a boat with your left foot first!" The
next time she came on board he noticed that she nearly tripped into the water
in her effort to step aboard right foot first.</span><span style="font-size:
8.5pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#666666"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Lunn thought it remarkable that she would believe the infallible
Lunn in something that he had just made up, and that she would not accept the
authority of the Church or the words of Scripture. So, too, we tend to
complicate our lives and our prayer by looking for the extraordinary, when the
Lord is to be found most often in the simple and in the ordinary.</span><span style="font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#666666"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Father Gerry Pierse, The End of the World....Again?</span><span style="font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#666666"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">___________________________________________</span><span style="font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#666666"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Watchfulness</span><span style="font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;
color:#666666"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">In Frankfort, Kentucky it is said that the city was enthralled in
a big debate many years ago about placing a water fountain in a public square.
The argument became heated in the legislature and at the governor's mansion.
Finally, a decision was made to ask three contractors to bid on the project.</span><span style="font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#666666"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The first contractor was from Western Kentucky. When asked what
his bid was he replied, "$3,000." Then he was asked to break it down,
to which he replied, "$1,000 for labor, $1,000 for materials, and $1,000
for me." The next contractor was from Eastern Kentucky. When asked to give
his bid and to break it down he said, "$6,000. $2,000 for labor, $2,000
for materials, and $2,000 for me."</span><span style="font-size:8.5pt;
font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#666666"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The last contractor was an established contractor from Frankfort
who usually got all of the bids for the capital. When asked to give his bid, he
replied, "$9,000." Then they asked him to break it down. He closed
the doors, looked around cautiously, and then said, "$3,000 for YOU,
$3,000 for me, and we give the bid to the guy from Western Kentucky!"</span><span style="font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#666666"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Now, they had bigger problems in Frankfort than deciding on a
water fountain. But so often we can get sidetracked by things that seem
important. Much like the disciples being more concerned with the temple being
destroyed and the world coming to an end than they were with the things that
matter most in life: character, integrity, compassion, and preparedness for
Christ's return. This is what Jesus means when he tells his Disciples to watch!</span><span style="font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#666666"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Tim Carpenter, Sermon Illustrations</span><span style="font-size:
8.5pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#666666"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">____________________</span><span style="font-size:8.5pt;
font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#666666"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Living in Hope</span><span style="font-size:8.5pt;font-family:
"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#666666"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The Christian lives in the Hope. We look to tomorrow with
confidence, even absurd confidence. As the White Queen told Alice, "Why,
sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before
breakfast." There is an exuberance in the Christian Life, an exaltation
which passes logic. Why? Because we belong to Christ. Listen to Leo Tolstoy:</span><span style="font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#666666"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">I believe in God, who is for me spirit, love, the principle of all
things.<br>
I believe that God is in me, as I am in Him.<br>
I believe that the true welfare of man consists in fulfilling the will of God.<br>
I believe that from the fulfillment of the will of God there can follow nothing
but that which is good for me and for all men.<br>
I believe that the will of God is that every man should love his fellow men,
and should act toward others as he desires that they should act toward him.<br>
I believe that the reason of life is for each of us simply to grow in love.<br>
I believe that this growth in love will contribute more than any other force to
establish the Kingdom of God on earth. <br>
To replace a social life in which division, falsehood and violence are
all-powerful, with a new order in which humanity, truth and brotherhood will
reign.</span><span style="font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;
color:#666666"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">Warren T. Smith, Journey in Faith</span><span style="font-size:
8.5pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#666666"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background:white"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;">_____________________________________</span><span style="font-size:8.5pt;font-family:"Verdana",sans-serif;color:#666666"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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