I'm holding my second gospel meeting later this month. If any of you are able to come and encourage the brethren in Waldron, I know they will appreciate it. This is the schedule:
10:00 AM Sunday Morning Class: The Role Of The Homosexual In The Lord's Church
10:45 AM Sunday Morning Sermon: The Organization And Work Of The Lord's Church
4:00 PM Sunday Night: Who Is Going To Heaven?
7:00 PM Monday Night: Why Is The Bible Written Like It Is? How Authority Is Revealed?
7:00 PM Tuesday Night: A 1000-Year Earthly Reign? Premillennialism Examined.
7:00 PM Wednesday Night: Prayer Can Be Ineffective. How To Benefit From Prayer.
Last night, as I was getting ready to hear Warren Berkley, I remembered that I hadn't added this site to my bookmark when I bought a new computer. Why did I buy a new computer? Because my old one DIED while on vacation in March. I was without Internet access for FOUR WHOLE DAYS--thought I was going to die!
So, now I have to get in here and look at what has been said in the past 5 weeks. That's a lot of reading to do!
I often say what is in my subject line, and I try to practice it. However, I don't pray for strangers as much as I should, I guess; I get e-mails about folks and situations that I don't know, and I'll include them in my prayer if I think of it, but I have to admit, I'm better about praying for those that I know. I'm enlisting those of you that are better at it than I am to help me in this situation.
I have a new secretary, the old one having come to her senses and left for greener pastures (not that she grazes or anything--it's a metaphor). She worked for me about a week and her daughter took ill with gall bladder problems--small stones. After a short stay in the hospital, she was released and went home. She started having some more problems, and long story short, she developed pneumonia. The situation got so bad that she wound up on a ventilator, and one of the doctors told her mom that it was very possible she wasn't going to live.
A few days have passed since that time, and Jennifer Teeter is getting some better. The ventilator is down from 100% to 75%, and her vital signs are good otherwise. She is in a drug-induced coma to help her bear the ordeal (and maybe to help the drugs to work).
Those of you that will remember to do so, please include Jennifer in your prayers, that she will have a complete recovery. She's only 22, and the only child my secretary has.
Great news--Jennifer has been moved from ICU to a regular room. She's still on a respirator, but making enough progress that the doctors felt ICU was no longer necessary. Thanks for all the prayers, and keep 'em coming for a full recovery!
Further update--Jennifer is now at Heatlh South Rebab Hospital. She improved so much her mother was able to drive her there yesterday rather than a professional transport. Thanks to all that prayed, and to God for answering those prayers.
Final update--Jennifer is home. She has some physical therapy to do before returning to work, but she is mobile enough now to go on short shopping trips.
I like the word "rejuvenate" because it has at the root the same word as "juvenile." Here's what the on-line dictionary has for it:
1 To restore to youthful vigor or appearance; make young again.
2 To restore to an original or new condition
Tonight, I went to Bentonville--a trip of about 100 miles from my house--to hear Ed Harrell. I've heard Ed many times, and could have just gotten the CDs of the lessons and listened to them at my leisure (I did get them, and listened to two on the way home). But I went in person because seeing Ed helps to rejuvenate me in a way that no other preacher can do. Having said that, I'd better explain.
I became a Christian in May, 1981. At the time, I didn't know the differences in liberal and sound congregations. If a building had C of C on the outside, that's all I thought I needed to know. I could have gone on for years and not known the differnce if it hadn't been for two things. First, the Old Wire Road Church Of Christ in Fayetteville sponsered a five minute TV show that run where local news normally is played during one of the morning shows. One of my law professors was on the show, and it caught my attention, thus drawing me to that congregation. Second, the two liberal churches I'd visited before knowing the difference were both much bigger than I was used to, as growing up I was taken to a church that ran about 120 on a good day.
So, I found my way to Old Wire Road at the same time Ed was moving in. I didn't know him from Adam, but many there did, and I heard the buzz when he arrived. About three months later, he was teaching a class and said something about the liberal church or institutionalism or something that caused the light bulb to go on over my head. I started asking questions that he and others patiently answered. Since my mom was in a liberal congregation, I didn't come to the discussion looking to prove I was right, I just wanted to know what WAS right. I decided that the NT pattern did not include man-made institutions, nor could the treasury support such.
In 1982, I left Fayetteville for Fort Smith (and remain in the Fort Smith area to this day). But every time I see Ed is going to be in the area, I make it a point to go see him, because it takes me back to that time when I was a new convert, hungry for knowledge. I also invariably get to see many other Christians that I knew 25 years ago, and it's encouraging to see others that have remained faithful all these years. Since Steve Cawthon passed away, Ed is the main link back to those days, at least from the standpoint of going to hear him speak.
And at age 77, he's not lost a bit of his ability to present material. He uses Powerpoint to aid him, being not the least bit afraid of the technology.
Tonight, I handed him a tape of a lesson I preached about five years ago. I just happened to find it in the console of my car today. I listened to it on the way up to Bentonville to see if I could pick out any of his examples in what I said. I didn't have a clear "lift" from him--and this outline was not a direct steal from him as I have done in the past-- but there were enough ways in which I said things that I heard his influence in my presentation. I told him as much, and said he needed to listen for it. I suspect I'm not the first guy that has told him that he's been an influence in that area.
As is always the case, I left feeling rejuvenated, stirred up like I was 22 again. And I like that feeling!
Of all the sermons I've done, I think this one is the one that has the most staying power. In July, I visited a congregation where several of the members had heard it, and I overheard one woman telling another about it--and I'd preached it over a year before where she'd been. Just this week, Jon Roberts told me how much he liked it, and it had been a year and a half since I'd done it where he could hear it. So, with no more ado, here's the outline for:
A SERMON ABOUT NOTHING
(No, really, I’m serious)
"Nothing" is the answer to a lot of questions in life. Kids often tell their parents they were doing "nothing" all day at school. Husbands tell their wives they were thinking about "nothing" when asked. There was even a television show that billed itself as being about "nothing." So why not a sermon on the subject?
1. What did we bring with us?
• NOTHING
• 1 Tim. 6:7 For we brought NOTHING into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either.
• Which is why the implied answer to “what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” is NOTHING.
2 What was held back?
• NOTHING
Acts 20:20—How I kept back NOTHING that was profitable unto you, but have shown you, and have taught you publicly and from house to house (KJV)
3. What does silence permit?
• NOTHING
• That is, NOTHING does not grant permission, but rather prohibition, in areas where the Lord has spoken.
• Heb. 7:14 For it is clear that our Lord descended from Judah, and in regard to that tribe Moses said NOTHING about priests.
4. What defiles a man?
• NOTHING
• At least NOTHING from outside. Mark 7:15
• “There is NOTHING outside the man which going into him can defile him, but the things that proceed out of the man are what defiles him” (NAS)
• It’s the SOMETHING from within.
5. What are we without love?
• NOTHING
• I Cor. 13:2-3—And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have faith, so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am NOTHING.
• And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I deliver my body to be burned but do not have love, it profits me NOTHING.
6. What can separate us from the love of Christ?
• NOTHING, or so it appears. Look at this list from Romans 8:35-39 of what CAN’T:
• Tribulation– Distress– Persecution—Famine--Nakedness—Peril—Sword—Death—Life—Angels—Principalities—Things Present—Things To Come—Powers—Heights—Depths—Any other created thing.
• That pretty much covers it, doesn’t it?
Therefore:
• You’re going to leave this world with NOTHING
• God held NOTHING back from us
• He told us NOTHING about a way to heaven other than through Jesus
• NOTHING else can cleanse our defiled soul
• NOTHING but His love will save us
• NOTHING can separate us from that love
What prevents YOU from serving God as you ought?
• NOTHING
• Those that feel NOTHING, do NOTHING, Give NOTHING and are thankful for NOTHING, are making the choice to be NOTHING in the kingdom. You can choose to be SOMETHING special—a child of God.
And to hear it, assuming this link works: http://www.mediafire.com/?e24nuqzk9yw (you'll have to copy and paste it, since I don't know how to make a hyperlink)
