2 Sunday after  Ephipany

I Samuel 3:1-10, John 1:43-51

Illustrations

 

 

A girl returning home from Sunday School expressed disappointment with the classes reaction after the day's lesson.

"We were taught to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations," she said, "but we just sat."

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Martin Luther said there are two kinds of believing. One kind of belief is to believe things about God. He said there are some things we can affirm about God that we can also say about the Turks, the devil, or hell. These are facts: encyclopedia knowledge. This is belief. Luther then talked about another kind of faith. Not only do we believe in God, but we begin to put our trust in him. We bet our lives on the truth that there is a God. We even begin to give him our money because we really do believe this business. We surrender to him. We follow him. We believe that he is with us, and nothing can seperate us from his love.

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Follow Christ

 

Eli Black was a brilliant businessman best know for two events in his life: He masterminded the multimillion dollar takeover of the United Fruit conglomerate, and he jumped to his death from the 42nd floor of the Pan Am building in New York City.

In the book An American Company, an executive described a business lunch he had with Eli Black. When the waitress brought a plate of cheese and crackers as an appetizer, Black reached out and took them, placed them on the table, blocked them with his arms, and continued talking. The executive hadn't eaten for hours and hinted that he would like a cracker. But Black acted as though he hadn't heard him and went on with the business meeting. After a while, Black placed a cracker and cheese on the tips of his fingers and continued to talk. Several moments later, Black placed the cracker on the executive's plate and then blocked the rest as before. It was clear that Black was in charge, manipulating others as he pleased. When you play "follow the leader," check to see who is at the head of the line. Eli Black, for all his power, ended up in suicide. Jesus Christ, in all His humility, ended up the Savior of the world.

Our Daily Bread

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SALT OF THE EARTH

 

The young salesman was disappointed about losing a big sale, and as he talked with his sales manager he lamented, "I guess it just

proves you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink." The manager replied, "Son, take my advice: your job is not to

make him drink. Your job is to make him thirsty." So it is with evangelism. Our lives should be so filled with Christ that they

create a thirst for the Gospel.

 

Contributed by: David Browne SermonCentral

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Faith

An Act Of Will

"Do you believe this chair exist?" (Point to an empty chair.) "Do you believe it will hold you up? It is not holding you up now. How could you prove you believe it exist and that it can hold you up? - By sitting in it!"

"Let that chair represent Jesus Christ. For a long time I believe he existed and could help me, but I did not have eternal life because I was trusting my own good works to get me into heaven. To receive eternal life you must transfer you trust from yourself to Christ."

- D. J. Kennedy

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God's Role in Salvation

 

And although J.I. Packer wrote these words nearly twenty-five years ago, they are a needed reminder of the essential role God plays in all evangelistic endeavors.

"While we must always remember that it is our responsibility to proclaim salvation, we must never forget that it is God who saves. It is God who brings men and women under the sound of the gospel, and it is God who brings them to faith in Christ. Our evangelistic work is the instrument that He uses for this purpose, but the power that saves is not in the instrument: it is in the hand of the One who uses the instrument. We must not at any stage forget that. For if we forget that it is God's prerogative to give results when the gospel is preached, we shall start to think that it is our responsibility to secure them".