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One of the great resources overlooked in some church growth materials is the personal and spiritual life of the pastor/leader. I believe a pastor's spiritual life is an important factor in how a church responds to the Great Commission.

One, a pastor's prayer life is crucial. Yes, we all believe this, but how deeply do we believe it? Prayer must be so crucial that it drives the ministry of the church. It must be the filter through which all ministries, programs, ideas, strategies, and outreach flow. Max Lucado reminds us: "The power is not in the prayer, it's in the one who hears it" (The Greatest Moments in the Life of Christ, Nashville: J. Countryman, 1998, p. 46). When we pray, and the church prays, we surrender our control. We give control to the Holy Spirit. Every pastor desires to be controlled and motivated by the Holy Spirit.

E. M. Bounds said, "Prayer is ... the language of a man burdened with a sense of need. It is the voice of a beggar, conscious of his poverty, asking for another the things he needs." The Great Commission pastor is one who is burdened for lost people, and knows that without the guidance and empowerment of the Holy Spirit, no human program or strategy will reach them.

Two, the devotional life of the pastor helps the Holy Spirit control the thoughts, planning, and practices of the pastor. Prayer is relationship - relationship with God. As the relationship deepens, through our devotional moments, more of what we do is God--directed. Someone said, "Accept Jesus to be teacher of life. Join the Kingdom - and be ruled by the Kingdom." Second Chronicles 12:14 has this insightful comment about Rehoboam: "He did evil because he had not set his heart on seeking the Lord" (NIV). Henry Blackaby reminds us "Everything in the pastor's life and ministry flows out of the condition of the heart" (The Power of a Call, Nashville: Broadman--Holman, 1997, p. 124).

One's devotional life gives spiritual perspective to all we do. In our devotional time we invite God to take charge and be partner with us in ministry. Max Lucado says, "It's a wonderful day indeed when we stop working for God and begin working with God" (Just Like Jesus, Nashville: Word Publishing, 1998, p. 59). Every pastor longs for the day when he/she can know the freedom of working with God. This relationship brings a sense of freedom, confidence, and purpose.

One of the deterrents to effective pastoral ministry is feeling like it all depends on our efforts. John Maxwell says, "Self--sufficiency is the first bait the enemy uses. This temptation works directly against depending upon the Lord for strength, enablement, and guidance ... Self--sufficient leaders think and behave like they do not need others, but they do. How easy it is to forget the Kingdom principle, 'Without me you can do nothing' " (How to Be a Servant Leader, Visionary Leadership, Dale Galloway, ed., Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, 2001).

Three, the pastor's personal life must have a sense of personal call from God. The tasks and trials of ministry will soon weary the person doing ministry as a vocation. There must be something deep in the heart holding on to the demands of ministry. John Henry Jowett put it well when he wrote, "If we lose the sense of wonder of our commission, we shall become like common traders in a common market, babbling about common wares" (Quoted by Glenn Wagner, Escape from Church Inc., Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1999, p. 165). William Sloan Coffin, in his book, A Passion for the Possible, wrote, "A career seeks to be successful, a calling to be valuable. A career tries to make money, a calling tries to make a difference."

Let me close with something medical doctor Dan Spaite has written:

Your church doesn't need you to be a great man! It needs a little man so that Jesus Christ can be great in you. Your church doesn't need you to be a brilliant expositor. It needs a humble servant who will allow Christ to speak His timeless wisdom through you. (Timebomb in the Church, Kansas City: Beacon Press, 2000, p. 167)


Someone said, "Every job is a self--portrait of the person who did it. Autograph your work with excellence." May the Holy Spirit guide your journey of pastoral ministry.

C. Neil Strait



Transfiguration Of The Lord
Last Sunday After The Epiphany

WORSHIP HELPS

CALL TO WORSHIP (in unison)
Praise the Lord, all you servants of the Lord. Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the Lord. For His name alone is exalted; His splendor is above the earth and the heavens. Praise the Lord. (Psalm 134:1--2; 148:13--14)

OFFERING THOUGHTS
Because I have been given much, I, too, must give. Because of Thy great bounty, Lord, each day I live, I shall divide my gifts from Thee with every brother that I see, who has the need of help from me. (Grace Noll Crowell, 1936, quoted in Sing to the Lord Hymnal, Kansas City: Lillenas Publishing Co., 1993)

BENEDICTION (by a soloist)
"The Lord Bless You And Keep You" (by Peter C. Lutkin, 1900)



SERMON BRIEFS

We Have This Ministry
2 Corinthians 4:3--6


Michael Slaughter, one of our United Methodist ministers in Ohio, described the early days of his marriage to his wife Carolyn. He shared that he and Carolyn had a big argument during their second week together. Their brief honeymoon on the East Coast had been great. But when they got back to Ohio, he had to immediately begin his final year of college.

During that fateful first week of the fall semester, he left one morning for school. Then in the afternoon he went directly from the campus to meet with a church group that he was leading.

Later, when he walked into their apartment, it was about 7:00 p.m. There was Carolyn, standing in the hallway, projecting lots of negative energy. "Where have you been?" she asked. "I made a nice dinner for us." While Michael searched for the right word (which never came), Carolyn continued, "You didn't even call."

Uh oh. No one had ever before asked him to call like that. He had never needed to.

"What have I done?" he asked himself. For the first time, he realized that marriage means that he was not his own anymore. He couldn't live the way he used to live. Suddenly, he knew that to have a good marriage, he'd have to change. He would have to learn responses based on commitment, not on feelings.1

In a sense, this is what Paul is talking about in our text. No, he's not talking about marriage, but he is talking about ministry - our ministry, both personal and corporate. Here, Paul is emphasizing the necessity of maintaining our commitment to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We are not our own anymore. If Jesus is our Lord, and He gave Himself for others, then our mission and ministry is to do the same. We have this ministry.

I. It's a ministry we have received!

Right at the outset, Paul states that he never loses heart in his ministry. Now, that statement causes us to sit up and take notice. He never loses heart in his ministry.

But then he tells us why. Paul says that he did not obtain his ministry through his own efforts or study but through God's mercy. You see, Paul never forgot that he had once persecuted the church, and that it had taken God's grace to make him into God's apostle. So, because he was a recipient of God's mercy, Paul could be faithful to God's mission and not lose heart.

Beloved, all of us are recipients of God's mercy. Our Christian lives and ministries have been given to us. As Paul put it to the Philippians, "We are partners in a gift we have received" (Philippians 1:5).

My minister friend, Dr. Jim Moore, said that in their church bulletin every Sunday, they print their mission statement. It reads like this: "St. Luke's is a Christ--centered, servant church where every member has a ministry." That's a great statement because it's true. They are Christ centered and they see themselves as servants. There is a ministry for everybody.

Recently, one of their members was sitting in the sanctuary with his thirteen--year--old daughter. Church had not started yet, and the young woman asked her father how many members they have in their church. The father answered, "Oh, I think we have 7,500 members now."

The daughter replied, "How many ministers do we have?"

Her father started counting them on his fingers. "Well, let's see, there's Jim and Joe and Bill and Carla and Diana and I don't know, probably eight or nine."

"No, Daddy," she said. "Look at this." She pointed to the mission statement and read it out loud. "St. Luke's is a Christ--centered, servant church, where every member has a ministry." And then she said, "That means we have 7,500 ministers!" And she's right.2

II. It's a ministry that requires faithfulness!

We've hit on this already, but we want to be sure it's clear. Ours is a ministry that requires faithfulness. The late Helmut Thielicke, noted German theologian and minister, once said that "God is never thrown at you for free. He always costs something." And He does.

That was certainly true of the Apostle Paul. For sure, he had his critics and detractors. Evidently, there was a controversy at Corinth, and Paul was caught in the middle of it. Accusations had been made against him. And though these accusations are not specifically listed we can read between the lines. Paul was charged with using "underhanded" ways (deception) and of adjusting God's word to suit his own convenience.

And then Paul was criticized for not reaching everybody for Christ. Can you imagine? But Paul insists that he has been faithful. He insists that he has proclaimed the gospel in such a way that any person of conscience is bound to accept its appeal. And for those who have not received Christ, Paul says that the god of this world has blinded them and kept them from believing. At any rate, ours is a ministry that requires faithfulness.

III. It's a ministry of service!

Paul says in verse five of our text: "For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake" (2 Corinthians 4:5).

Again, Paul is emphasizing the necessity of maintaining our commitment to the Lordship of Christ. If Jesus is our Lord, and He gave himself for others, then our mission and ministry is to do the same. We are to be servants to others for Jesus' sake.

The Academy Awards appear yearly on television sets all around the country. The coveted Oscars will be given to the best director, the best actor, and actress, the best movie, the best song, the best in a number of categories. Among the prestigious awards, however, will be two Oscars that have always had a special appeal to me - the best male and the best female actor in a supporting role. The reason I like these two categories is because they remind me of our role as Christian servants. We are to be the best supporting servants.

IV. And finally, it's a ministry of Jesus Christ!

Now, today is Transfiguration Sunday and even though it is surrounded by mystery, it is a day for the celebration of the glory of God revealed in Jesus Christ. And the recurrent theme of light in our text is most certainly an echo of the Markan account of the Transfiguration of Jesus (Mark 9:2--9). Just as the Gospel account stresses the dazzling radiance of Christ in the presence of Moses and Elijah so does Paul stress the "Light of the Gospel of the Glory of Christ, who is the image of God" (v. 4).

The central thought of Paul here is that in Jesus Christ we see God. In Jesus Christ, we see what God is like. So Paul did not preach himself; he preached Jesus Christ as the glory of God come to earth in human form.

Now, I know that for some of you believing in Jesus is not easy. And I respect your struggle. But I feel it important to share with you what Jesus means to me.

1. To me, Jesus is the clearest expression of the mystery of God.

2. I believe Jesus died for the sins of the whole word including mine!

3. I believe that Jesus rose from the dead, and His resurrection is my doorway to life - both in the here and in the hereafter.

4. I believe that Jesus is the key to the kingdom of God!

5. I believe that Jesus comes often unannounced and unnamed!

6. And finally, I believe in me because I believe in Jesus!

Jesus makes me believe two things about myself. First, I ought not be the way I am. And second, I need not stay the way I am. "If anyone is in Christ, he/she is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold the new has come" (2 Corinthians 5:17).

And so we preach Christ and not ourselves. Beloved, let us thank God that we have this ministry.

Hal Brady
____________

1. Michael Slaughter with Warren Bird, Real Followers (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1999), pp. 21, 22.

2. Jim W. Moore, God Was Here and I Was Out to Lunch (Nashville: Dimensions for Living, 2001), pp. 34, 35.


Discovering The Real Jesus
Mark 9:2--9

Introduction

We drove up Mount Diablo near San Francisco Bay; from there you can see Yosemite on a clear day. From our text you can look from the Mount of Transfiguration to Mount Calvary and beyond.

Those disciples never forgot the awe and wonder of seeing Jesus suddenly glow with the glory of God, as a flash of eternity branded their confused minds. Eventually, Peter had to confess Jesus was a man "approved of God ... crucified and slain ... whom God hath raised up."

"This Jesus hath God raised up," he announced, and "we all are witnesses" (Acts 2:22--24, 32, 36 KJV). Do you know the real Jesus?

I. History's greatest hope

Transfiguration Day and today in history is His--story. Even our calendar attests to his influence, in spite of skeptics like the professor who told his class that Jesus was one of history's best known events but "things like that just don't happen."

When Rufus Jones the respected Quaker scholar weighed the historical evidence of history, he agreed "when the human is of a unique type, as it is in Christ - a 'mutation' from the usual run of persons ... there is not the least ground for doubt that Christ was divine, that he was and is a revelation of God" (Fosdick, Rufus Jones Speaks to Our Time, 1951, pp. 67--70).

Jesus' birth became the hinge on which history swings - separating before from after. His cross solidly anchored the doorposts of the heavenly kingdom to the eternal Rock of Ages.

II. The Bible's best example

John the Baptist introduced Jesus as the "Lamb of God," the sacrifice for the world's sin. It was then; it is now. The child the prophets promised arrived as a child of purpose - to save His people from sin - and became a child of presence, Immanuel, "God with us" (Matthew 1:20--23).

People like Nicodemus counseled privately with Jesus knowing, "No one could perform the miraculous sings you are doing, if God were not with him" (John 3:2).

"We no longer believe just because of what you said," the Samaritans told the woman who introduced Jesus to them. "We have not heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world" (John 4:42).

Jesus lived what He taught better than anyone did ever, giving Him authority lacking in others.

III. Humanity's one of a kind

A Muslim described Jesus to me as an exalted prophet, following Muhammad. Hindus' view Jesus as a powerful personality. A Jehovah's Witness stood at my door and praised Jesus for saving him. But like first--century Gnostics, he failed to allow him the praise suggested in the text: "This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him."

Like the Gnostics Paul encountered, he believes Jesus was God's first created being but does not worship Him as the Creator Paul described or as the incarnation of God, the Bible reveals. Paul saw Jesus as one in whom is found the full circle of divine attributes, the fullness of deity in human form, not merely a created underling. And since all things were created by and for Him, every creature (including us) finds reason for existence only in Him (Colossians 1:15--16; 2:9--12).

What Paul described as the "image" of God (Eikon), John described as the "Word" of God (Logos). Both suggest existence before creation. Each viewed Jesus as an agent of the creation, a divine person equal with God in sharing His essential life. Both saw Jesus within their individual personal experience, but each acknowledged Him as incarnate Christ.

To accept His salvation as anything less than God's redemption is to reduce Jesus' true person--hood, deny Him the pleasure of transforming the humanity He is working to accomplish in us, and refusing to acknowledge His rightful power (Ephesians 2:8--10; cf. 2 Corinthians 5:15--19).

IV. A friend to be enjoyed

My greatest discovery in sixty years of venturing on life's waterway has been this man whose name means "God is with us." He is neither the ultimate institutional system nor the most orthodox system of belief; He is Jesus, Lord and Savior.

I first met Him as an inquisitive twelve--year--old in 1939, and six decades later He still guides my sometimes--faltering steps. I found in Him a profoundly life--changing commitment, with the assistance of my youthful pastor. He asked me during a holiness camp meeting, "Would you like to invite Jesus into your life?"

Conclusion
Saying "yes" made a lifetime of difference!

Wayne M. Warner


Children's Sermon
2 Corinthians 4:3--6

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. (v. 3)

Object: A piece of window screen or a white piece of gauze that you can see through but through which it is hard for others to see you.


Good morning, boys and girls. Today we are going to talk about some words that Saint Paul wrote to the people in Corinth. Corinth was a city in Greece where Saint Paul worked with the Christians who lived there. Not everyone was friendly to the Christians in the time of Paul, just like not everyone is friendly to Christians today. Christians stand for the truth and not everyone wants to share the truth.

When you do not love God, it is hard to understand what God is doing. Paul said what God is doing is veiled. Do you know what a veil is? (Let them answer.) Women wear a veil sometime when they wear a hat. A bride wears a veil before she is married to the groom. I brought along something that is like a veil. (Hold up your veil.) Do you know what a veil does? (Let them answer.)

That's pretty good. I can see you very clearly through my veil, but you cannot see me clearly. I will hold up some fingers and we'll see if you count the number I am holding up. It is pretty hard to see my fingers, isn't it? Now ____________ (choose one of the children), you hold up some fingers and I will tell you how many I can see. (Tell the number.) I can see you very clearly through my veil, but you have a hard time seeing me.

Paul said that this is what God was doing in Corinth. The enemies of the Christians could not understand why the Christians were being so loving and sharing and forgiving. It didn't make any sense to them. They worshipped gods of war, anger, beauty, wealth, and power. They did not understand a God of love. That is why Paul said that the unfriendly people could not see or understand our God of love. It was like looking at a veil.

Sometimes we wonder why people don't understand Christians who love to go to church and worship. They don't understand Christians who are helping the sick and homeless. They think there are more important things to do than teach about Jesus. They don't want God in our schools and they don't want us to pray in certain places. But you can't stop people who love God from bowing their heads in the morning and saying a prayer of thanks to God without making a sound. You can't stop Christians from honoring their parents or sharing the gifts God gave them.

It may look like a veil to the enemies of God. They can't see through it, but I want you to know that God sees them. God loves them even when they don't like Him.

The next time you see someone wearing a veil I want you to know that, while people may think you are different or strange because you love Jesus and come to church to worship and learn about Him, God loves you, and God is working with those who don't understand about Him. Amen.


First Sunday In Lent

WORSHIP HELPS

CALL TO WORSHIP
Speaker 1: Come, everyone who is thirsty in spirit.
Speaker 2: Come, everyone who is weary and sad.
Speaker 3: Come to the fountain; there is fullness in Jesus.
All Speakers: I will pour water on him that is thirsty; I will pour flood upon the dry ground. Open your heart for the gift I am bringing. While you are seeking Me, I will be found. ("Come, Everyone Who Is Thirsty," words by Lucy Rider, from Sing to the Lord Hymnal, Kansas City: Lillenas Publishing Co., 1993)

OFFERING THOUGHT
"When God gives people the gift of 'getting,' He also expects them to use the gift of 'giving.' " (Louis Bustle, Come Ye Apart, Sept.--Nov., 2001)

BENEDICTION
We have been in communication with God Almighty this day. Go forth throughout this week in the strength and assurance given freely by the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.



SERMON BRIEFS

The Rainbow Through The Rain
Genesis 9:8--17


As you know, today is the first Sunday in the Lenten Season. Lent is a period of forty days set aside by the universal church as a time of repentance for spiritual preparation for Easter. Lent is that special period when we take extra time to examine our hearts and renew our best commitments. It's a time of self--examination, self--discipline, and self--commitment. In other words, Lent is our special journey with Jesus to Jerusalem.

But there's another aspect of Lent, equally important, and this is where our text applies. This second aspect of Lent has to do not only with our personal journey to Jerusalem, but also with our cosmic, communal understanding of God's redemptive purposes. Stating it another way, we are not walking to Jerusalem by ourselves or we shouldn't be!

A time came when the heavens opened, the earth erupted and torrents of rain fell for forty days and nights. Every area of creation was affected and only a handful of people and some animals, under the direction of a man named Noah, survived. But when the storm finally ended and the water receded, there was a rainbow. God then said to Noah, "I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth" (Genesis 9:13). And, of course, God's covenant was that God would never again destroy the earth by a flood.

This story has lived through the centuries because it points out God's unbreakable commitment to God's creation. To the ancient Hebrews in exile and to us today, this story has lived and continues to live because it is a story of hope. This story says that the storms and terrors of life are of the earth and will pass while the rainbow is of eternity and will remain.

The Rainbow? Have we missed something? Let's focus on God's covenant.

I. God's covenant is a covenant with all creation!

Hear again the twelfth and thirteenth verses of our text. "And God said, 'This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.' "

What do you know about that? We human beings are just one of the beneficiaries of God's covenant with God's creation. As inhabitants of earth, we are just one of the recipients of this divine/earthly relationship.

I read somewhere that of all our sins and shortcomings worthy of contemplation during the Lenten season, probably the sin of species pride is the one most frequently ignored. The sin of species pride is when we humans become arrogant in our human centeredness. In relation to plants, animals, the earth, the environment, and the rest of creation, we place an overemphasis on dominion and an underemphasis on the interdependence of all created life.

What about our sin of species pride? Have we humans sinned against the rest of God's creation? Is there any doubt?

II. God's covenant is a covenant against violence!

God said, "Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind" (Genesis 9:14, 15a). Among other things, God said, "I will remember...."

It is clear from this verse that the rainbow is not there in the sky simply for our human edification. It is not there only to give us hope, though that is an integral part of it. The rainbow is there also as a reminder to God that the earth is to remain free from divine retribution.

Now, if God is committed to nonviolence, it would seem that we, as God's people, should also be committed to nonviolence.

III. God's covenant is a covenant of profound hope!

God's covenant is a covenant of hope because it is unconditional and everlasting. God's covenant depends solely on the faithfulness of God and not on the whims of humankind.

Standing in the corridor of the hospital and realizing our mother was not going to get well, my sister said to me, "You'd better be making plans for a funeral. That's your department!"

I guess I planned our mother's funeral off and on for the next twelve days during her final illness. Without any doubt, I knew what elements I wanted in the service. My mother had lived a victorious Christian life and deserved a victorious Christian celebration at her homegoing. In her service, I wanted a Call to Celebration, two hymns, a reading from the Psalter, additional Scripture lessons from the Old and New Testaments, a prayer, a solo, a message/eulogy, and the Apostles' Creed.

Why the Apostles' Creed at my mother's funeral? I wanted the Apostles' Creed because I wanted our family to join with the Christian community in reaffirming the core of our Christian faith. I wanted our family to hear afresh the central certainties of the Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. I wanted our family to remember our connection with the community of faith both today and throughout the ages. And I wanted our family to be reminded of God and the Resurrection Hope. Beloved, if you look carefully, you, too, can trace the Rainbow through the Rain.

Hal Brady


Living Close To God
Psalm 25:1--10

Introduction

Dale Oldham came home grateful for a month in Japan, seeing sights like the Nikko shrine, the Kamakura Buddha, and Mount Fuji. He expressed shock when a youthful serviceman admitted living in Japan a full year without leaving his military base. Oldham noted the unheeded opportunities when the youth was figuratively "just across the street."1

Are you just across the street from God?

I. A vibrant faith enjoys a covenant of trust.

David, a man after God's own heart, mellowed with age and grateful for past blessings, prayed. Sensitive to God's friendship, he pleaded for deliverance, increasingly aware of past and present vulnerability, leaving the church a model of trust.

To get the church on its feet, it must first get on its knees. "We have all the confidence in radio waves and electronic communication from the moon," wrote Eugenia Price. "But we fell feeble and helpless and rebel when 'all we can do is pray.' "2

Depending on man, we get what man can do, but when we depend on prayer we get what God can do.

John G. Paton translated Scripture in New Hebrides. Searching to communicate trust, he failed, so he called a national, sat in a chair, and asked, "What am I doing?"

"Sir, you are resting," she replied.

Still groping for meaning, he raised both feet and rested them on the brace between the front legs of his chair, asking, "Now, what am I doing?"

"You are resting wholly. You are trusting," she responded, using a word meaning to recline one's whole weight.

Like marriage, friendship with God is best achieved through a covenant of trust that reclines our whole weight on him, sick/well, rich/poor, better/worse, forsaking all others.

David trusted God for victory over circumstantial enemies, (vv. 1--3); for teaching and guidance toward truth (vv. 4--5); for forgiveness of sins and that he not be shamed (vv. 3, 6).

II. A vibrant faith grapples honestly with truth.
A pastor friend encountered stiff resistance when attempting to introduce confession into their worship, although facing truth may require it.

Dennis the Menace revealed biblical integrity in the cartoon when admitting to God, "I'm sorry, but I've got a whole bunch of I'm sorry's for you tonight."

It isn't easy to be honest about one's self. Or, we may owe "I'm sorry" to someone other than God. A lady requested prayer from her small group for her husband; he had no time for church or God.

Someone asked, "Why do you think he feels as he does?"

"I guess it is because of me," she confessed, beginning to weep. "I haven't been much of a Christian. I've been irritable and critical. I haven't been a very loving wife."

So the group prayed for her rather than for him, that her life be truly changed. Confession brought spiritual vitality to the group, and helped both husband and wife. The pastor later reported she apologized to several others, bringing new conversions, and a different--feeling husband.

The church witnesses more effectively when honest confession admits the truth for the good of the soul. An anonymous tongue--in--cheek verse suggests what David perhaps felt:

My days are full of blunder,
How often I have yearned,
To have one life for practice
And another when I've learned.

III. A vibrant faith persists in achieving victory.

Massachusetts called John Adams as a delegate to the first Continental Congress in early 1774. In July, Jonathan Sewell had a private conversation with Adams. High above Casco Bay, Sewell begged Adams not to attend the Congress. Britain was "irresistible" and would destroy all opposition.

Adams acknowledged British "determination on her system" but confirmed, "Swim or sink, live or die, survive or perish, [I am] with my country ... You may depend upon it."

The same year saw Bunker Hill, Sewell's relocation to England, and Adams became a founding father.3

The opening stanza of a hymn I have sung since childhood hints at the spiritual fortitude we all need:

I mean to go right on
Until the crown is won,
I mean to fight the fight of faith
Till life on earth is done.
I'll never more turn back
Defeat I shall not know,
For God will give me victory
If onward I shall go.4

Wayne M. Warner
____________

1. Dale Oldham, Just Across the Street (Anderson: The Warner Press, 1968), pp. 156--157.

2. Eugenia Price, Make Love Your Aim (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1967), p. 77.

3. David McCullough, John Adams (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001), p. 71.

4. C. W. Naylor, "I'm Going On," Worship the Lord (Anderson: Warner Press, Inc., 1989), pp. 685--686.


Children's Sermon
Mark 1:9--15

... and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news." (v. 15)

Object: A sand hourglass and a clock timer you would use in the kitchen.


Good morning, boys and girls. Today we are going to talk about time. What is time? (Let the children answer.) This is not an easy question to answer, but time is something we measure with watches, clocks, and sundials, and even with these two things. Does anyone know what I brought with me. (Let them answer.) One is a timer that uses sand and another is like a clock, only it runs backward. Both of them are used in the kitchen. When I cook eggs I use this hourglass because it takes exactly three minutes to cook eggs and it takes exactly three minutes for the sand to run from the top to the bottom. Pretty neat! When we bake a cake or pie, we use this clock timer. Do you know what happens when the baking time for the cake is over? (Let them answer.) That's right; the clock timer makes a sound, and we know the cake or pie is finished baking.

When Jesus began to talk to people about God, He told them that a certain time had come. He wasn't talking about cooking or the time it takes to run a race. Jesus was talking about the coming of a time that was very special. This special time was called the "coming of the kingdom of God." People like Isaiah had talked about it. Prophets talked about the kingdom of God coming for thousands of years. Jesus said the time that everyone had been waiting for was here.

What did this special time mean? It meant that God had sent His son Jesus into our world to teach us about a new way to live and worship. The old ways of the world were no longer important. Now we would live new ways and the new ways would be about love, God's love.

Today, we try to live in the new kingdom that Jesus taught us all about. We think differently and we act differently than the people did before Jesus came. They waited for a Savior. We have a Savior and we call Him Jesus.

So we live in God's time and in His kingdom. It is a special place for all people who believe in God and love Jesus. We are waiting for Jesus to come back and be with us. Some day, maybe while you are living, Jesus will come back and take us all to heaven. In the meantime, we live in God's kingdom and we are very happy about it.

The next time you see one of these timers, think about the day Jesus told all of the people that He was starting something new on earth and it was called the new kingdom of God. Amen.


Second Sunday In Lent

WORSHIP HELPS

CALL TO WORSHIP
Pastor: Out of our depths of despair, O Lord, please,
People: Read our hearts as they cry for mercy.
Pastor: Our records of sins seem insurmountable, O God,
People: But Your forgiveness has wiped our sins away.
All: We praise Your name!

OFFERING THOUGHT
The will of God is that we give more than what we are capable to give. When we give more than what we have, we learn to depend more upon His resources.

BENEDICTION
God has heard us give Him lip service. Now it's time for heart service.



SERMON BRIEFS

Sitting Up And Taking Notice
Romans 4:13--25


It makes us sit up and take notice. I'm talking about Paul's admiration of Abraham's great faith. For Paul, no other Old Testament figure better portrayed genuine faith than Abraham, "the Father of us all" (Romans 4:16). It makes us sit up and take notice because we all long for a great faith.

Writer Skip Heitzig has written an article titled "The Cross At Ground Zero." He describes the terrible scene of the fallen towers at the World Trade Center. Then he writes that in the midst of all that horror a fireman pointed to a cross. Now, it wasn't a human--made cross, but a product of the mass destruction. Yet, there it stood, a stark reminder of another death and of One who came to bring eternal life. The huge fireman who showed it to Heitzig was adamant. "It was a sign! I was pulling corpses out of this debris. No signs of life! No hope! Then I looked up, and there it was!"1 As I said, it makes us sit up and take notice because we all long for a great faith.

Now, Paul is concerned that his teaching about the gospel has credibility. His contention that God's righteousness is manifested through faith rather than the law seems to run counter to the Old Testament. So Paul wants to settle the correctness of his message by going back to the very beginning of the story of Israel, to the very first Jew, the heroic and admirable Abraham. It is sorta like, "If it is good enough for Abraham it's good enough for me." At any rate, Paul states that God's saving work in Jesus Christ through the believer's faith is the fulfillment of God's plan, which actually began with Abraham.

Thus, Paul's message here is that God has revealed Himself to Abraham, and Abraham has responded in faith. And it is this responsive faith that is reckoned to the Patriarch as righteousness. Abraham is justified by faith. So what do we see when we touch base with Paul's story about Abraham's great faith?

I. We see the God that is generous!

God made a very generous and unique promise to Abraham. He promised that Abraham would become a great nation, and that in him all the families of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 12:2, 3). In fact, the earth was promised to Abraham as his inheritance.

Now God's promise to Abraham was a promise of grace. It was not based on anything that Abraham had done or any law that he had kept. If the promise had been based on Abraham's ability to obey the law, it would have perished because the law cannot keep out sin. It can identify sin, but it cannot cure sin. Thus, to guarantee the fulfillment of the Promise, God based it on grace, on His own generosity.

Lloyd Ogilvie, Chaplain of the United States Senate, tells about receiving his own gift of grace. Dr. Ogilvie said, "I still remember the freshness and freedom I felt the first time I truly experienced the peace that comes with healing grace." Dr. Ogilvie related that at the time he was a postgraduate student at the University of Edinburgh. Because of heavy financial pressures, he was carrying a double load of classes which was very demanding. He said he was exhausted by the constant feeling of never quite measuring up. No matter how good his grades were, he always thought he could do better. Sadly, he said, he was not living the joyful truths that he was studying.

Then he stated that one day in the corridor of New College, his beloved professor, Dr. James Stewart, stopped him. Dr. Stewart looked into his eyes and then into his soul. He smiled, grabbed his coat lapel and said, "Dear boy, you are loved now."

According to Dr. Ogilvie, that night was a transition for him into the state of God's liberating grace - love that's given before we either deserve it or ask for it.2

So what is grace? Grace is a free gift that is unearned and undeserved. The truth is we can never earn the love of God. Consequently, our glory never resides in something we do for God but in everything that God does for us.

II. We see the faith that is convinced!

Faith is the certainty that God is generous. Faith banks everything on the love and loyalty of God.

Abraham took God at His word, and it was deemed sufficient. He left everything familiar and ventured out into an unknown future with only a call and a promise. Is that incredibly naive or what? As my minister friend, the late Dr. Garnett Wilder put it, it is certainly incredibly complex, for believing God involves being obedient to his will. And it is certainly incredibly difficult, for it reaches beyond the scope of human intellect or, as I would add, logic.

Now, the promise that all the families of the earth would be blessed in his descendants was given to Abraham when he was 100 years old. And remember that his childless wife, Sarah, at the time was a spry young thing of only 99. Indeed, they were well past the age of child bearing. But I repeat, God promised Abraham a child when he was an old man. Many years passed, however, but Abraham still had no son. Everything seemed hopeless and impossible, but Abraham believed anyway. He believed that God had the power to do what he had promised. And a little later, Abraham and Sarah had a son, Isaac.

Paul expressed Abraham's faith so beautifully in our text. Listen! Paul says, "Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, 'So shall your offspring be.' Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead - since he was about 100 years old - and that Sarah's womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised" (Romans 4:18--21).

Brennan Manning has written a book called Ruthless Trust. He says the book started writing itself with a remark from his spiritual director. "Brennan," his spiritual director said, "you don't need any more insights into the faith. You've got enough insights to last you 300 years. The most urgent need in your life is to trust what you have received."3

We see the faith that is convinced.

III. We see the end result that is desired!
I am talking about righteousness. God desires that we be righteous. There is one special verse that we must not lose sight of in our text. After Paul speaks of Abraham's convincing faith, he makes this clear statement, "This is why it was credited to him as righteousness" (Romans 4:22).

Professor Leander E. Keck of Yale Divinity School has correctly observed that "far too much theology today underwrites a striver's manual instead of a gift certificate from the God who, in Paul's words, justifies the ungodly" (Romans 4:5).4

In short, God's part is grace and our part is faith which includes repentance, belief, and trust. And the result is righteousness and eternal life.

Lee Strobel, that gifted teacher and preacher at Saddleback Church in California, has pointed out that every other religion but Christianity is based on people doing something to somehow earn favor with God. Other religions are spelled "D--O." But Christianity is not spelled "D--O." Christianity is spelled "D--O--N--E." On the cross, Jesus Christ has done what was needed. He paid our penalty. And when we accept him as personal Savior, we are endorsing that transaction by faith.5

"For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith ..." (Ephesians 2:8).

Hal Brady
____________

1. Skip Heitzig, "The Cross At Ground Zero," Finding God's Peace in Perilous Times (Wheaton, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.), pp. 33, 34.

2. Lloyd Ogilvie, Perfect Peace (Eugene, Oregon: Harvest House Publishers, 2001), p. 46.

3. Brennan Manning, Ruthless Trust (HarperSanFrancisco, A Division of HarperCollins Publishers, 2000), p. 1.

4. Leander E. Keck, The Church Confident (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1993), p. 56.

5. William R. Bouknight, The Authoritative Word (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2001), pp. 37, 38.


True Discipleship - It's Gonna Cost You
Mark 8:31--38

A young man wrote this to his girlfriend, "Sweetheart, if this world were as hot as the Sahara Desert, I would crawl on my knees through the burning sand to come to you. If the world would be like the Atlantic Ocean, I would swim through shark--infested waters to come to you. I would fight the fiercest dragon to be by your side. I will see you on Thursday ... if it doesn't rain."

In this Scripture lesson, Jesus "began to teach them." This marks a turning point. Jesus begins His new emphasis on His death and resurrection. Peter had other plans for Jesus and for the disciples than what Jesus had planned. It is out of this context that Jesus says, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (v. 34).

We who put our faith in Jesus Christ, who have repented of our sins, are given the name "disciples." We are called, summoned to a life of discipleship. Life in the Kingdom is about being a true disciple of Christ. What does this mean for us today?

In this Scripture, Jesus gives us three important truths about true discipleship.

I. True discipleship is a command of Christ.
There are a number of commands in the Bible:

´ "Repent and be born again." This is how we enter life in the Kingdom. This is how we become a disciple. We can never be a "Christian" and live the Christian life without repenting of our sins.

´ "Be holy for I, the Lord your God, am holy." 1 Corinthians 13 gives us the description of what it means to carry a cross.

´ "Go and make disciples of people everywhere." Cross--bearing means taking the love of God to the very ends of the earth.

Jesus says, "If you want to be my disciple, you are going to have to take up your cross and follow me" (refer to Matthew 10:38 and Luke 9:23).

We are commanded by Jesus to take up the cross of discipleship. It is not optional, though it is voluntary.

II. True discipleship requires crucifixion.
You must deny yourself and take up your cross. Deny means to disown. The cross means crucifixion. Denying self and dying out to self involves sacrifice. Sacrifice of selfish ambition, time, finances, our all. "Deny himself and take up his cross" are two phrases that need to go together in order to see their full meaning.

In today's culture people don't like to talk about a biblical cross. People today want to invent a new cross.

´ The new cross preaches fun and enjoyment and a higher plane of morality. "We should be good people." Jesus did not die to make us good, but to make us holy.

´ The new cross lets you live without any interference or change.

´ The new cross does not demand that you become a new creature and break with the old life.

´ The new cross seeks to attract public interest by showing that Christianity makes no unpleasant demands; but rather it offers the same thing our culture does, only on a higher level.

´ The new cross does not slay the sinner, it redirects him.

´ The bottom line is the new cross wants to satisfy people's religious needs, without change, without bowing, without crucifixion, without obedience.

But, the biblical cross:

´ Is a symbol of death.

´ Stands for the abrupt, violent end of a human being. Death. Then, born again.

´ Saint Augustine said, "Augustine has died; a new owner has taken over."

´ Cannot approve or endorse any of the fruits of sin; it only endorses the fruit of the Spirit.

III. True discipleship requires commitment to follow Christ.
Follow means "to be in the same way with" ; "to accompany."

There is the initial commitment and the continual commitment to deny self, take up the cross daily, and follow Christ. The cross is a way of life.

Commitment means "closing the door to all other alternatives." Everyday, as a true disciple of Christ, we keep the door closed to all other alternatives.

Giuseppi Garibaldi, founder of modern Italy, set out to liberate Italy. He saw some young men at a street corner and called them to enlist. They asked Garibaldi, "What do you offer?" He replied, "I offer hardship, hunger, rags, thirst, sleepless nights, foot--sores in long marches, deprivations innumerable, and victory in the noblest cause which ever asked you."

Jesus says to you and me who desire to be a part of His kingdom, "Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat; I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how. Self--help is no help at all. Self--sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self" (Matthew 16:24--25, The Message).

Will you deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Him? Will you sacrifice your preferred future for God's preferred future?

Nina Gunter


Children's Sermon
Mark 8:31--38

He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, "If you want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me." (v. 34)

Object: A whistle.


Good morning, boys and girls. I am very pleased to see you this morning. I thought about each of you as I was driving to church. You are part of the __________ (name of your church) worship team. Every Sunday we gather in the front of the church and we teach each other about God. We are a team.

I thought about some of the other teams that I belonged to when I was growing up and after I began my ministry. I remember some of my teachers and the boys and girls that I went to school with when I was your age. There were always about 25 children and the teacher. I also remember that the teacher had one of these (Hold up the whistle and blow it.). When she blew the whistle, I knew that I needed to pay attention. It was time to line up, be quiet, and go where she wanted us to go. I also had a coach who had a whistle. When he wanted us to be a team and listen, he would blow the whistle. (Blow the whistle again.) Teams that listen and play together are winning teams. Do you know anyone else who uses a whistle? (Let them answer.) Very good, policemen use whistles. What do you do when a policeman blows his whistle? (Let them answer.) That's right, you follow the policeman. Whatever the policeman tells you to do, you do and you follow his directions.

I don't think Jesus had a whistle. At least it doesn't say anything about Jesus having a whistle in the Bible. But Jesus wanted to start a team. He wanted a team of followers: people who would stop what they were doing, listen to Him, and follow Him. He told His disciples and a large group of people one day that they needed to stop going and doing the things they were doing and to follow Him. He even told them that He was going to suffer and that His followers may have to pick up a cross and follow Him. Jesus was forming a team.

Are you a member of Jesus' team? When Jesus calls the play, do you do what He asks, or do you kind of like your own plan? (Let them answer.) Sometimes it is hard to follow Jesus. It doesn't seem like the way you want to do it. Jesus tells us that we must always tell the truth. But sometimes it seems it would be better if we could tell a little white lie. Jesus says we must share the things that we think belong to us, but we want to keep them all for ourselves. Jesus tells us we must forgive and forgive many times, but we don't want to forgive someone who hurt us. Jesus tells us to love people we want to hate because they have been really bad to us.

But if we want to be on the Jesus team, we must follow His teachings and learn them so that we all work together for victory. How many of you will follow Jesus? (Let them answer.) How many of you want to be on the Jesus team? (Let them answer.) The next time you see someone with a whistle, you think about Jesus and about following His way rather than your way. Amen.


Third Sunday In Lent

WORSHIP HELPS

CALL TO WORSHIP (Pastor)
Man's tower of security through materialism, superiority, self--reliance, and independence has crumbled. We take refuge in You as the tower of strength. Only through Your unfailing love can we find true strength. Amen.

OFFERING THOUGHT
O God, let our lives be consumed by a desire to be compassionate, givers to those in need. Being merciful to those whose eyes grow weak, whose bodies ache with unmentionable pain, and whose spirits groan from lack of love. May we seek them out in our neighborhoods, office cubicles, playgrounds, and homes. Amen.

BENEDICTION
You turned our wailing into dancing; You changed our sad faces and caused us to put on happy hearts. O Lord our God, we give You thanks forever.



SERMON BRIEFS

A Sacred Spot
Exodus 20:1--17


Much has been said about it in the newspaper and on radio, television, and the net. Of course, I am referring to Ground Zero, the place where the World Trade Center stood in New York City. Since the terrorist's attack on September 11, 2001, it has been reported that this sixteen--acre region has been populated by all kinds of people - family members of victims, construction workers, volunteers, movie stars, religious folks, police officers, National Guard members, souvenir vendors, and countless tourists.

At first, the New York City mayor's office tried to keep the area from becoming a spectacle by closing it off to the public. But the public's demand to see the hole was just too great so that policy had to be reversed. Since then numerous viewing sites have been created.

Part of the discussion today, however, centers around what's going to happen there. Should a shrine be built at Ground Zero? Should the Twin Towers be rebuilt? Or what? At any rate, Ground Zero is a sacred spot and always will be for what happened there. It is a sacred spot that we must never forget.

Another sacred spot we must never forget is Mount Sinai and what happened there. As you know, it was at Mount Sinai that God gave Moses the Ten Commandments and, in spite of what many think, the commandments were offered to the ancient Hebrews as a blessing. They were given to establish a bond between God and his people.

Why a sermon on the Ten Commandments? First, it is obvious that the Christian ethic is under attack in our modern society. Now, the Christian ethic came from the Jewish ethic which is founded on the Ten Commandments. Besides, Jesus said in Matthew's Gospel that he had come to fulfill the law and the prophets (Matthew 5:17).

Second, the Ten Commandments are the basis of community existence. It was the receiving and accepting of these rules which changed the Hebrews from being a disorganized rabble into being a nation. For community to exist, there has to be law.

And third, the Ten Commandments are the outward expression of the covenant with God. They present us with some indication of what being a partner in a covenant relationship can involve.

To be sure, there are other reasons for reviewing the Ten Commandments, but perhaps I've said enough. So what do we observe as we focus on the Ten Commandments?

I. We observe the claim - God's claim!

The introductory sentence actually tells the story. God says, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery" (Exodus 20:2). From a theological perspective, that is the key point. The law is given to a people who have been saved from slavery, literally.

So God began with what He has done for these people. That's God's nature. He always begins with what He has done to give us a picture of who He is.

As the well--known minister, John Killinger, put it: "When God gave the Israelites the Ten Commandments, he was saying in essence, 'I love you. Look what I've done for you already. Now I want to give you something wonderful, which will help you to live joyfully and productively in the land I'm going to give you. Here are these sayings. Learn them and live by them. They will bless your lives.' "1 In other words, the Ten Commandments are our friends.

They are not intended to hem us in and to make us feel miserable. To the contrary, they are intended to bless our lives and to keep us in the covenant relationship.

II. We observe the community - God's community.

To be sure, God didn't want a one--sided relationship. So He gave his people a vision of how they were to relate to Him and to one another. In other words, God gave them the Law. For Israel, the law bound together a disorganized rabble of slaves into a nation, a community that endures to this very day. The law served as a guide to interpersonal relationships; it stabilized community life (made it possible), and it established justice for everybody. God's people were to take God seriously, to worship God and only God, and to treat all their fellow human beings justly. Thus, the law became the outward expression of the covenant. And Israel's only proper response to that covenant was obedience to the law.

Let us be clear! We are saved by grace, the unmerited goodness of God. Then, out of gratitude for God's grace, we assume the responsibility of the law. We express our gratitude to God not only by acknowledging Him but by treating our fellow human beings in an honest, caring, and respectful way.

III. We observe the contrition - our contrition!

Or, at least, we should observe our contrition. Contrition is another word for remorse or repentance. Since we can't fulfill the conditions of the law, we repent and rightly make our confession in the Service of Holy Communion.

Merciful God, we confess that we have not loved you with our whole heart.
We have failed to be an obedient church. We have not done your will,
We have broken your law, we have rebelled against your love,
We have not loved our neighbor, and we have not heard the cry of the needy.
Forgive us, we pray.
Free us for joyful obedience, though Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.2


Thus, the Law points out our need of the Savior.

Hal Brady
____________

1. John Killinger, To My People With Love, p. 13.

2. "Confession And Pardon," The United Methodist Hymnal (Nashville, Tennessee: The United Methodist Publishing House, 1989), p. 890.


As Good As His Word
Psalm 19

Introduction
Joshua Speed visited President Lincoln in 1864 and found him by a window reading his Bible. Speed suggested, "If you have recovered from your skepticism, I am sorry to say that I have not."

Lincoln put his hand on his friend's should and spoke earnestly, "... Take all of this book on reason that you can, and the balance on faith, and you will live and die a better man."1

I. The Bible reveals God.

God revealed himself in creation, culminating with Jesus - God incarnate (John 1:1--18; Hebrews 1:1--3, 11). Some see our Old Testament as an imperfect morality, but we see God accommodating himself to us. Finding God's love and human slavery incompatible, Earl Martin suggested we have not seen how the "scourge of war" applies, "if that love was to be practiced."2

We are still discerning the God Christ revealed. With Christ at our center, we see God's record unfold historically and we note how human understanding of God grows step by step. Abraham's descendants prepared the way, but at the right time Jesus came as the Word made flesh.

He wrote no books, but His life and ministry branded the hearts of His disciples. The generations following completed our record, inspired by the Holy Spirit (2 Timothy 3:16--17).

II. The Bible documents the wisdom of salvation.

The Bible affirms God's uniqueness, introduces Jesus, and confronts humanity. Those who receive its message experience a personal transformation, which becomes more precious than gold and sweeter than honey.

"You are a great chief, and it is a pity you have listened to missionaries who only want to get rich amongst you," an alleged infidel confided to a Fiji chief. "No one nowadays believes in the Bible or listens to the story about Jesus Christ; people know better, and I am sorry that you are so foolish."

The old chief's eyes twinkled as he pointed to a stone where once they smashed their victim's brains, cooked them in a nearby oven, and feasted joyfully. "I can tell you," he admitted, "that but for these missionaries and that old Book and Jesus Christ ... you would never go away from this island alive."

Discussing their incredibly bad world, Bishop Cyprian wrote Donatus of his discovery of a quiet, holy people who live with joy "a thousand times better than any sinful pleasure of our sinful life." Despised and persecuted, they care not, for "they are masters of their souls. They have overcome the world. These people, Donatus, are the Christians - and I am one of them."

III. The Bible is best understood personally.

We must read it, for truth is personal not abstract. "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly," wrote Paul (Colossians 3:16). He suggests a wealth of wisdom. Moreover, we understand more clearly when God asks, "Where are you?" (Genesis 3:9).

An old Bible preface suggests reading it with head and heart, for when ignorant it instructs us. When out of order, it reforms us. When cold and lost, it warms us and turns us homeward. "Tolle lege, tolle lege; take up and read, take up and read."

When we share life with God in willed togetherness, it brings a conscious, substantive change of lifestyle, claims James Earl Massey.3

Conclusion
Mary Ann Lathbury, Poet Laureate, Saint of Chautauqua, pondered Jesus feeding the 5,000 and poetically expressed her hunger for God:

Beyond the sacred page
I seek Thee, Lord;
My spirit pants for Thee,
O Living Word.


Alexander Groves added stanzas 3--4, and we sing:

Show me the truth concealed
Within thy word,
For in Thy book reveled
I see Thee, Lord.4


They describe our experiences with the God who is as good as His word. The Bible needs no one to defend it, insisted Spurgeon, "Just let the lion out of his cage and he will defend himself." God asks only that you investigate for yourself.

Wayne M. Warner
____________

1. Ruth Painter Randall, Mary Lincoln: Biography of a Marriage (Boston: Little Brown and Co., 1953), p. 353.

2. Earl L. Martin, Toward Understanding God (Anderson: The Warner Press, 1946 2nd ed.), p. 87.

3. James Earl Massey, The Soul Under Siege (Anderson: The Warner Press, 1987), pp. 23--24.

4. Lathbury/Groves, "Break Thou The Bread Of Life" in Worship the Lord (Anderson: Warner Press, Inc., 1989), p. 357.


Children's Sermon
John 2:13--22

He told those who were selling the doves, "Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father's house a marketplace!" (v. 16)

Object: A toothbrush, some shaving cream, razor, comb and brush,