A Gifted People Series

[Source unknown: Circulated email attributed to Paul Harvey]

We should never underestimate another person.

A speech teacher once told me that he spends time with the janitor of the building. He said, “you know, that might not sound like much to you, but I could get into this building at midnight if I really needed to.” “Treat others like you want to be treated and you will go far in life.”

Two points we see

1. We can think too lowly of our talents and bury them (the church suffers)

2. We can stop others from using their talents because we think too lowly of them, and convince them not to listen to God…. The church suffers)

WE CAN STILL KILL THE PROPHETS

III. A third thing I want you to think about this morning is that we sing loudest when we sing together.

Look to verse 25

1 CO 12:25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

United we stand. Divided we fall.

Mouse Story ...

A mouse looked through the

crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife

open a package.

"What food might this contain?" The mouse wondered -

he was devastated to discover it was a mousetrap.

Retreating to the farmyard,

the mouse proclaimed the

warning.

"There is a mousetrap in the house! There is a

mousetrap

in the house!"

The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head

and

said, "Mr. Mouse, I can tell this is a grave concern

to you

but it is of no consequence to me.

I cannot be bothered by it."

The mouse turned to the pig and told him, "There is

a

mousetrap in the house! There is a mousetrap in the

house!"

The pig sympathized, but said,

"I am so very sorry, Mr. Mouse,

but there is nothing I can do about it but pray.

Be assured you are in my prayers."

The mouse turned to the cow and said, "There is a

mousetrap in the house!

There is a mousetrap in the house!"

The cow said, "Wow, Mr. Mouse.

I’m sorry for you,

but it’s no skin off my nose."

So, the mouse returned to the house, head down and

dejected,

to face the farmer’s mousetrap-- alone.

That very night a sound was heard throughout the

house --

like the sound of a mousetrap catching its prey.

The farmer’s wife rushed to see what was caught. In

the

darkness, she did not see it was a venomous snake

whose tail the trap had caught.

The snake bit the farmer’s wife.

The farmer rushed her

to the hospital and she returned home with a fever.

Everyone knows you treat a fever with fresh chicken

soup,

so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for

the soup’s

main ingredient.

But his wife’s sickness continued,

so friends and neighbors came

to sit with her around the clock.

To feed them, the farmer butchered the pig.

The farmer’s wife did not get well; she died.

So many people came

for her funeral, the farmer

had the cow slaughtered to provide enough meat for

all of them.

The mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the

wall with great sadness.

So, the next time you hear someone is facing a

problem and think it doesn’t concern you,