50 Sermon Illustrations on Challenge

Friend dared Campolo to steal their confiscated stickball bats from the police station. He did. Risk makes life worthwhile.

Abraham is an example of an old person who lived dangerously for God. His wife did not believe him, but he did it for the Lord.

#782

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Final sermon in series on Jesus. Jesus gives the church a mission and we will die if we don't carry it out. The church needs a vision, a challenge, power, and a plan to make it work. We need this on a personal level and on a church level.

First day in the sixth grade, I’ll never forget it,” recalls Jesse Jackson, who ran for president of the United States in 1988. “My teacher was Miz Shelton, and she began writing these long words on the blackboard we couldn’t understand, never even heard of before.

Somebody finally called out, “Uh, Miz Shelton? Those are eighth-grade words. We are only the sixth grade here.”

She turned around. “I know what grade you are. I work here. I know what grade I’m teaching. And you’ll learn every one of these words, and a lot more like them, before this year is over. I will not teach down to you. One of you little brats just might be mayor or governor, or even President, some day, and I’m gonna make sure you’ll be ready.”

And she turned back and went right on writing. At that time Jackson says, her proposition prompted no glow of possibility in him. “Aim to be governor? Even aim to be mayor, when in Greenville then there wasn’t a single African-American on the Board of Education, in the Police Department, the Fire Department? And aim to be President!?!”

Before any great accomplishment, someone must have a vision.

Ten points to keep in mind when using questions to lead a study group:

1. Concise. Good questions cover only one idea at a time.

2. Complete. Make sure participants have all the info they need to answer

a question.

3. Clear. Keep it understandable. Be sure questions are not over the

heads of group members.

4. Connected. Don't ask a question that will lead your group on a tangent.

5. Conversational. The aim is not just to ask questions and have the

group answer them; it is to facilitate conversation

among everyone.

6. Contestable. The best discussion questions do not have one right

answer. They are open-ended, which forces people to

think.

7. Challenging. Ask questions that make people stretch their minds.

Silence after a question may mean people are really

thinking about their answers.

8. Creative. Get group members to look at an issue from a side they may

not have thought of before. For example, tell a story

containing an unresolved issue and ask participants to solve

it. The only bad question is the one you use all the time.

9. Controversial. Make a controversial statement and see how the group

responds. Just remember to use this method sparingly

and with discernment

10. Considerate. Try not to embarrass or get too personal too soon.

Particularly in new groups, questions that dig too deep

may keep people from coming back next week.

#3081

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We pride ourselves on problem-solving. From the historic challenge of putting a person on the moon, to the ordinary challenge of fitting 48-hour schedules into 24-hour days, we are solution-finders. But a trend is emerging that has a few deeply concerned: We are beginning to face problems with a magnitude, complexity, and velocity such as humanity has never before experienced.

The exponential increase in the speed of transportation vividly illustrates the dynamics of change which we are facing. The earliest people carried their own burdens at a walking pace. With the invention of the wheel and the domestication of the animals, heavier burdens could be moved at about six miles per hour. This simple progress enabled cities to develop because food could be transported more easily from the farm to the city. This situation lasted for about 6,000 years. Then, with the invention of the internal combustion engine and the automobile, people and things could move at about 60 miles per hour. This tenfold increase (what social scientists call a Force 1 increase, based on the exponential formula 101) had a radical affect on where people lived. Between 1930 and 1950, half the population in the United States moved from the farm to the city, radically altering the pace of life.

A third transportation shift occurred in the 1960s with the jet airplane which could travel at 600 miles per hour. This represents another tenfold increase (a Force 2, or 10 to the power of 2 increase from the horse-and-buggy days), but this time it occurred in 60 years instead of 6,000! The increase led to a mobile society, creating social demands that were never anticipated. The lack of extended families and the loss of long-term social networks have greatly taxed our coping skills. But an even more baffling situation faces us now.

As we enter the Information Age, the transportation of information is the catalyst for a change unlike any we’ve ever seen before. Experts tell us that the speed of change in the last decade, through technology and information, is a Force 30 increase! That’s 10 to the power of 30. What does that mean? If you took one grain of sand and magnified it ten to the thirtieth power, it would be the size of the Milky Way galaxy! The mind boggles and the heart cringes.

Let’s bring it closer to home. A young person is confused as she faces intense peer pressure in school where ethnic diversity and a pluralism of values fuel an intensity that students of earlier generations never knew. A college graduate faces a frightening future with little hope in the midst of a high-tech, globally competitive world. Men and women who prepared for a career 30 years ago now find that the job market has left them behind. A new parent feels twinges of anxiety mixed with joy as he wonders how to raise a responsible child in a world that has lost its moral moorings. A middle-ager feels the threefold squeeze of growing children, aging parents, and the career pressures mounting in these “harvest years.” Grandparents try to figure out how to support their children and grandchildren who are dealing with problems they themselves never had to face. One who has been “resingled” through divorce or death wonders how to find love and loyalty in a partner, when so many have no concept of honorable commitment.

These are trying days. Any one of these problems taxes our problem-solving resources. Yet, if we had only one such problem to manage, we could probably find our way through it. Many individuals and families face all or most of the stresses listed above at the same time! What does one do?

It was a test all of us would hope to pass, but none of us really wants to take. A masked gunman points his weapon at a Christian and asks “Do you believe in God?” She knows that if she says “yes,” she’ll pay with her life. But unfaithfulness to her Lord is unthinkable.

So, with what would be her last words, she calmly answers, “Yes, I believe in God.”

What makes this story remarkable is that the gunman was no communist thug, nor was the martyr a Chinese pastor. As you may have guessed, the event I’m describing took place last Tuesday in Littleton, Colorado.

As the Washington Post reported, the two students who shot 13 people, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, did not choose their victims at random — they were acting out of a kalideoscope of ugly prejudices.

Media coverage has centered on the killers’ hostility toward racial minorities and athletes, but there was another group the pair hated every bit as much, if not more: Christians. And, there were plenty of them to hate at Columbine High School. According to some accounts eight Christians — four Evangelicals and four Catholics — were killed.

Among them was Cassie Bernall. And it was Cassie who made the dramatic decision I’ve just described — fitting for a person whose favorite movie was “Braveheart,” in which the hero dies a martyr’s death.

Cassie was a 17-year-old junior with long blond hair, hair she wanted to cut off and have made into wigs for cancer patients who had lost their hair through chemotherapy. She was active in her youth group at Westpool’s Community Church and was known for carrying a Bible to school.

Cassie was in the school library reading her Bible when the two young killers burst in. According to witnesses, one of the killers pointed his gun at Cassie and asked, do you believe in God?” Cassie paused and then answered, “Yes, I believe in God.” “Why?” the gunman asked. Cassie did not have a chance to respond; the gunman had already shot her dead.

As her classmate Mickie Cain told Larry King on CNN, “She completely stood up for God. When the killers asked her if there was anyone who had faith in Christ, she spoke up and they shot her for it.”

Cassie’s martyrdom was even more remarkable when you consider that just a few years ago she had dabbled in the occult, including witchcraft. She had embraced the same darkness and nihilism that drove her killers to such despicable acts. But two years ago, Cassie dedicated her life to Christ, and turned her life around. Her friend, Craig Moon, called her a “light for Christ.”

Well, this “light for Christ” became a rare American martyr of the 20th Century.

According to the Boston Globe, on the night of her death, Cassie’s brother Chris found a poem Cassie had written just two days prior to her death. It read:

“Now I have given up on everything else I have found it to be the only way to really know Christ and to experience the mighty power that brought Him back to life again, and to find out what it means to suffer and to Die with him. So, whatever it takes I will be one who lives in the fresh Newness of life of those who are Alive from the dead.”

The best way all of us can honor Cassie’s memory is To embrace that same courageous commitment to our faith. For example, we should stand up to our kids when they want to play violent video games. We should be willing to stand up to community ridicule when we oppose access to Internet pornography at the local library.

For the families of these young martyrs, I can only offer deep personal sympathy and the hope that they might take strength from the words Jesus spoke to the woman who honored Him by pouring ointment on His head. “Wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her” (Matthew 26:13).

“Well done, good and faithful servant. Now enter into the joy of your Lord” (Matthew 25:23).

Copyright (c) 1999 Prison Fellowship Ministries

==========================================================

[Holwick – Cassie’s role in the Littleton shootings have been disputed by some. Robert E. Reccord told Baptist Press Sept. 29, 1999:

“Regardless of who said yes [to the gunman query about faith in God], two things are true. The first is that some young person under terrifying circumstances testified to their faith. Praise God for that. Secondly, whether it was Cassie Bernall or not, Cassie’s life and words prior to the shooting testified to the change in her life that came from knowing Jesus Christ.”

*

Nothing starts happening until somebody starts dreaming. Every accomplishment started off first as an idea in somebody's mind. It started off as a dream, as a vision, a goal.

Therefore, the first task of leadership is to set the vision for the organization. If you don't set the vision, you're not the leader. Whoever is establishing the vision and goals in your church is the leader of that particular church. A church will never outgrow its vision and the vision of a church will never outgrow the vision of the pastor.

So I want to challenge you to dream great dreams for God.

The Bible says, “God is able to do far more than anything we would ever dare to ask or even dream of, infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts or hopes” (Ephesians 3:20, Living Bible).

That's an amazing verse. In it God tells us, “Think up the biggest thing you think I can do in your life, in your ministry, in your church, and I can top that; I can beat it.”

So you need to ask yourself this question, “What would I attempt for God if I knew I couldn't fail?”

Let that expand your horizons. Let it expand your dreams. Let it expand your vision into God's unlimited vision for your ministry. But how do you find God's vision for your ministry?

THE WHAT

When God reveals His vision for your ministry, the FIRST THING He shows you is the WHAT. He shows you what He's going to do. The big mistake is, Once God has shown you what He's going to do in your life and ministry, there is a tendency in all of us to immediately run out and assume we can accomplish it any way we wish.

So we go out and try to accomplish it under our own power, in our own way, and through our own efforts. And inevitably, we fall flat on our face, and it's then that we come crawling back to God.

“Oh, God, I'm so sorry,” we say. “What did I do? Did I miss the vision? You told me what You were going to do, and I went out and tried to accomplish it and fell flat on my face. Did I miss the vision?”

THE HOW

And God will say to you, “No, you didn't. You just didn't wait for Part Two. I told you what I was going to do, but you didn't wait to find out HOW I was going to do it.” God's HOW is always in the exact opposite way that you thought.

You say, “I'll grow the church this way....” And God will say, “No, let's do it My way,” because He wants the glory.

THE WHEN

Once you see the WHAT and the HOW, you're still not finished. There's a third part of the vision: God shows you WHEN. The longer I walk with the Lord and the longer I'm in ministry, the more I'm convinced that God's timing is perfect. He is never a minute early; He is never a minute late; He is always right on time. And His timing is as important as the WHAT and HOW of His vision. You must wait for all three parts for God to work in your life.

POLAROID VISION

Have you ever taken a Polaroid picture? You take it and the longer you look at it, the clearer it gets. That's true in my life. When I first started Saddleback Community Church, I didn't know what it was going to end up like. All I knew was that God had called me to this spot, and I had a bunch of ideas in a bag, and I wanted to build it on the five purposes of God. That's all I knew. As I have walked with the Lord and worked with the Lord over the years, the vision has gotten clearer and clearer.

Or you could say that God's vision is like a scroll. When you unroll a scroll, you don't see the whole thing from beginning to end. You just see what's right in front of you.

Then you roll it up a little bit and unroll a little bit more. That's the way God's will is in our lives. He doesn't lay His full plan before you all at once. If you knew what would happen the rest of your life, you might contemplate suicide. Some tough points are coming up along with some turning points, rough edges, difficulties and crises that you probably don't think you can handle.

And the truth is you can't. But God's grace is sufficient for each day and when you get there, the grace will be there.

So don't borrow trouble by worrying about what might lie ahead.

Jesus said, “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:34, NIV).

Instead, you should seek God's vision day-by-day. You get God's vision by asking, “WHAT do You want me to do? HOW do You want me to do it? And WHEN do You want me to do it?”

You need to stop praying, “God, bless what I'm doing,” and start praying, “God, help me to do what You're blessing.”

I get up in the morning, and I pray this prayer every day: “God, I know You're going to do some very exciting things in the world today. Would You give me the privilege of just being in on some of them? I just want to be in on what You're doing. I want to do what You're blessing.”

__________

Adapted from a message by Rick Warren titled, “Authentic Leadership,” from a Purpose-Driven Church Conference.

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[Original illustration at this number was added to HolwickID #18633]

Inventor Thomas A. Edison set himself an ambitious goal - it was to come up with a major new invention every six months, a minor invention every ten days. When he died, he had 1,092 US patents and over 2,000 foreign ones.

Edison knew that by setting such goals for himself, and striving to reach them, he was bound to increase his output. The same principle applies in our work. No matter what goals you set for yourself, they are bound to help your results. Challenge yourself -- then rise to meet the challenge.

1. Out in the highways and byways of life,

Many are weary and sad;

Carry the sunshine where darkness is rife,

Making the sorrowing glad.

Chorus

Make me a blessing, make me a blessing!

Out of my life may Jesus shine;

Make me a blessing, O Saviour, I pray,

Make me a blessing to someone today.

2. Tell the sweet story of Christ and His love,

Tell of His pow’r to forgive;

Others will trust Him if only you prove

True, ev’ry moment you live.

3. Give as ‘twas given to you in your need,

Love as the Master loved you;

Be to the helpless a helper indeed,

Unto your mission be true.

*

1. Seek ye first the kingdom of God

And His righteousness,

And all these things shall

be added unto you —

Allelu, alleluia!

2. Man shall not live by bread alone,

But by ev’ry word

That proceeds from

the mouth of God,

Allelu, alleluia!

3. Ask and it shall be given unto you,

Seek and ye shall find,

Knock and it shall

be opened unto you —

Allelu, alleluia!

1. Am I a soldier of the cross?

A foll’wer of the Lamb?

And shall I fear to own His cause

Or blush to speak His name?

2. Must I be carried to the skies

On flow’ry beds of ease,

While others fought to win the prize

And sailed through bloody seas?

3. Are there no foes for me to face?

Must I not stem the flood?

Is this vile world a friend to grace,

To help me on to God?

4. Sure I must fight if I would reign —

Increase my courage, Lord!

I’ll bear the toil, endure the pain,

Supported by Thy Word.

[Tune “Arlington”]

*

One of our staff came back from his vacation recently and reported on how exciting it had been for him and his family to see the sights of Washington, D.C. I asked him if he had ever been to the nation's Capitol before, and he said, "No. None of them had ever seen it." He went on to explain, "You know, I'm sort of a hometown kind of guy." And that's true - he actually has lived most of his life within a relatively short distance of home base. My friend said, "I sort of had to stretch to do this - but I'm really glad we did."

Well, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Going Where You've Never Gone - Seeing What You've Seen."

My friend actually had to move out of where he felt comfortable to experience some exciting things he'd never experienced before. So do you and I. That is, in fact, a fundamental principle of getting all our Lord Jesus wants us to experience. And maybe it's important we talk about that today - because someone who's listening may be stuck in their comfort zone, missing some scary but exciting things that God wants you to see.

I love the picture God gives us of this dynamic in Matthew 14, beginning with verse 25, our word for today from the Word of God. Jesus had told His disciples to go on across the Sea of Galilee without Him. They encountered a violent storm, during which, the Bible says, "Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake." The disciples were understandably freaked out. The Bible says, "but Jesus immediately said to them: 'Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid.' 'Lord, if it's You,' Peter replied, 'tell me to come to You on the water.' 'Come,' Jesus said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water, and came to Jesus."

Peter did what no man, other than Jesus, had ever done before or has ever done since - he walked on water! The boat was obviously the safe place to be. But Peter was willing to leave where it was safe on one condition - "Lord, if it's You." And that's got to be our bottom line, too. Is that You, Lord, leading me out of the boat I've been in and out into the "wild water" of something new? If it's You, I'm going!

Like my friend who saw some memorable new things when he moved beyond where he felt comfortable, you will see powerful things you've never seen before if you'll get out of the boat. God is leading you beyond where you feel adequate, where you can figure it out, where you can pull it off. But what a great place to be - you're in the miracle zone! He's leading you into a new episode where you will need Him more than you've ever needed Him before - and have Him as you've never had Him before. It's not the water that's going to hold you up - it's Jesus. You're headed where it's going to be not much of you and a whole lot of God! That is something to be excited about!

One day this Peter who dared to get out of the boat would be led by his Lord to preach the Gospel boldly on the streets of Jerusalem, calling to Christ some of the very people who had wanted Him crucified. (Talk about getting out of your comfort zone!) And Jesus would ask him to go where no Jew ever thought he'd go - to introduce those nasty Gentiles to Jesus.

Once you start defining your decisions by what's comfortable, once you follow Jesus into a place where He is everything, you have begun to blow the lid off your life. Living by faith turns out to be the only really safe way there is to live! But you'll never walk on water if you never get out of the boat!

________________

Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. "Practical Answers to Real Life Issues"

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It was probably one of the greatest adventures in American history - the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The size of the United States doubled overnight and President Thomas Jefferson picked his aide, Meriwether Lewis, to lead a group of about forty men to explore a route from St. Louis to the Pacific. The journey took more than two years, covering thousands of miles, meeting with some fifty Indian tribes, and charting a vast area, largely unexplored by anyone other than Native Americans.

One of Meriwether Lewis' first steps in his preparation was to seek out his former commanding officer, William Clark, to share the command of this historic journey into the unknown. In his letter to Clark, he asked him to "participate with me in the expedition's fatigues, its dangers, and its honors." It took a long time for the letters to make it back and forth, but William Clark's reply was worth the wait. Here's what he said: "I will cheerfully join you and partake of the dangers, difficulties, and fatigues, and I anticipate the honor and rewards." Good answer. It made him a hero.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "A Recipe For Heroes."

When I read Captain Lewis' invitation to Captain Clark, I couldn't help but think how much it reminds me of the much greater invitation that Jesus Christ gives to you and me. It is not an invitation to a party or vacation - it's an invitation to join Him in a bold adventure, filled with "dangers, difficulties, and fatigues." Oh yes, and the "honor and the rewards."

Our Western idea of a faith that is cushioned pews and convenient sacrifice flies right in the face of what Jesus called us to. It's in Luke 9:23-24, our word for today from the Word of God. "Then He said to them all, 'If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me." To which you can almost hear someone saying, "In that case, I think I'd rather run my own life - it sounds like there's too much to lose in following Jesus." Listen to Jesus' startling equation - "For whoever wants to save his life (or hang onto his life) will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will save it." Hang onto your life, you lose it. Give it away and you find it.

Maybe you've tried discount Christianity. It's very popular. Of course, it's only a pale shadow of the disciple Christianity Jesus calls us to. You go to the meetings, you believe the beliefs, you give in the offerings, you sometimes read your Bible, you pray. But it's a surface commitment, a limited commitment, a commitment that still leaves you in control. My guess is that discount Christianity has left you unfulfilled and unsatisfied. It can't satisfy you. You were made to be abandoned to Jesus, taking up a cross, making choices that might cost you, building His kingdom instead of yours, and accepting assignments from Him that go way beyond your comfort zone.

And as for "the honor and the rewards"? Jesus said that no one who sacrificed for His great adventure "will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age ... and in the age to come, eternal life." (Mark 10:29, 30) You can't outgive Jesus. True Christianity is expensive and ultimately fulfilling ... ultimately rewarding.

Jesus is asking you to take your commitment to Him to a whole new level. And you can be sure the cost of not following Him is far greater than the cost of following Him. He's waiting for your answer to His invitation. By God's grace, your answer will be - "Jesus, I will cheerfully join You and I'll partake of the danger, difficulties, and fatigues, and I anticipate the honor and the rewards."

________________

Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. "Practical Answers to Real Life Issues"

*

Some time ago, Harry Pidgeon sailed around the world ... in a 14-foot sloop ... ALONE! After the trip a reporter asked Pidgeon, "What is the most dangerous thing for a lone sailor on the open sea?"

He told the pundit: "It's not the storms or other vessels which endanger the solo sailor, but the clear, calm weather accompanied by a gentle breeze. The sailor loses focus and becomes careless under such conditions."

So too the Christian. It's the calm of the Christian walk which poses the greatest danger to the lone believer, causing a loss of focus on things above and careless living.

Perhaps that's why the Lord's brother, James, admonished us to "consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance." [James 1:2,3]

And perhaps that's why the writer of Hebrews tells us to "consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together ... encouraging one another; and all the more, as you see the day drawing near." [10:25,26] There is little room in the Body of Christ for fear ridden Lone Rangers ... members who go it alone.

Yet in the midst of our foolish pride all believers have His promise, "lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." [Matthew 28:20] Even so, we are never truly alone!

Zig Ziglar says that there are three main ways to motivate. They are fear, incentives and growth. Let's take a look at each one.

Fear. This is not good. Number one, it isn't right, and number two, it doesn't work well in the long run and isn't good for the overall health of the organization. Yet, still there are people who use it. They make blatant or veiled threats in order to get people to work. There is a better way.

Incentives. John Maxwell says that, "What gets rewarded, gets done." This is the technique that says, "If you do this, then you will get this." The problem Ziglar sees, and I concur, is that people will be led this way for a while, and it will surely be profitable and productive. Yet eventually, most people come to the end of being driven by incentive. This is because most people are innately driven by something even deeper.

Growth. Personal growth. Do you ever wonder how the personal growth industry has gotten so huge? It is because it scratches an itch that lies within each person. Every person has within them, a desire to get better. Now, obviously, some are more in tune with that desire than others, but each person has it, and it can a great motivating factor.

*

An atheist professor was teaching a college class and he told the class he was going to prove there is no God. He said, “God, if you are real, then I want you to knock me off this platform. I'll give you 15 minutes!”

Ten minutes went by. He kept taunting God, saying, “Here I am, God. I'm still waiting.”

When down to the last minute a big 240-pound football player, walked up to the professor, hit him full force, and sent him flying from his platform.

The professor struggled up, obviously shaken and yelled, “What is the matter with you? Why did you do that?”

The football player replied, “God was busy; He sent me!”

[see also HolwickID #4080 for similar story]

Once asking his mother for a definition of sin, John Wesley received a response fit for theology books. “Take this rule,” Susanna Wesley wrote to John. “Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off your relish of spiritual things; in short, whatever increases the strength and authority of your body over your mind, that thing is sin to you, however innocent it may be in itself.”(1)

In a world that vehemently rejects the depravity of humankind, and much less desires a definition for a word deemed prehistoric and intolerant, what can we glean from her careful words? I believe we can glean much, though the thought I suggest is simple.

Among the notions of the business world runs a common thread of thought: no successful corporate entity exists for long without a mission statement. Any business that seeks to organize itself always determines a final goal by which all distractions are judged and removed. In a sense, Mrs. Wesley defined sin as anything that distracts you from your ultimate mission in life. In our attention-deficit disordered culture, distractions abound. But you will never understand what a distraction is until you clearly enunciate your final goal. Have you defined that goal for your life?

When Boris Becker was interviewed after his second Wimbledon victory, he was asked a simple question. Noting the tennis pro had overcome much to achieve a goal many can only dream of accomplishing, the reporter asked, “What is your greatest challenge in life?” Becker answered quickly. His greatest challenge, he said, was to keep from committing suicide.

In his words is a careful warning. We must choose our goals carefully. If when we accomplish our goals, we find our lives still lacking, it may have been a worthy goal, but it was not a goal worthy of defining our life's purpose. It was not meant to be our final goal.

When a news reporter asked another one of our athletic heroes why he chose to become a Christian, Deion Sanders spoke about the night his team won the Super Bowl. It was after all of the interviews and victory photos had been taken. He had just finished ordering a new car. And as he sat there, he suddenly realized that every goal he had ever attempted had now been reached. The mere thought of this made him uneasy. The empty and dejected part of him would never be filled with fame or accomplishments. Turning to Christ, he cried for wholeness.

In a hymn written after the death of a friend, John Wesley sings of a life unobscured by lesser goals than this.

Servant of God, well done!

Thy glorious warfare’s past;

The battle’s fought, the race is won,

And thou art crowned at last.

When your mission statement in life is a relationship with God, you will find there is no greater purpose, nothing that gives your life more significance. Then to his glory you will say of your goals: “I can accomplish all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

________

1. Letters of Susanna Wesley, June 8, 1725.

________

Copyright © 2005 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. "A Slice of Infinity" is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

*

The Rev. Hamilton Coe Throckmorton shivered with anticipation as he gazed at the loot - wads of $50 bills piled high beside boxes of crayons in a Sunday school classroom.

Cautiously, he locked the door. Then he started counting.

It was a balmy Friday evening in September in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. From several floors below faint melodies drifted up - the choir practicing for Sunday service.

Throckmorton was oblivious. For hours, perched awkwardly on child-sized wooden stools surrounded by biblical murals and children’s drawings, the pastor and a handful of coconspirators concentrated on the count.

Forty-thousand dollars. Throckmorton smiled in satisfaction as he stashed the money in a safe.

That Sunday, the 52-year-old minister donned his creamy white robes, swept to the pulpit and delivered one of the most extraordinary sermons of his life.

First he read from the Gospel of Matthew.

“And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his ability.”

Then he explained the parable of the talents, which tells of the rich master who entrusts three servants with a sum of money - “talents” - and instructs them to go forth and do good. The master lavishes praise on the two servants who double their money. But he casts into the wilderness the one so afraid to take a risk that he buries his share.

Throckmorton spends up to 20 hours working on his weekly homily, and his clear diction, contemplative message and ringing voice command the church. Gazing down from the pulpit that Sunday, Throckmorton dropped his bombshell.

Like the master, he would entrust each adult with a sum of money - in this case, $50. Church members had seven weeks to find ways to double their money, the proceeds to go toward church missions.

“Live the parable of the talents!” Throckmorton exhorted, as assistants handed out hundreds of red envelops stuffed with crisp $50 bills and stunned church members did quick mental calculations, wondering where all the money had come from. There are about 1,700 in the congregation, though not everyone attends each week.

The cash, Throckmorton explained, was loaned by several anonymous donors.

In her regular pew at the back of the church, where she has listened to sermons for 40 years, 73-year-old Barbara Gates gasped. What kind of kooky nonsense is this, she thought.

“Sheer madness,” sniffed retired accountant Wayne Albers, 85, to his wife, Marnie, who hushed him as he whispered loudly. “Why can’t the church just collect money the old-fashioned way?”

In a center pew, Ann Nagy’s eyes moistened as she considered her ailing, beloved father, his suffering, and the song she had written to comfort him near death. She nudged her husband Scott. “Give me your $50,” she whispered. Nagy knew exactly what she would do.

Throckmorton wrapped up his two morning services by saying that children would get $10. And he assured the congregation that anyone who didn’t feel comfortable could simply return the money. No consignment to outer darkness for those who didn’t participate.

Throckmorton is warm and engaging and approachable, as comfortable talking about the Cleveland Indians baseball team as he is discussing scripture. At the Federated Church, he is known simply as Hamilton.

But as church members spilled into the late summer sunshine that morning to ponder their skills and their souls, there were many who thought: Hamilton is really pushing us this time.

“There was definitely this tension, this pressure to live up to something,” said Hal Maskiell, a 62-year-old retired Navy pilot who spent days trying to figure out how to meet the challenge.

Maskiell’s passion is flying a four-seater Cessna 172 Skyhawk over the Cuyahoga County hills. He decided to use his $50 to rent air time from Portage County airport and charge $30 for half-hour rides. Church members eagerly signed up. Maskiell was thrilled to get hours of flying time, and he raised $700.

His girlfriend, Kathy Marous, 55, was far less confident. What talents do I have, she thought dejectedly. She was tempted to give the money back.

And then Marous found an old family recipe for tomato soup, one she hadn’t made in 19 years. She remembered how much she had enjoyed the chopping and the cooking and the canning and the smells. With Hal’s encouragement Marous dug out her pots. She bought three pecks of tomatoes. Suddenly she was chopping and cooking and canning again. At $5 a jar, she made $180.

“I just never imagined people would pay money for the things I made,” Marous exclaimed.

Others felt the same way. Barbara Gates raised $450 crafting pendants from beads and sea glass - pieces she had casually made for her grandchildren over the years. Kathie Biggin created fanciful little red-nosed Rudolph pins and sold them for $2.50. Twelve-year-old Amanda Horner pooled her money with friends, stocked up at JoAnn’s fabric store, and made dozens of colorful fleece baby blankets, which were purchased by church members and then donated to a local hospital.

And 87-year-old Bob Burrows rediscovered old carpentry skills and began selling wooden bird-feeders.

But it wasn’t the money; everyone said so. It was something else, something far less tangible but yet so very real. For seven weeks an almost magical sense of excitement and energy and camaraderie infused the elegant red-brick church on Bell Street, spilling over into homes and hearts as the parable of the talents came alive.

In her sun-filled studio on Strawberry Lane, Shirley Culbertson felt it - a joyful sense of purpose that she had rarely experienced since her husband passed two years ago. Culbertson, 81, is a gifted painter and watercolors fill her house. But she discovered another talent during this time - knitting whimsical eight-inch stuffed dolls with button noses and floppy hats. She raised $90.

Zooming down country roads clinging to the back of a leather-clad biker, Florence Cross felt it too. For the challenge, Barry Biggin had parked his 2006 Harley Davidson Road King outside the church, offering 12-mile rides for $30. Cross was the first to sign up. Never mind that she is in her mid-80s, had never been on a bike, or that her husband of 60 years had to hoist her up.

“Oh, it was such a thrill!” said Cross, her face glowing at the memory. Her friends now call her “Harley Girl.”

Martine Scheuermann lived the parable in her Elm Street kitchen, transforming it into an “applesauce factory” for several weeks. The 49-year-old human resources director would rise at 6 a.m. on Sundays in order to have warm batches ready for sampling at church services.

In his origami-filled bedroom on Bradley Street, Paul Cantlay lived the parable too. Surrounded by sheets of colored construction paper, the 9-year-old crafted paper dragons and stars and sailboats. He set up an origami stand at the end of his street, charged 50 cents to $5 depending on the piece, and raised $68.

Talents began multiplying at such a rate that the church held a bazaar after services on two consecutive Sundays for people to display - and sell - their wares.

The pretty little village on the Chagrin River falls had never seen anything quite like it. Everyone seemed to be talking about the talent challenge: over the clatter of coffee cups at Dink’s restaurant, at the Fireside bookshop on the green, sipping drinks at the Gamekeeper’s Taverne. Even members of other churches weighed in: Have you heard what’s happening at Federated?

“Anyone can open their wallet and give cash,” Kris Tesar said. “This was just an extraordinary process of exploration and discovery and of challenging ourselves. It became bigger than any one of us or than any individual talent.”

Tesar, a 58-year-old retired nurse, discovered her talent in buckets of flip-flops for sale at Old Navy. She stocked up on yarn and beads and made dozens of funky, fluffy decorative footwear that were a huge hit with teens. Tesar raised $550 for the church, is still taking orders and is thinking of starting a business. Now even her children call her the “flip-flop lady.”

People also got to know the “hen lady” - Gabrielle Quintin, who took to raising chickens on a whim 23 years ago when she moved into a 180-year-old house with a barn. Her “ladies,” as Quintin calls her backyard flock, provide a welcome distraction from her nursing job in a cancer center. Quintin decided to put her brood to work for the church. For $10 church members could “hire-a-hen” and get three dozen fresh eggs complete with a photograph of the “lady” who laid them.

“It wasn’t exactly spiritual, but I had a lot of fun,” said Quintin, whose husband, Mike, made glass birdfeeders. “And it was just this great way of bringing everyone together and connecting with the church.”

Kathy Wellman quilted. Mary Hobbs knit shawls and penciled portraits. Cathy Hatfield auctioned a ride in her hot-air balloon. Norma and Trent Bobbitt pooled their money with another church member to hire a harpist from the Cleveland orchestra and host an elegant evening dinner party. Folks paid $50 each to attend and the Bobbitts made over $1,200.

And physician Peter Yang took over shifts from other doctors in his partnership (he used his $50 for gas to get to the hospital) and raised $3,000.

The deadline to return the money was Sunday, Oct. 28. Nervously, some church council members suggested posting plain clothes security guards at services that day. But Throckmorton would have none of it. He insisted that the spirit of the challenge, which had already inspired so much goodwill, would carry them safely through. And it did.

Organ music filled the church as people silently filed down the aisle, dropped their proceeds into baskets, and offered testimonials about what living the parable had meant to them. Throckmorton thanked everyone for their generosity. Then he started counting.

A week later he delivered the joyful news: They had more than doubled the amount distributed.

The initial take was $38,195 over the loan, but the amount is still growing. Some people didn’t make the deadline, or extended it in order to finish their projects.

The final sum will be divided equally between three charities: One-third will go to a school library in South Africa where the church is involved in an AIDS mission; one-third will go to micro-loan organizations that provide seed money for small businesses in developing countries; one-third will help the Interfaith Hospitality Network in Cleveland, specifically programs for homeless women.

Throckmorton is asked all the time if the talent challenge will become an annual event, but he is doubtful. It was a special time and a special idea, he says, and he is not sure it could be re-created or relived.

Yet in a very real sense, it lives on. Church members who never knew each other have become friends. And orders for applesauce, flip-flops and Rudolph pins are still rolling in for Christmas.

There are other, more poignant reminders. Like Ann Nagy’s haunting tribute to her father, who died of brain cancer on Oct. 11.

Nagy, 44, has always been a singer with a clear lovely voice. It wasn’t until her father grew ill and moved into a hospice that she started writing songs. She found solace in the music and a way of communicating that was sometimes easier than spoken words.

At hospice, patients are taught five simple truths to tell their loved ones before they die: I’ll miss you. I love you. I forgive you. I’m sorry. Goodbye.

Borrowing from that theme, Nagy wrote a farewell song for her Dad. She pooled her $50 talent money with her husband’s share and cut a CD to sell to church members. Ironically it was finished just an hour before her father passed, on Oct. 11. Nagy stood by his bed and sang it for him anyway.

On Nov. 11 - her father’s 72nd birthday - Throckmorton preached a sermon about dying. He invited Nagy to the altar. There, accompanied by a cellist and a pianist she sang “Before You Go.”

Her voice soared. The congregation wept. The parable of the talents had never seemed so alive.

________

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press.

Trevor Thomas hiked the Appalachian Trail in six months. Most hikers do it in five months, at least the one of four who actually complete the journey. Trevor doesn’t apologize, though, because he is totally blind. Ten years ago he had his sight but he had a disease that doctors said would make him blind. Eight months later, he was. That eight months was a terrible limbo for him, so that by the end he was praying for his sight to go so he could start his life again.

He had had a career in corporate sales and had just completed a law degree but those wouldn’t do him much good now. He became depressed and very angry. A friend suggested that he take walks to get out of his rut. His rehabilitation therapist thought it was a terrible idea, but Trevor headed for the woods and found it helped him.

A young hiker he met at a store inspired him to do the Appalachian Trail. Believe it or not, there are almost no materials for helping blind people navigate the 2,168-mile trail. His friend spoke simple directions on his cellphone for each day of travel. Every hiker on the AT has a nickname and Trevor’s was 0/0, a reference to his level of eyesight. He finished the trail and kept going, and by now has hiked over 12,000 with his trusty dog.

Some people have accused Thomas of using hiking to run away from his disability. But he rejects this, saying that if he were given the choice of being able to see again now, he wouldn’t take it. He says THAT would feel like running away from his problems. When he completes a trail he has a sense of accomplishment and remembers the sounds, the smells and the feel of the air. Everyone else only remembers the view.

=============

Original article:

"The blind hiker who takes on the wilderness," by Lee Kumutat BBC News, Ouch Blog, September 11, 2015. .

Striking out on your own to hike the trails of America’s backcountry, with just your dog for company, would be a dream for many. But what if you can’t see the trail, and your dog is key to your survival?

Trevor Thomas, 46, had his life abruptly interrupted when he lost his sight 10 years ago through a rare eye condition. He was looking to move away from his career in corporate sales and had just completed a law degree. A self-professed “adrenaline junky”, he loved racing his Porsches and downhill mountain bikes. Now, as a blind man, he pits himself against nature, which he says, is the greatest opponent of all.

When he was in his mid-30s, he was told he would lose his sight. What he wasn’t told was how long it would take. He didn’t try to imprint visions of beautiful sunsets on his mind’s eye to carry with him throughout the rest of his life, rather he focused on remembering the faces of his loved ones and what it was like to look in to their eyes.

“It was like living in a terrible limbo,” he says. “In the end, I was praying for my sight to go, so I could start my life again.”

It took eight months for his sight to go completely.

Thomas worked hard to pick up the threads of his life, beginning with the difficult task of learning to read Braille.

There is often less sensitivity in adult fingers to feel the dots that make up the Braille code, and most struggle to learn it - but he mastered it well enough to read a novel slowly, and the labels on tins and packets in his kitchen.

He soon began to worry about what he could now do for a living. He felt he hadn’t honed the practical skills need to hold down a job in the law as he had planned.

Thomas became depressed and very angry about the loss of his sight, his former life and, as he saw it then, his independence. A friend suggested hiking might help him out of the rut in which he found himself. He had learnt to use a white cane for walking safely through suburban streets but when he wanted to learn skills that would be useful for hiking off-road, his rehabilitation worker advised against it.

Despite this, Thomas started doing short hikes on the trails of his home state of North Carolina on his own.

“Hiking alone seemed to give me some control,” he says, “and having to teach myself, though frustrating at times gave me the self reliance that I so desperately needed.

“I was able to take ownership of my successes and learn from my failures. I hated the way society viewed me as a blind person and could not accept the lessened expectations that were placed on me, so I decided early on, that however I was expected to exist as a blind person, I was going to be different.

“Had I waited for my anger to subside, I feel that things would be dramatically different for me. I fear that I would be yet another blind person, who society had convinced that blindness is a life-ending condition and any hopes and dreams I had left would have been quashed.”

One day, while shopping in a camping store for a sturdier alternative to a white cane for forging through rough country, Thomas met a teenager who had just completed the Appalachian Trail. The AT, as it is known, stretches some 2,180 miles (3508 km) through the Appalachian mountains on the eastern edge of North America. Beginning in Georgia in the south and ending in Maine in the north, it takes in 14 states along the way.

The teenager was brimful of his adventures - how he’d nearly frozen to death, had got up close to a bear - and had a deep sense of achievement for getting through and finishing. Thomas left the store with some trekking poles and the resolve to conquer the AT himself, and to do it solo.

He quickly, however, discovered that there were no resources available for a blind person. There were no tactile maps he might interpret with his fingers, no guides in Braille or in audio form at that time. He also knew that GPS was not accurate enough for a blind person to be able to pinpoint exactly where they were.

Thomas sat down with the same young adventurer he’d met at the camping store, and together they painstakingly mapped the trail. Thomas was given simple instructions of the route he would take on a daily basis. These were then entered into his smartphone, which read the information back out to him when he needed it.

When I reach the end of a trail I remember how it feels. I feel the stones under my feet. I remember the smells, the sounds and the effort I made to get there.

It took 18 months to train and prepare for the trek, and in 2006, he set off. He wasn’t too worried about the possibility of being alone for long periods of time.

“I knew that if I found myself in real trouble, all I had to do was sit by the trail and wait. Eventually someone would come along,” he says.

Up to three million people visit the trail each year, with about 2,000 attempting to “thru-hike” from end to end. Only one in four succeed.

Hikers on the AT often take a “trail name”, which describes their characteristics or experience. For Thomas, unsurprisingly, it was 0/0 - a reference to his level of eyesight.

He completed his trail in six months and two days.

But it wasn’t to end there. For the next five years or so, Thomas continued to hike different trails. By 2011, he had hiked 12,000 miles, some partnered with a sighted person and some solo. However in that year he suffered a setback when he failed to complete the Colorado Trail.

“I was supposed to hike with a partner, who did not show up,” he says. “I went as far as I could, alone, but knew I would not be able to finish because I had not prepared to go alone.

“It was that experience that led me to change everything about the way I hike, including applying for and getting my guide dog Tennille, so I would be able to hike the more technical and less travelled long trails without having to rely on a partner.”

In September 2012 Thomas and Tennille graduated from the Guide Dogs for the Blind. She is the first guide dog specially trained for long-distance hiking. She applies some of the same principles of finding the path of least resistance in urban areas to the back country. She wears a small backpack to which Thomas attaches a lead through which he feels her movements. She walks ahead of Thomas and he walks in her paw-prints.

She uses her training and her own sense of self-preservation to stop Thomas going too close to danger.

Guide dogs in cities and towns

In towns and cities guide dogs are trained to find a straight line of travel for their owners.

They avoid obstacles and traffic, navigate crowds and are usually good at finding staircases and doorways.

A handler follows the dog’s body movements through a lightweight handle lying along its back. which is clipped to a harness.

“For things such as blowdowns, large rocks and other impediments that could trip me, she will stop and hop up on them or put her front paws on them,” he says. “Anything serious will cause her to stop dead in her tracks and, if necessary pull, me away from the threat. Once we come across something that has to be dealt with, it is up to me to figure out how to deal with it.”

He taught the black Labrador-retriever to fear rattlesnakes by showing her a fake one and giving her a fright. Thomas is constantly talking to his dog to encourage and praise her, and he believes this also keeps dangerous wildlife at bay.

Every morning on the trail Thomas listens through and memorises that day’s written map. He then keeps track of how far he walks and when he thinks he and Tennille are approaching an intersection as noted on his reference, he asks her to find it.

Tennille is also trained to find signs nailed to trees or posts that provide hikers with useful information, like the number of miles to a campsite. Thomas then reads these letter by letter, with his fingers. He says they haven’t always stayed on the same trail they set out on, but they have never been totally lost either. The only explanation Thomas can think of for this is that Tennille is able to pick up the scent of other hikers who have gone before them.

In 2009, when it became clear to Thomas that this extreme form of hiking was going to be, in a sense, his life’s work, he set up a charity to encourage young blind people to pit themselves against the elements. His charity the FarSight Foundation has also provided him with a small army of volunteers who meet Thomas every five days or so when he is trekking to resupply him with food.

Some people have accused Thomas of trying to hike away from his disability. But he rejects this, saying that if he were given the choice of being able to see again now, he wouldn’t take it. That, he says, would feel like running away from his problems.

“Being alone in the backcountry is terrifying at times and to this day, still can be, but it is also invigorating,” he says “It is the one environment which does not discriminate. It treats me the same as everyone else. It will, also, not take pity on me because I am blind.”

He claims that reaching the end of a trek or summiting a mountain means more to him than it does to people who can see.

“When I reach the end of a trail I remember how it feels. I feel the stones under my feet. I remember the smells, the sounds and the effort I made to get there - those are the things that remain with me, they’ll just remember the view”.

My pastor asked me if I had any wisdom to impart as he prepared his Mother’s Day sermon for the coming Sunday. So I did my quick little Mother’s Day thing about how the truth is that most of us just actually want the day OFF, a day AWAY from the children and husbands we love so so much. How the perfect Mother’s Day really requires no mothering. Then I went into my little joke about how I think we really could use another wife in my house. “A good one, though, this time,” I said for the millionth time in my life because I don’t think “Pastor Gregg” had heard my spiel (he’s new). “One who can clean the house and watch the kids.”

Here’s what I really think about Mother’s Day at church. I always get worried that a Mother’s Day sermon will feel forced, or worse, “light.” I just got a catalog from a local Christian book store, featuring all sorts of garbage for Mother’s Day. Tea cups. Stupid plaques. Gift books. Essentially a bunch of Jesus junk that no mom actually needs. Nothing to encourage moms to go deep into their gifts, to focus on their Maker to see how we’re made and who they’re made to be. Nothing to challenge them in to live out faith in daring, dangerous ways. Nothing to get to know God better. Nothing deep, powerful, impactful, moving, meaningful, eternal....

I’m so tired of Mother’s Day being light and fluffy. I think moms should be celebrated — but not coddled. Mother’s Day just perpetuates the lowering-the-standard thing that happens to women when they become moms. Like having children should zap out every other meaningful, challenging thing (including getting deep with God, if we’re honest) in our lives.

*

[Original illustration at this number was a duplicate of HolwickID #12834]

Years ago there came to the late Canon Hoare, a rich man, then in his old age, to arrange with him about his burial place, and after they had gone carefully over the churchyard, and had chosen the spot where he was to lie, Canon Hoare turned to him and said, "You have chosen a resting place for your body, but have you yet found a resting place for your soul?"

Turning around and looking him full in the face, the old man answered: "You are the first clergyman who ever asked me that question." He went with Canon Hoare into his study, and, to make a long story short, he gave his heart to Christ, and found his resting place, and in Canon Hoare's study to the day of his death hung a well-known picture representing the saving of a life from a wreck. It was the gift of the grateful man, who had found a resting place not only for his body but for his soul.

Ask yourself the question now: "Have I found a resting place for my soul?"

============

Another version by Rev. Mark Murphy:

Paul Rees tells a story about a very wealthy man who made his way to a little country chapel in the hills of South England and asked to see the minister. He announced that he had come to make arrangements for his burial-place.

And so the two walked into the churchyard to a little cemetery that ran alongside the chapel to pick out a suitable lot. After considering several possible locations, the gentleman made his decision.

Their matter of business settled, the two men paused for just a moment and listened to the singing of the birds. Then, turning to his wealthy companion, the devout old minister said, “Well, now; you have chosen a resting place for your body. Have you found a resting place for your soul?”

There was no answer for a moment and then, looking the clergyman full in the face, the gentleman exclaimed, “You are the first man who ever asked me that question.” The outcome was splendid. The question, so strikingly put, awakened this man to his own spiritual need to be ready for eternity.

Paul was able to say, “I’m ready. I’m ready.” Are you?

Acts 3:1–16 — A Cure and an Apologetic — (outline by F. F. Bruce, NICNT) « Leader information shown in this fashion »

[A]. The Birth of the Church (1:1–5:42)

[1]. The Forty Days and After (1:1–26)

[2]. The Day of Pentecost (2:1–47)

[3]. An Act of Healing and its Consequences (3:1–4:31)

A. A Cripple Cured — Acts 3:1–10 (NKJV): 1 Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. 2 And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms from those who entered the temple; 3 who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked for alms. 4 And fixing his eyes on him, with John, Peter said, “Look at us.” 5 So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. 6 Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” 7 And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. 8 So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them — walking, leaping, and praising God. 9 And all the people saw him walking and praising God. 10 Then they knew that it was he who sat begging alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him.

1. Luke now cites a special instance of Acts 2:43 which told about

a. many S « igns » _______ and W « onders » ____________

b. that were done through the A « postles » ____________

2. What exercise gave rise to the performing of this miracle? « — these two disciples were going to the regular meeting for prayer »

3. Most of the information about the temple before its destruction in 70 A.D. is found in the Mishnah tractate, Middot, and in “The Wars of the Jews” Book 5, Chapter 5. It is believed that this gate, called beautiful, is also known as the “Corinthian Gate” being covered with gold and silver but also fine workmanship and adornments distinguishing it from the other nine gates. It entered from the Court of the Gentiles into the temple proper. This lame man remained outside of the part restricted to Jews. What is the lame man’s simple expectation? « – a little money so that he can acquire the necessities of living; with no indication of an approach of faith as we find with Jesus or later in Acts »

4. The miracle takes place

a. who (humanly speaking) initiated the miracle? « — Peter, when he said to the man, “Look at us” »

b. that they had no money was because? « — It was now part of the community, or it wasn’t with them at that time. »

c. what did Peter know he possessed and how did he use it? « — the powerful name of “Jesus Christ of Nazareth” whom he summoned to heal this man. Name equals Person. »

5. This miracle is unimpeachable to those who recognize that Dr. Luke wrote under the I « nspiration » ______________ of the Holy Spirit. For those present, it was unimpeachable for these facts:

a. the man was L « ame » _____ from B « irth » _________, verse 1

b. he needed to be C « arried » _________ there each day, verse 2

c. his healing was I « mmediate » ____________, verse 7

d. his healing was C « omplete » ___________, verse 7

e. he had abilities which babies and post-operants have first to L « earn » ________ before they can use them,, verse 7

f. the healing had numerous W « itnesses » ___________, verse 9

g. these R « ecognized » ___________ him from before, verse 10

h. their W « onder » __________ at this precludes gullibility, verse 10

6. That God heals in response to prayer in every age is undeniable. James 5:14–15a gives the Christian pattern (NAS): Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, …and then James proceeds to talk about sin that may be the underlying cause of the sickness. (Note that such elders are those who have been properly appointed, Titus 1:5.) Psalm 103 attributes the healing of all our diseases to God. But, as Paul’s own experience (2 Corinthians 12: 7–10) teaches us, such healing is subject to God’s will. Yet, the miracles of Jesus, the prophets, and the Apostles bear a number of distinctions:

a. they are either volitional or at God’s silent command, without any apparent prior enquiry of God (as here)

b. they are manifestly independent of any human agency: doctors, medicine, “wine for the stomach’s sake” and so on

c. they frequently operate independently of the attitude (ie., faith) of the one who is being healed, etc. « … give examples »

(A) « Moses giving food, water to the grumbling Israelites »

(B) « Naaman the leper had to be argued into dipping »

(C) « Lazarus wasn’t in much position to exercise faith »

(D) this doesn’t mean faith is excluded, as we will see, but resides in God’s agent who transacts the miracle

B. Peter’s Address in Solomon’s Colonnade — Acts 3:11–26

1. 1. The power of Jesus’ name — Acts 3:11–16 (NKJV): 11 Now as the lame man who was healed held on to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the porch which is called Solomon’s, greatly amazed. 12 So when Peter saw it, he responded to the people: “Men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Or why look so intently at us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? 13 The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go. 14 But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, 15 and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. 16 And His name, through faith in His name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.” «

2. the last verse can equally well be translated, “… the faith which comes through it …”, that is through His name »

3. what immediately resulted this miracle? (Look back at verse 10)

a. W « onder » _________ and A « mazement » ______________

b. the man C « lung » ________ to Peter and John

c. the people A « ssembled » ______________ (ran to them)

4. how did Peter respond to all this? — let us identify all the points in this first part of Peter’s second recorded message

a. verse 12: he notes their « — marvelling and looking intently at Peter and John; he fans the interest they have shown »

b. verse 12: he disclaims that this

(A) was by their own P « ower » ___________

(B) was by their own G « oodness » ____________

c. verse 13: he connects what has happened to

(A) the « God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob;, and our fathers (as in Exodus 3:6, 15 and following books of Moses) »

(B) ie., the historic experience of Israel (also see Isaiah 35:6)

d. but he connects it as well, verses 13–15, with the contrasting treatments of Jesus Christ of Nazareth (the name by which Peter invoked healing of the lame man)

(A) this Jesus of Nazareth

(1) is called the P « rince » _______ of L « ife » _______, verse 15

(2) is called God’s S « ervant » ___________, Jesus, verse 13

(3) so God has Glorified__________ Him, verse 13, and

(4) He has R « aised » _________ Him from the D « ead » ______

(B) and Him, Pilate had decided to R « elease » _________

(C) but those in Peter’s audience today, as also upon the day of Pentecost, were among those who had

(1) delivered up and denied to « — Pilate, a Gentile ruler »

(2) denied « — the Holy and Just One of God »

(3) asked « — for a murderer to be released in His place »

(4) and thus, effectively, had K « illed » __________ Him

e. so where, then, does Peter give the credit for the miraculous healing of this man born lame?

(A) it is by or through « — faith, the conduit or river whereby God’s blessings of salvation flow to His children; it is unbelief — hardness of heart — that turns the blessings of God aside. In this case, it appears that faith was first exercised by Peter, then by the man in obedience to Peter’s command to him in Jesus’ name. »

(B) that, in turn, must be qualified as being placed on the « — name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the name used in verse 6. Note that “name” is to be interpreted as the representation and way of calling upon the power behind that name; being the verbal representation of the Person bearing that name. This is found to be the case with the names of God: as is particularly shown in God’s identifying Himself to Moses by His name, Yahweh. »

Final sermon in series on Jesus. Jesus gives the church a mission and we will die if we don't carry it out. The church needs a vision, a challenge, power, and a plan to make it work. We need this on a personal level and on a church level.

Anne Graham Lotz in her book, "The Glorious Dawn of God's Glory," tells of a high school assembly that was jammed with students who gathered to hear a recruiting pitch from a representative of all four branches of the armed forces. Each officer was given 10 minutes to tell the assembled group why they should sign up for his branch of service. Following the assembly those interested could meet the recruiters in the gym. An Air Force Captain spoke first and got carried away with the virtues of the Air Force; he took 18 minutes. Not to be outdone the Army Sergeant followed and took 19 minutes. The Navy Lt., still smarting from a football loss to Army earlier in the year, spoke for 20 minutes.

By this time the frustrated school counselor leaned over and told the Marine Major that he had only 3 minutes to speak. The Major stood up in front of the assembly and didn't say a word as he let his gaze go up one row and down another, carefully examining the young people in front of him. Finally he broke the silence with a brief challenge. "The Marines are looking for a few good men and women and I'm not sure I see any. If you think you are one, meet me in the gym." Following the assembly, the Major was swamped with volunteers.

TS-People want a challenge. When they meet it head on, they derive more fulfillment than had they just coasted.

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Submitted by Dave Kennedy

{see #16274 for briefer variant}