ILL.- One Evangelist said, "My sermons are like chickens with their heads cut off. Once you think the sermon is done, it just jumps back up and runs in another direction!"
Luke 18:19 (KJV)
And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God.
Psalm 34:8 (KJV)
O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.
In Christ we have a good outcome
Romans 8:28 (KJV)
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
September 11th
Jeremiah 29:11 (KJV)
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
Genesis 50:20 (KJV)
But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.
We have good fellowship
Dr. James Dobson said one time, “A few weeks ago, I visited a family in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It was a wonderful day that I will not soon forget! Folks in that part of the world, many of them Mennonites, remember how a family is supposed to function. In the home where I was a guest, at least 20 people are invited for dinner each Sunday. A half-dozen grandkids buzz through the house as adults—family members and outsiders—enjoy each other’s fellowship and conversation.
“Then the most incredible meal is set before them, cooked lovingly by some of the greatest chefs who ever graced a kitchen. Amazingly, another group is invited in after church that evening.
“One might wonder how they find time to prepare and serve such a spread? Well, their priorities are just a little different from their contemporaries’. They believe this kind of togetherness is important. And they are right! Life gets difficult when we live it in isolation from one another.”
Genesis 2:18 (KJV) And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
Galatians 6:2 (KJV)
Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.
Hebrews 10:25 (KJV)
Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
We have a good hope
1 Cor. 15:19 (KJV)
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
John 14:2-3 (KJV)
In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. [3] And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
ILL.- One of God’s faithful missionaries, Allen Gardiner, experienced many physical difficulties and hardships throughout his service to the Savior. Despite his troubles, he said, "While God gives me strength, failure will not daunt me." In 1851, at the age of 57, he died of disease and starvation while serving on Picton Island at the southern tip of South America. When his body was found, his diary lay nearby. It bore the record of hunger, thirst, wounds, and loneliness. The last entry in his little book showed the struggle of his shaking hand as he tried to write legibly. It read, "I am overwhelmed with a sense of the goodness of God."
James 1:17 (KJV)
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
