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God As Loser And Finder

Sermon
Proper 19 | Ordinary Time 24 - C
Luke 15:1-10
Thomas A. Renquist
Topsy-Turvy: Living In The Biblical World
Gospel Sermons For Sundays After Pentecost (Middle Third) Cycle C
It happens now with increasing regularity. Maybe it's a six-year-old boy, who never came home for supper, and so the parents begin to go looking. After an hour of no success, they enlist their friends and neighbors, they call the police, and an intensive search is begun. And then on the 10 p.m. news we see them all looking, people moving across a field with flashlights, thoroughly investigating every bush and hiding place -- others out in boats dragging river bottoms -- all of them searching for a lost boy.
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Object: This is a role play activity for the children. You will want a container of some kind of treat to give to all of the children.

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Hello, everyone! (Let them respond.) Are you ready for our story today? (Let them respond.) Great! Let’s get started.

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Call to Worship:
Jesus knew the importance of humility and used a banquet to teach people about it. As we feast on him today, let us make sure we come to him with unassuming spirits.

Invitation to Confession:
Jesus, sometimes we are unaware of our own arrogance.
Lord, have mercy.
Jesus, sometimes we spot other people's haughtiness but fail to recognise it in ourselves.
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Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.
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There are three words I hope you will take home from church today. The words are "Only The Lonely." As you think about these words, the assurances of God's Word will comfort and strengthen you. But I'm getting ahead of my story. Before we get to these three words, we need to look at the full text of Luke 14:1, 7-14. That involves looking at three other words: humility, hospitality, and hope.

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