4 Words To Ponder:home,friend,religion,love

4 GOOD WORDS:

HOME, FRIEND, RELIGION, LOVE.

By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr. Kyfingers@aol.com

I. WHAT IS A WORD?

A. A WORD IS SOMETHING THAT IS SAID, WRITTEN, OR PRINTED.

B. A word is a remark or conversation or communication.

C. A sound that communicates meaning.

D. Words can be spoken or written or printed.

E. God’s word is the expressed or manifested mind and will of God.

F. A WORD CAN SPEAK MORE THAN THE POWER OF A WORD!

A WORD CAN TELL.

Shibboleth

Sibboleth

Judges 12:4 Then Jephthah gathered together all the men of Gilead, and fought with Ephraim: and the men of Gilead smote Ephraim, because they said, Ye Gileadites are fugitives of Ephraim among the Ephraimites,

and among the Manassites.

5 And the Gileadites took the passages of Jordan before the Ephraimites: and it was so, that when those Ephraimites which were escaped said, Let me go over; that the men of Gilead said unto him, Art thou an Ephraimite? If he said, Nay;

6 Then said they unto him, Say now Shibboleth: and he said Sibboleth: for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him, and slew him at the passages of Jordan: and there fell at that time of the

Ephraimites forty and two thousand.

G. Shibboleth

Sibboleth --- WHAT CAN A WORD REVEAL?

II. The first word is HOME!

The older I get two words become more and more powerful.

Genesis 43:26 Joseph took his brothers home with him.

Ruth and Naomi returned home and there God put Boaz in the life as kinsman redeemer.

Remember when David wanted water from the well at home?

Ecclesiastes 12:5 Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree (awake tree) shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall

fail: because man goeth to HIS LONG HOME, and mourners go about the streets;

A. I was visiting a man that had been 90 days on a breathing machine.

Then in CCU many more days.

After he improved enough he was allowed to go to a rehab hospital.

B. I was visiting him one day and I thought he was asleep.

I coughed lightly and he opened his eyes.

I said I thought you were asleep?

C. He said, NO, I WAS JUST THINKING ABOUT HOME.

I WAS DREAMING ABOUT GOING HOME.

He went on to explain to me, the couch is over here, the fireplace is over there,

the TV is over there, and the kitchen in there.

D. The old man was dreaming about getting to go home.

In several months he went home, and he was so excited.

E. One visit to his home, he told me he had been thinking about home.

I quietly remembered his thinking about home, and he said,

I AM THINKING ABOUT GOING HOME, MY LONG HOME.

F. One Sunday morning he was going out the door at church, and he said,

Will you say something nice over me?

I said, What?

He said, When I go home will you say something nice over me?

G. I said, You have many years left.

He smiled and winked at me and went on out the door.

H. A few days later his wife called me and said, he was sitting in his recliner

this morning, I thought he was sleeping, and sometime during the morning

he went home.

I. I preached his funeral. The day of his funeral he received his 30 year AA

pin for 30 years of sobriety.

J. When you are young you can’t wait to get away from home.

When you are old you dream of home.

III. ANOTHER DEAR WORD TO ME IS FRIEND.

A. I LOVE THE WORDS OLD FRIEND.

B. Many times in life we cry and long to have a friend we can talk to and trust

to keep what was said private.

C. Pick your friends, but not to pieces.

Proverbs 17:17 A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

Proverbs 18:24 A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and

there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.

Proverbs 27:5, 6,9 10 Open rebuke is better than secret love.

6 Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are

deceitful.

9 Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart: so doth the sweetness of a man’s

friend by hearty counsel.

10 Thine own friend, and thy father’s friend, forsake not; neither go

into thy brother’s house in the day of thy calamity: for better is a neighbour

that is near than a brother far off.

Proverbs 27:17 Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance

of his friend.