Sermon Central
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Parables From The Back Side
Contributed by Pat Damiani on Aug 21, 2014 (message contributor)
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1. Serial Seed Sowers
Contributed on Aug 21, 2014
First in a series of messages that examine Jesus' parables from the perspective of a minor or unsympathetic character.
Several years ago I came across a book by J. Ellsworth Kalas titled Parables from the Back Side. The author’s introduction to the book begins with these words: Familiarity doesn’t always breed contempt, as the saying puts it, but it often breeds something potentially worse, the ...read more
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2. Knowing The Heart Of The Father
Contributed on Aug 21, 2014
Ninth and final message in this series. The Parable of the Prodigal Son demonstrates that misunderstanding the heart of the Father keeps us from experiencing His mercy.
This morning we’ll conclude our nine week journey through some of the parables that Jesus told. Before we began this series I thought I had a pretty good handle on these mostly familiar parables. And there is no doubt that much of my previous understanding of these parables has been ...read more
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3. Evil In The Kingdom
Contributed on Aug 21, 2014
Second in a series. The Parable of the Weeds helps us understand why there is evil in the midst of God's kingdom.
Do you ever wonder why it’s often so hard to be a follower of Jesus? Perhaps like me, you once had some well meaning, but naïve person tell you that if you would just give your life to Jesus all your problems would go away, only to find out that is far from reality. I look around this room ...read more
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4. The Scandal Of Grace
Contributed on Aug 21, 2014
Third in this series. The Parable of the Workers reveals the scandalous nature of God's grace.
We throw the word “scandal” around a lot in our culture today so just for the fun of it I Googled that term earlier this week and, not surprisingly, got a number of hits on recent events that have been labeled scandals by the news media – the IRS scandal, the Benghazi scandal, the ...read more
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5. An Invitation To A Party
Contributed on Aug 21, 2014
Fourth in this series. The parable of the Weeding Banquet pictures God's invitation to a relationship with Him.
I don’t know if you’ve ever really thought of in quite this way, but the gospel accounts of Jesus show that He really enjoyed a good party. Since the beginning of the year, I’ve been reading John’s gospel account and there we find that the very first miracle that Jesus ...read more
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6. Running On Empty
Contributed on Aug 21, 2014
Fifth in this series. The Parable of the Ten Virgins shows that I cannot live on someone else's oil.
I still remember my first date with Mary. I know that she was really impressed when I picked her up in my banana yellow Ford Pinto, especially since it was the middle of summer and that car had no air conditioning – unless you call rolling down both windows and driving as fast as that car ...read more
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7. What I Think About God
Contributed on Aug 21, 2014
Sixth in this series. The Parable of the Talents show that what I have with what I have been given reveals what I really think about God.
Over fifty years ago A. W. Tozer wrote his classic book, The Knowledge of the Holy. In his preface, he described why he wrote the book: The Church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God and has substituted for it one so low, so ignoble, as to be utterly unworthy of thinking, worshipping ...read more
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8. When Being Good Isn't Good Enough
Contributed on Aug 21, 2014
Seventh in this series. The main point of the Parable of the Good Samaritan is that eternal life isn't a matter of what I must do for God bu rather what God has done for me.
This week as I was preparing for this message I did as I often do after I first spend time with the text itself and looked at some other sermons on this passage just to get a feel for how others handle this parable. And in the process I ran across what seemed to me to be a pretty good sermon on the ...read more
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9. Why Do You Come To Church?
Contributed on Aug 21, 2014
Eighth in this series. The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector reveals that I either come to church to impress God or to be impressed by God.
Note: Since this message was presented in the form of a table that summarized the two reasons for coming to church some formatting may not look right. Let me begin with a question this morning. I don’t want to embarrass anyone, so I’m not going to ask you for a show of hands or ask ...read more