66 Sermon Illustrations on Problems

Do your problems seem insurmountable? Taking too long to detangle? In Psalms we find writers who felt the same way and asked the plaintive question, “How long, Lord?”

In Psalm 13, David’s poignant “How Long” is packed with emotion, yet there’s a clear progression to his thoughts. Its six verses describe a three-fold response to those long nights of heartache when tomorrow seems far away.

THE GROPING PHASE

In verses 1 and 2, David was groping. He wrote: “How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long will my enemy be exalted over me?”

David’s prolonged, “How long?” is a bitter but biblical cry. He was a man of God, after God’s own heart. Yet he groped for answers and cried out, “How long?”

THE COPING PHASE

Psalm 13 also talks about coping through the medium of prayer: “Consider and hear me, O Lord my God; enlighten my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death; lest my enemy say, ‘I have prevailed against him’” (verses 3-4).

David turned to prayer and begged God to hear him lest his night of sorrow never end. Prolonged trouble can teach us about prevailing prayer. Through unanswered prayer, we learn patience.

We need to progress spiritually from groping to coping, using the wonderful availability of prayer -- even when the answers seem delayed. “Consider and hear me, O Lord!” -- that’s our cry.

THE HOPING PHASE

As we wait before the Lord with unanswerable questions and unsolvable problems, He wants to move us into the hoping phase that ends this Psalm. Notice that Psalm 13 begins with a sigh and ends with a song: “But I have trusted in Your mercy; My heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the Lord, because He has dealt bountifully with me” (verses 5-6).

I’m not sure David’s circumstances had changed; but through prayer, he had moved into an attitude of hope, of trust, of optimism and of sustained joy.

A wise elderly blind woman said, “Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time....” Moving into a nursing home, she told the attendant she loved her room.

“But you haven’t seen it” said the attendant.

“It doesn’t depend on how the furniture is arranged,” the woman responded “It’s how I arrange my mind.

Amidst difficult news, serious problems and drawn-out challenges, we make a choice. We can either gripe and complain, or we can lift up our eyes to the Lord and say, “God, I don’t know what is going on here; I don’t truly understand it. But I will put my trust in You, and I will praise You with all my heart. I will arrange my mind according to the promises of Your Word.”

In doing that, here are the two rules to follow.

First, keep going forward. Don’t collapse or faint. The book of Proverbs says, “If you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small” (Proverbs 24:10). Take each day as it comes, put one foot in front of the other, and just keep going -- just do it. The Bible calls this perseverance, walking by faith and not by sight.

Second, keep looking upward. Remember what King Jehoshaphat said when faced by his enemies in 2 Chronicles 20:12: “We have no power against this great multitude coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You.”

Our God is a very present help in trouble, and we can come boldly to Him for grace to help in time of need. Though He tarries, He does not deny. He has His own timetable, and sometimes His schedule seems slow to our mortal minds. But the promise is sure: “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5).

The night doesn’t last forever, and tomorrow will surely come. Our job isn’t to mope, grope or even to cope. It’s to hope in His unchanging grace. Put one foot in front of the other, and keep looking up.

Throughout Scripture we read of individuals discovering new dimensions of God’s faithfulness and character in the midst of their trials. That doesn’t mean they never questioned “Why?”

Asking “Why?” is a normal human response to troubles, but God is not put off by that question. It may be a starting point for a dialogue with God that opens doors to a renewed understanding of His plan for your life. There is something about the hour of necessity that sharpens our wits and focuses our attention like no other. The moments in which we need God the most are the moments when our eyes and ears will be most attuned to Him. What do we learn about God during times of adversity or pain? We either learn or are reminded that:

· God gives permission. To understand this dimension of God – we discover and acknowledge that He is in control of all things and nothing happens outside of His will. Therefore, if trouble enters our life, God knows about it. The clearest example of this is found in Job. Satan wanted to afflict Job but had to ask God for permission, which He granted – with limits (Job 1:12; 2:6). Those limits are what Paul is talking about in 1 Corinthians 10:13: God “will not allow you to be tempted [tested] beyond what you are able.” Once you understand that your troubles are not unknown to God, it throws a whole different light on the subject in terms of purpose: “God, what is the purpose of this trouble in my life?”

· God has plans. The apostle Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles (Acts 9:15-16) who, by grace were being invited to share in the New Covenant blessings of Israel. So, how better for the “apostle of grace” to learn about grace than to be put in a painful position where he needed grace to endure? That was God’s plan for Paul: “And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness’” (2 Corinthians 12:9). Through adversity Paul learned to “take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake” ... and found “when I am weak, then I am strong” (verse 10).

· God has purposes. When God’s permission and plans result in pain in our life, we immediately want to know, “How long?” (And we are not alone; the psalmists asked that question fourteen times.) From Genesis 3 through Revelation 20, time is a factor on earth – but only for us. God is not governed by time – He sees our lives through His eternal purpose. When His purpose in our life is accomplished, the circumstances will change. Through this time of waiting on God, we learn to trust His purposes (Isaiah 55:8-11).

· God is powerful. The most important thing to remember in the midst of a trial is that we are loved by God. Nothing, Paul wrote, can “separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:39). There are powerful forces and events working to separate us from His love: tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword, death, life, spiritual beings and more (verses 35-38). But God is more powerful than any adversity that can come against us; through His powerful presence in our lives, we are overcomers!

Whatever trouble you are experiencing today, know that the God of the universe is with you. You are not alone, you are not forsaken, and you are not forgotten. Problems reveal His presence like no other reality in our lives. Don’t be discouraged or dismayed. “Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all you who hope in the Lord” (Psalm 31:24).

Sermon on personal responsibility. Ezekiel 18:1-13

BAD TIMES AND GOOD PEOPLE?

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

I. Which way is the crime rate going?

A. Our impressions may be wrong.

B. We like to pass the buck.

C. Everybody blames somebody - but we don't have to.

II. Your family doesn't determine your life.

A. Certainly families have an impact on us.

B. Every proverb has a limit.

C. Individuals matter.

D. An example of three generations.

III. Lousy circumstances don't have to determine your life either.

A. It is tempting to use hardship to justify sin or despair.

B. A Christian can rise above any bad situation.

IV. You may criticize others for shirking responsibility, but do you?

A. Jesus loves me - a reminder of values we were given as children.

B. You can rise above where you are now, or where you have been.

V. Your environment has power, but Christ has more power.

Life is filled with hurt, pain and regret. There are so many things each of us would do differently if given the opportunity to change the past. But, as we well know, time marches on and there is no going back. The best we can do is learn from the past and try to avoid making the same mistakes again.

It makes no difference whether a person is a prince or a pauper, we face the same ultimate reality -- our own mortality. The wise King Solomon had quite a bit to say about this issue as he contemplated in the book of Ecclesiastes. He compares the pursuit and accumulation of this world’s goods as “grasping for the wind/air” in Ecclesiastes 1:14. When you look at his life, it is not difficult to conclude that if happiness and satisfaction could be found in the things this world has to offer, then Solomon would have been the happiest man who ever lived. When it came to wealth, he was rich beyond measure. He had 700 wives and 300 concubines. He had the utmost in power, position, wisdom and influence. If ultimate satisfaction could have been achieved through the things of this life, Solomon would have certainly possessed it in abundance.

Singer and songwriter Johnny Cash was one of the most legendary music and cultural icons of the 20th century. He sold millions of albums, had multiple number one hits, and even his own television show for a while. He possessed all the wealth and fame that goes with such great accomplishments. But, on Sept. 12, 2003, Johnny Cash died. In just one instant all that he had accumulated over his 70-plus years was left to someone else. Illness and death should not be among earth’s surprises but these tend to shock, nevertheless.

Cash seemed to have a perspective that most do not. He had traveled a long way with God over his years from the depths of drug and alcohol abuse, a failed marriage, and a Christ-haunted existence, until ultimately coming to peace with God in mid-life. Later, as his death drew near, he recorded and released a song which became something of a strange capstone to his stellar career. Stricken by this time with diabetes, Parkinson’s, and other maladies, he recorded a song simply called “Hurt,” which was his adaptation of a 1994 song by Nine Inch Nails.

Cash alludes through his personalization of this song that he is at the point in his existence where he questions if he still has the ability to feel. Pain assuredly has now become his focus, and the only thing that hardly seems real. Trying to forget the past becomes something of a curse to his mind as he “remembers everything.” He asks rhetorically “What have I become?” As he reflects, “Everyone I know goes away in the end.” Certainly he had lost friends and loved ones. He even lived long enough to experience the painful death of his beloved wife June.

Cash sings, “You could have it all,” which indeed, he must have felt that he did. Interestingly he sings of his “empire of dirt.” Indeed this will “let you down” in the end. He sings “I wear this crown of thorns” an obvious allusion to his identifying with Christ and to the fact that He matters when we do not and that life can only be truly understood in the context of the certainty of earthly death juxtaposed with the hope of eternal life through Christ.

Solomon concluded the book of Ecclesiastes by writing, “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: fear God and keep His commandments. For this is man’s all” (Ecclesiastes 12:13). I believe Cash sought to convey that, as human strength fades and ultimately fails, the dependence upon the person of Christ must grow stronger. He reflects that “If I could start again a million miles away I would keep myself, I would find a way.” I believe he is expressing his belief he had lost himself somewhere along the way; that he had sold out to a multitude of earthly pleasures and pursuits, plus the expectations and demands of others upon him when, in the end, it should have been exclusively about Christ.

We can certainly enjoy the things God has given, but what are the most important things to you? The simplest things in life are best. I would, quite frankly, rather spend an evening with my wife and kids than go on an expensive cruise. I would truly rather open the Bible and read than spend time watching a multi-million dollar Hollywood production. I would rather spend an evening talking and laughing with friends over dinner than to vacation in the world’s most exotic places.

When people are near death, they prefer close family and friends around. They do not ask for big and important things, but rather the simple (a glass of water, a squeeze of the hand, a prayer, and maybe a smile). The gentle comfort of a loved one means more than if the president of the United States were to call on the phone. I believe Cash, by the end of his life, wished he had not wasted so many years chasing after the things most people spend their lives pursuing. In the end, many are left with emptiness.

Jim Elliot, the slain South American missionary of the 1950s, said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”

Scripture is clear: It is appointed unto man once to die, and after that comes judgment (Hebrews 9:27). How much better our lives might be if we discovered this truth sooner, rather than later. May we all learn from those who have lived and died before.

________

Allen Raynor is interim pastor of Friendship Baptist Church in Bailey, Colorado.

Marriage or Sensitivity or Problems (Fourth Place Winner 12 month additonal

free subscription)

A friend's wife, Dawn, had just finished reading Men Are From Mars, Women

Are From Venus. She sighed and said to her husband, "Sometimes women don't want

men to fix their problems. Sometimes it's better if he just puts his arms around

her and tells her everything will be okay."

The next morning, Dawn's car had a flat tire. Her husband looked things

over. Then he reassured her that everything would be all right, gave her a big

hug, and left for work. -- Thomas R. Berry, Reader's Digest Dec 99

TS--When it comes to sin, God does more than put his arms around us and tell us

things will be all right. God put his arms out and fixed the problem. Submitted

by Bob Hine, Burlington, IN

A daughter complained to her father about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved a new one arose.

Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to a boil. In one he placed carrots, in the second he placed eggs, and the last he placed ground coffee beans. He let them sit and boil, without saying a word.

The daughter sucked her teeth and impatiently waited, wondering what he was doing. In about twenty minutes he and turned off the burners. He fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the eggs out and placed them a bowl. Then he ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl.

Turning to her he asked. “Darling, what do you see.”

“Carrots, eggs, and coffee,” she replied.

He brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they were soft. He then asked her to take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard- boiled egg. Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee. She smiled as she tasted its rich aroma.

She humbly asked. “What does it mean Father?”

He explained that each of them had faced the same adversity, boiling water, but each reacted differently.

The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. But after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak.

The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior. But after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened.

The ground coffee beans were unique however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.

“Which are you,” he asked his daughter. “When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean? “

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

How about you? Are you the carrot that seems hard, but with pain and adversity do you wilt and become soft and lose your strength?

Are you the egg, which starts off with a malleable heart? Were you a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a divorce, or a layoff have you become hardened and stiff. Your shell looks the same, but are you bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and heart?

Or are you like the coffee bean? The bean changes the hot water, the thing that is bringing the pain, to its peak flavor reaches 212 degrees Fahrenheit. When the water gets the hottest, it just tastes better.

If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and make things better around you .

When people talk about you, do your praises to the Lord increase? When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest, does your worship elevate to another level?

How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

II Corinthians 4:8-9 – We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed.

A staple of cartoons is the Mafia victim with his feet encased in concrete.[1] It is an image that registers immediately with everyone. What is fascinating is that there is only one confirmed case, and it happened in May 2016. Brooklyn gang member Peter “Petey Crack” Martinez’s head was wrapped in duct tape and his feet and shins were encased in concrete set inside a five-gallon bucket. It was a failure - his body floated to the shore due to air in the concrete because it was not given enough time to cure before being thrown into the ocean.

This has always been the drawback to “concrete shoes.” They take a lot of time to work correctly. But it is possible that they work better than we think - there have long been rumors of Mafia victims who had concrete used in their disposal and their bodies have never been recovered. A story from the 1930s has a victim’s entire body put in a box that was filled with concrete but that must have been extremely heavy. Concrete shoes are much more sensible. To be truly efficient, attach concrete blocks to various body parts (it has been done numerous times).

Perhaps “concrete shoes” grabs our imagination because it involves imminent, but not immediate, doom. You are watching it slowly cure and you know what is going to happen next. Many of our anxieties in life are like this. The problems accumulate and seem unsolvable. The dread of disaster grows.

The Psalms often portray this feeling. Psalm 69:2 is especially poignant: “I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold. I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me.” Verse 15 adds, “Do not let the floodwaters engulf me or the depths swallow me up or the pit close its mouth over me.” Notice the claustrophobia of catastrophe.

Inundation is not a foregone conclusion. The Psalmists always expected God to come to their rescue. Psalm 40:2 says, “He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.” Instead of feet in solidifying rock, he put our feet on top of solid rock.” I live in New Jersey so “concrete shoes” are often on my mind. If my feet are ever encased in a pair, Psalm 40:2 will be on my lips. There are no problems I can have that God cannot pull me out of. God doesn’t just rescue, he can give us a triumph. Hold on to his solid rock!

________

[1] Ten “Concrete Shoe” cartoons from the New Yorker magazine:

http://www.condenaststore.com/-sp/When-did-last-requests-take-over-our-lives-New-Yorker-Cartoon-Prints_i8472494_.htm

http://www.condenaststore.com/-sp/It-s-easier-to-make-em-talk-when-you-just-cement-the-feet-New-Yorker-Cartoon-Prints_i8472980_.htm

http://www.condenaststore.com/-sp/No-more-last-requests-New-Yorker-Cartoon-Prints_i12761022_.htm

http://www.radosh.net/archive/002693.html

http://www.radosh.net/archive/002582.html

http://newyorker.tumblr.com/post/18757152098/cartoon-of-the-day-for-more-httpnyrkrw9bgls

http://www.condenaststore.com/-sp/Mobsters-wheel-out-a-clown-with-a-long-block-of-cement-around-his-shoes-New-Yorker-Cartoon-Prints_i14137729_.htm

http://www.condenaststore.com/-sp/A-man-at-the-ocean-floor-tied-up-wearing-cement-shoes-and-surrounded-by-New-Yorker-Cartoon-Prints_i12592463_.htm

http://attemptedbloggery.blogspot.com/2014/01/my-entry-in-new-yorker-cartoon-caption.html

http://www.condenaststore.com/-sp/Man-in-cement-shoes-underwater-thinking-If-I-had-known-I-could-hold-my-b-New-Yorker-Cartoon-Prints_i8540572_.htm

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

More articles on “concrete shoes”:

http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2824/were-concrete-shoes-a-favored-technique-of-mob-hitmen

Were “concrete shoes” a favored technique of mob hitmen?

November 14, 2008

Dear Cecil:

I’m sure you’ve heard the term “concrete shoes,” mobsters’ choice of swimwear for fellas with rodent traits and other individuals that ran afoul of them. Is there any truth to it?

— Ale, Bangkok

Cecil replies:

When your question came in, Ale, I thought: At last, a chance to have it out with E.L. Doctorow.

You remember the opening of Doctorow’s award-winning 1989 novel Billy Bathgate, right? (Play along here, slackers.) Evil crime lord Dutch Schultz motors across New York harbor in a tugboat while a henchman sticks the feet of doomed underling Bo Weinberg into a tub of concrete in preparation for shoving him overboard. Billy, the narrator, watches this and thinks: “I had of course seen ... how the tubbed cement made a slow-witted diagram of the sea outside, the slab of it shifting to and fro as the boat rose and fell on the waves.” Cool line, but a little voice in the back of your head, or anyway in the back of mine, is saying: Right, like some mob boss bent on murder is going to wait two hours for the concrete to dry.

However, that was before I assigned the case to my assistant Gfactor, Straight Dope gumshoe par excellence. Having seen the results of his investigation, I realize I’m going to have to cut Doctorow some slack. Don’t get me wrong — I’m not saying the cement shoes thing actually happened. But it’s solidly grounded in rumor.

As evidence I present an Associated Press clipping from June 3, 1935, on the fate of Danny Walsh, a bootlegging kingpin from Providence, Rhode Island. Danny had disappeared in 1933. The AP now offered an explanation: Walsh “was stood in a tub of cement until it hardened about his feet, and then thrown alive into the sea.” But the body hadn’t been recovered, nor had witnesses to the crime come forward. Rather, the story was a “grisly underworld tale” that authorities were trying to confirm.

They didn’t, at least not exactly. The following month the Sunday-paper supplement American Weekly ran a sensational spread about a police raid on a Rhode Island “murder mansion” owned by a wealthy Walsh associate named Carl Rettich. The money detail was the cops’ discovery of a secret dungeon below the basement, accessible only via a hidden stairway revealed by cranking a phonograph handle in a concealed socket. According to unnamed “stool pigeons,” Walsh had been taken down there and clubbed on the head; his body (maybe dead, maybe not) was laid in a coffinlike box that was then filled with concrete and dumped in the ocean. When Walsh’s girlfriend later got too vocal with suspicions regarding her man’s disappearance, informants said, she was herself hustled down to the dungeon and given the feet-in-wet-cement treatment, the thugs having learned from experience with Walsh that head-to-toe encasement produced a needlessly heavy burden. But no bodies were found.

After that, stories about underworld cementwear became common, and terms like “cement shoes,” “cement boots,” and “cement overcoat” took their place in the crime writer’s lexicon. A news story from later in 1935 cited “underworld report” to the effect that the body of Bo Weinberg (he and Dutch Schultz, I should clarify, were real people fictionalized in Doctorow’s book) had been sealed in a barrel of concrete; in another article police speculated that he’d been given concrete shoes and dumped in the East River. Weinberg’s corpse was never found either. The body of gambler Charles Morris was found encased in concrete beside the Connecticut River in 1938 — but the guy that killed him wasn’t, it happens, a gangland type. A 1940 AP story about Murder, Inc., the famed mob hit squad, claimed gangster Harry Westone had been tossed into a cement mixer; his unrecovered remains allegedly lay somewhere beneath an upstate New York highway. In cases where bodies did emerge, concrete has functioned more as accessory than garment: the corpse of Philadelphia racketeer Johnnie “Chink” Goodman was discovered in a New Jersey creek in 1941, weighted down with a 40-pound block of concrete; hit man Ernest “the Hawk” Rupolo was fished out of Jamaica Bay in New York in 1964, also weighted down with concrete blocks.

So let’s review what we know: (1) Underworld gossips have repeatedly insisted that mob hit men sometimes encase a victim partially or completely in concrete. (2) However, the one confirmed instance of a concretized corpse we’ve been able to turn up wasn’t a mob hit. (3) In cases of mob hits definitively known to involve concrete, we’re not talking concrete shoes so much as concrete anchors, in the form of blocks used to keep the body submerged. We have no evidence of a mob hit in which the killer mixed up concrete, planted a victim in it, and (not to fixate on this, but one has to consider the practical aspects) waited for the stuff to dry. Conclusion: Either custom concretewear is 100 percent effective, and the victim invariably vanishes forever from the ken of man, or the whole thing’s a myth.

— Cecil Adams

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

http://northerncobblestone.blogspot.com/2013/09/did-mafia-ever-use-concrete-shoes.html

23 September 2013

Did the Mafia ever use Concrete Shoes?

Or concrete wellies, boots or overcoats for that matter? It is an image we’re all familiar with from TV, films and books, but is there any truth in it?

The Last Shoes You’ll Ever Need

In episode 295 of The Simpsons, Fat Tony, the resident Mafia boss, is seen pouring cement into a bucket around the feet of a nervous looking man while a pair of goons observe.

Above Fat Tony’s head, a sign informs us that he is selling cement shoes, touted to be ‘the last shoes you’ll ever need’.

Season two, episode 17 of Star Trek: The Original Series, has an irate (when wasn’t he irate?) Scotty threatening a 1930s mobster with a pair of ‘concrete galoshes’.

Meanwhile, the 2006 short film featuring Dylan Moran, Tell it to the Fishes, involves a pair of gangsters, whose feet are encased in concrete, arguing on the beach at low tide.

Sleeping With the Fishes

If there’s a link between these depictions of the infamous ‘concrete wellies’, it’s the use of the image for entertainment purposes.

Nobody in The Sopranos was thrown off a bridge with their feet encased in concrete.

Likewise, The Godfather might have featured the line ‘sleeping with the fishes’ but Don Corleone never poured cement around his enemies’ feet, waiting a day for the mix to cure before taking a leisurely drive to the nearest pier and dumping them over the edge.

Mafia godfathers are business men (albeit with guns). He’d never have allowed that sort of slack in the system!

Cement Overcoat

The entire premise of concrete shoes, or cement overcoats, arose after a couple of sensationalist stories printed in America in 1935.

There was talk of hits involving encasement in cement or, as in the Simpsons parody, someone standing in a tub of cement while it hardened so that they could be thrown into the sea.

No evidence of these murders was ever found, but that didn’t stop the idea spreading into popular culture, and in particular to the minds of writers of crime spoofs and parodies.

A Glimmer of Truth

Historically, there has long been a tradition of weighting down bodies, alive or dead, to ensure death or disposal.

In the age of sail, cannonballs were tied to the feet of deceased crew to ensure their bodies sank to the seabed.

During the Reformation, Anabaptists were sewn into sacks with bricks and thrown into rivers or lakes.

Over the years, many bodies have been discovered weighted down in some way, with heavy chains or concrete blocks attached to them, including some Mafia hits, but never where the victim’s body was in any way encased in the concrete itself.

Unless, of course, they do it so efficiently that the evidence has never surfaced (no pun intended!).

Nuisance Footprints

So, concrete wellies remain the stuff of fiction, for the most part. But shoes and wet concrete are two things better kept apart as separating footwear and concrete can require specialist tools.

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

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cement_shoes

It has long been unclear whether such a cumbersome and time-consuming method of execution was practicable outside of Hollywood movies and books like E. L. Doctorow’s Billy Bathgate. Cement takes hours to harden and, until 2016, there was never a documented case — although crime historian Thomas Reppetto said there have probably been real-life examples that have never been found.

In May 2016, the first and only documented case of “cement shoes” was reported. The body of Brooklyn gang member Peter Martinez, aged 28, better known on the streets as Petey Crack, washed up near Manhattan Beach in Brooklyn. His head was wrapped in duct tape. His feet and shins were encased in concrete set inside a five-gallon bucket. His body floated to the shore due to air in the concrete because it was not given enough time to cure before being thrown into the ocean.

Concrete has been used as a weight to dispose of a body. In 1941, the body of Philadelphia racketeer Johnnie Goodman was found by crab fisherman in a New Jersey creek, weighed down with a 40-pound block of concrete. On 24 August 1964, the body of Ernest Rupolo, aged 52, a triggerman and informer on Vito Genovese in 1944, was found in Jamaica Bay, New York, with concrete blocks tied to his legs.

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

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/04/nyregion/mans-body-feet-encased-in-concrete-washes-ashore-in-brooklyn.html

“Man’s Body, Feet Encased in Concrete, Washes Ashore in Brooklyn”

By Ashley Southall, May 3, 2016

In August 1964, the body of Ernest Rupolo, a 52-year-old triggerman turned informant, was found in Jamaica Bay with two concrete blocks tied to his legs.

Before Mr. Rupolo, several mobsters and gamblers and at least one rumrunner were believed to have been encased in or weighed down with concrete. Some of them have never been found.

Inspired by Ray Comfort's book, "God Has A Wonderful Plan For Your Life: The Myth of the Modern Message" (Living Waters, 2000)

Rev. David Holwick ZD

First Baptist Church

Ledgewood, New Jersey

October 5, 2014

Jeremiah 29:11

IS GOD'S PLAN ALWAYS WONDERFUL?

I. Bill Bright's famous tract.

A. It is always profitable to start out positive.

1) His "Four Spiritual Laws" tract follows this principle.

a) God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

1> The middle talks about sin and judgment, but the

beginning and end are positive.

b) We want the gospel to be that way.

1> We want our lives to be that way.

2) Most evangelism promises a better life for you.

a) Humans naturally want something better.

b) Everyone is seeking true happiness.

3) This is why Jeremiah 29:11 is so popular with Christians.

a) God wants to prosper us and not harm us.

1> He wants to give us hope and a future.

b) If you are destitute and feel everything is crashing

in on you, this is a powerful promise.

B. Unfortunately, warm promises run up against harsh reality.

1) What happens when the promises don't seem to pan out?

2) If I accept Jesus and my life still has disappointments,

has God failed me? Have I believed the wrong way?

II. Christians are invested in the positive.

A. Prosperity preachers and miracle workers get the biggest crowds.

1) Benny Hinn and Kenneth Copeland fill arenas and the

airwaves.

a) God wants you to be happy and rich and healthy.

b) It has certainly worked for them. (mansions, planes…)

2) Reinhard Bonnke and his massive rallies in Africa.

a) He has attracted some of the largest crowds in the

world and you probably haven't even heard of him.

1> He is almost unknown in America but he is huge

news in Africa.

2> This German charismatic evangelist has had rallies

that attracted 1.6 million people.

3> He claims 72 million people have filled out decision

cards in response to his salvation invitations.

b) His big drawing card is miracles.

1> He claims he has seen the blind receive sight and

lame people walk again.

2> One of the most controversial healings was the

reported resurrection from the dead of a Nigerian

pastor in 2001.

Three days after the pastor was declared dead by a

local doctor, his wife took his body to a nearby

Bonnke-sponsored prayer service.

Pastors there prayed and massaged his body.

The dead body suddenly revived.

He has since resumed the ministry. [1]

B. Even ordinary Christians focus on Jesus solving our problems.

1) He rescues us from problems and makes us happier.

2) Doesn't Jesus himself teach this?

a) He says in John 10:10b, "I have come that they may

have life and have it to the full."

b) He heals the sick, gives rest to the weary and if we

have enough faith, he answers all our prayers.

3) Reading about Jesus, I can see where those TV preachers

get their emphasis. The Gospel truly is Good News.

III. There is another side to Christian existence.

A. Horrible things can happen to any believer.

1) Tragedies - we can suffer like anyone else.

It was the summer of 1972, a few months after Wendy Zoba's

conversion at the age of 16.

That when she confronted, firsthand, Bill Bright's

evangelistic mission.

She had taken a Greyhound bus cross-country from Ohio to

Dallas, Texas, to attend Explo '72, Campus Crusade's

week-long evangelism training conference.

She was trained to use the Four Spiritual Laws and then

unleashed on her hometown.

Her first target was her little sister.

Wendy hoodwinked her into meeting her on the swing set,

and then she laid out God's blueprint:

1. GOD LOVES YOU AND OFFERS A WONDERFUL PLAN FOR YOUR LIFE.

2. MAN IS SINFUL AND SEPARATED FROM GOD, THUS CANNOT KNOW

AND EXPERIENCE GOD'S LOVE AND PLAN.

3. JESUS CHRIST IS GOD'S ONLY PROVISION FOR MAN'S SIN.

4. WE MUST INDIVIDUALLY RECEIVE JESUS AS SAVIOR AND LORD.

Without hesitation her sister told her she wanted to

"receive Christ" and "pray the prayer."

Wendy read the prayer from the booklet and her sister

echoed it.

She cried; Wendy cried.

Wendy thought, THIS IS EASY.

She believes that encounter saved her sister.

Fifteen years after that Ohio summer she and Wendy shared

another life-changing moment.

They buried her sister's first-born child, who died of head

injuries sustained in a freak accident.

The little girl died the day before her second birthday.

The birthday cards were already in the mail.

During those dark days Wendy pleaded with God that the faith

her sister owned that day on the swing set would hold up.

In the end, it held, but both of their understanding of

God's "wonderful plan" moved into a new dimension.

#4238

2) Persecution - we can suffer specifically for being Christian.

a) Our imprisoned Iranian pastor.

Pastor Saeed Abedini is a native Iranian.

In 2005 he moved to the United States and four years

ago he became an American citizen.

He never severed ties to his homeland and in 2012 he

returned to build an orphanage.

The Iranians accused him of setting up Christian house

churches and sentenced him to eight years in prison.

He has now spent two years there.

Radical Muslims in the prison have threatened to kill

him and he has been beaten up several times.

How is Pastor Saeed responding?

Last week, a Christian organization released a letter

from Pastor Saeed to his daughter for her birthday.

After wishing her happy birthday and telling her how

much he wants to see her, he wrote the following:

"I know that you question why you have prayed so many

times for my return and yet I am not home yet...

The answer to the why is who.

Who is in control?

Lord Jesus Christ is in control...

"God is in control of the whole world and everything

that is happening in it is for His good purpose, for

His glory, and will be worked out for our good...

"...my dear beloved daughter Rebekka Grace, I pray God

will bring me back home soon.

But if not, we will still sing together ...'Hallelujah,'

either separated by prison walls or together at home.

"So, let Daddy hear you sing a loud 'Hallelujah' that

I can hear all the way here in the prison!

"Kisses and Blessings,

"Daddy"

John Stonestreet challenges us to ask how our faith

would hold up if we were put into prison.

How would you handle the separation from your family?

#64600

What if you were one of those prisoners of ISIS?

Would you be able to see your beheading as part of God's

wonderful plan for you?

b) The New Testament Christians knew what it was to suffer.

1> Paul's life was fulfilled, but often not happy.

A> He was beaten up, rejected by friends, starved,

and left for dead.

B> At times he wished he was dead. 2 Cor 1:8

2> Many early Christians didn't just suffer, they died.

3> Gordon-Conwell Seminary, where I studied, estimates

171,000 Christians are martyred every year. [2]

B. Christianity doesn't solve your problems.

1) It can help you overcome many things, but there are no

guarantees you will overcome everything.

2) We learn to make better choices in life.

3) And God can intervene supernaturally for us.

4) But we still live in a fallen world and can suffer like

anyone else.

IV. The background of Jeremiah 29:11.

A. The context is very interesting.

1) God is promising nice plans to a people who have been

driven into exile.

2) Their temple had been destroyed, their land devastated.

3) Perhaps hundreds of thousands had been killed.

4) Tens of thousands had been force-marched to other places.

B. Jeremiah predicts they will have 70 more years of this. 29:10

1) He tells them to make the best of it.

2) Settle down, pray for the pagans, don't rock the boat.

3) And then, finally, you will be able to go back home.

C. God's plan is always good - in the end.

1) Just like Pastor Saeed wrote, God will eventually work

everything out for our good. Rom 8:28

2) But you may have to wait a lifetime to see it unfold.

V. The Christian message is for everyone.

A. Christianity is not just for unhappy people.

1) We often assume only miserable people want to get saved.

a) It is not uncommon for troubles to drive us to God,

of course.

b) But plenty of self-satisfied people need Jesus, too.

1> You may have a happy family, money in the bank,

and great health - you still need Jesus.

2> You need him because you are a sinner.

A> Every one of us has broken God's law.

B> We are all fighting God in our own way.

3> Only the blood of Jesus can bring us spiritual peace.

2) All we can offer is truth.

a) Other religions offer happiness, too.

b) But they cannot wipe away your sins.

B. It is about Jesus, not us.

1) Move beyond personal fulfillment and satisfaction.

a) Note the emphasis in many of our appeals:

"God loves YOU and has a wonderful plan for YOU."

"Live your best life now!"

b) We are not the center of the message. #32955

1> The cross should be at the center.

2) Have a faith that rises above your current circumstances.

a) The Christian hope is for the long-haul.

b) As Paul wrote in Romans 8:18 --

"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth

comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us."

1> That hope kept him going.

2> It should be good enough for us, too.

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

SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:

[1] The Bonnke material comes from Wikipedia.org and from the articles

“The Crusader: Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke brings old-time gospel

back to America,” John W. Kennedy, Christianity Today, October 22,

2013,

and “Daniel: Raised from the Dead,” Susan Mann and Ken Hulme, The 700 Club,

.

One of my younger members asked me about the validity of the claim

the Kenyan pastor was raised from the dead. The best analysis I have

found is "’Raised From The Dead’ by Reinhard Bonnke: Oh Really?”

Sandy Simpson,

[2] Ray Comfort, “God Has a Wonderful Plan for Your Life: The Myth of the

Modern Message (Living Waters, 2010), p. 28.

# 4238 “Evangelicalism's Power Couple Closes In On Their Radical Mission,”

Wendy Murray Zoba, Online Christianity Today, page 14, July 14, 1997.

#32955 “The Big Narrative,” I'Ching Thomas, A Slice of Infinity: Ravi Zacharias

International Ministries; http://www.gospelcom.net/slice/,

July 20, 2006.

#64600 “God's Wonderful Plan In An Iranian Prison,” John Stonestreet;

edited by David Holwick; September 30, 2014.

These and 35,000 others are part of the Kerux database that can be

downloaded, absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html

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

Congregational handout:

IS GOD'S PLAN ALWAYS WONDERFUL?

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

Jeremiah 29:11

I. Bill Bright's famous tract.

A. It is always profitable to start out positive.

B. Unfortunately, warm promises run up against harsh reality.

II. Christians are invested in the positive.

A. Prosperity preachers and miracle workers get the biggest crowds.

B. Even ordinary Christians focus on Jesus solving our problems.

III. There is another side to Christian existence.

A. Horrible things can happen to any believer.

B. Christianity doesn't solve your problems.

IV. The background of Jeremiah 29:11.

A. The context is very interesting.

B. Jeremiah predicts they will have 70 more years of this. 29:10

C. God's plan is always good - in the end.

V. The Christian message is for everyone.

A. Christianity is not just for unhappy people.

B. It is about Jesus, not us.