Two Thieves, And Two Eternities
Audio for sermon is up
Let our love for Thee increase, May Thy blessings never cease, Give us plenty, give us peace, God defend our free land. From dishonour and from shame, Guard our country's spotless name, Crown her with immortal fame, God defend New Zealand.
If you’re like me, then you’ve probably heard a hundred sermons on this chapter, and are probably thinking ‘Oh no, not another sermon on 1 Cor 13!’
Now, I love alliterated sermons – I love to play around with words mainly because they keep my focus and interested. I’ve always been jealous of preachers who can come up with a 7 point sermon that all start with the same letter, or the first letters of each point spell the word ‘Prayer’ or something.
When I lived in Christchurch, I often saw a funny little man with a moustache who would stand on a step-ladder in Cathedral Square at lunch times. He would yell out stuff about breaking God's law, sin & repentance. I remember thinking 'I could never do that!'. It seemed to me that he never got a lot of return for his hard work.
"Without a vision, the people perish...".That means the leaders of your church need to get together and establish a 'God-given' vision, a plan forward for the congregation to follow, right?Wrong.
Jesus Wells draw their water from deep below the ground in underground deposits. This is then hand-pumped, passing through filters to the surface. The whole village or community benefits, as they all have access to the well.
Well, not long after posting my first list of favourite Christian music, I started remembering some of the other weird bands / musicians I used to listen to, and thought to myself 'how did I not include that one?'
But why do I call it a 'sandwich'? Because it's a beautifully constructed gospel story in three verses / layers, but all required together.