Sharing The Good Stuff Series

Sharing the Good Stuff

We are in week 6 of a 4 week sermon series. We have had a couple of breaks with Mothers day and a testimony of how God has worked in Gene’s life.

We are back on the topic of open minded atheist. The quick definition in the context of our messages are Christians that say that they believe in God but live in ways that suggest He does not exist.

We have addressed that by talking about cafeteria Christians, people that pick and choose from what the Bible says about our relationship with God. .

We also examined how many Christians live in such a way as to make God Sick. How being lukewarm is a bad condition for any Christian and also for churches as well.

We looked at how many Christians choose Money as their savior and panic in this economy when conditions threaten our lifestyle and future. We often pray to God out of our financial fears saying, Just a little more money, God. When our desire and prayer should be Just a little more….GOD. renewing our trust in our maker.

I have mentioned that I thought that the firm nature of the messages in this series are intended to move people to a response . They are a call from God to repentance and renewal because God has valuable things for you to do for the Kingdom.

-- This morning our scripture comes from John 1

While you are looking that up in your Bibles, I want to talk about desserts. I have brought out here one of my favorite desserts. I used to have just one favorite. It was banana pudding. Not just any banana pudding but the one made by Renee’s grandmother, Nanny. I have several people that have tried to simulate that heavenly creation but all have fallen short.

The biggest problem is that my diabetic condition means that people don’t follow the recipe that would come close to Nanny’s. They substitute other things to cut down on sugar. So, that has left me to sample a variety of other dessert options.

Margret Jones has really made the process of finding a suitable favorite very hard. She consistently introduces me to new wonders.

However, for my purposes this morning I have chosen something that is simple. It is generally well liked. It offers savory goodness and yet has portion control built into the basic serving.

I am talking about the standard white chocolate and macadamia nut cookie. This cookie offers personal satisfaction to hunger I might feel. It solves the munchies. It eases the desire to just have something sweet.

The recipe calls for butter, brown sugar, white sugar, Vanilla extract, flower, macadamia nuts and white chocolate.

I just love how this taste. I like the texture of the nuts, the sweet flavor of the white chocolate.

I like these so much that I have to control how many I have access to. It would be so easy for me to over indulge and to just hurt myself.

When I eat one of these, I feel a sense of satisfaction for a desire I have for something sweet.

-- Man that is tasty. I think it makes a good breakfast.

Let’s say, that I was giving away white chocolate and macadamia nut cookies today.

How many of you would want one? Raise your hand….

Well you are in luck. I have asked Renee and Cheryl to help me out this morning and they have a bunch of white chocolate and macadamia nut cookies to pass out. There should be enough for everyone to have one, if you want it.

-- Some of you are wondering what is going on. I gave you the scripture to lookup then I seem to have had an “A D D” moment where I started talking about desserts. So you may feel a bit confused.

What I did was model a biblical principal which is based on this morning’s scripture.

Let’s read John 1: 35-42

The next day John (John the Baptist) was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, "Look, the Lamb of God!"

When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, "What do you want?"

They said, "Rabbi" (which means Teacher), "where are you staying?"

"Come," he replied, "and you will see."

So they went and saw where he was staying, and spent that day with him. It was about the tenth hour. (Between 3 and 4 in the afternoon)

Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, "We have found the Messiah" (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus.