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Sermon Illustrations for Proper 7 | Ordinary Time 12 (2014)

Illustration
Proper 7 | Ordinary Time 12 - A
Genesis 21:8-21
Romans 6:1b-11
Matthew 10:24-39
Bob Ove
Derl G. Keefer
Mark Ellingsen
Ron Love
Genesis 21:8-21
We are still paying for Abraham's and Sarah's mistake with Hagar. The Arab nations that are descended from Hagar's son, Ishmael, have been fighting the sons of Isaac for thousands of years. They are still fighting each other today. Just as Adam blamed Eve, we like to blame Sarah for Abraham's goof up. She felt she was too old to have children so she suggested the next thing that came to her mind -- her maidservant! Hagar must have been much younger (and maybe better looking!) so Abraham foolishly went along with it.
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John Jamison
Object: Two small containers or boxes and several pieces of paper. I used two shoe boxes with lids and about fifty pieces of used printer paper. Label one box “Judge” and the other box “Not Judge.”

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The Immediate Word

Dean Feldmeyer
Katy Stenta
Thomas Willadsen
Christopher Keating
George Reed
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Frank Ramirez
I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. (v. 4)

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Those two words warn us not to read, listen, or watch any further. Something crucial about a book, show, film, or fact is about to be revealed, and we’re being told if we want to be surprised when we finally get around to reading or watching we’d better stop listening right now.

Emphasis Preaching Journal

Frank Ramirez
Mark Ellingsen
Bill Thomas
Bonnie Bates
Genesis 45:3-11, 15
Christal Berns wrote, in a May 23, 2023, article for Christian Learning, about Jacksonville, FL police officer Ike Brown. On May 27, 2002, Brown received heartbreaking news from his colleagues. His sergeant, lieutenant, chief, and chaplain came to his home and told him his son had lost his life in a shooting incident.
Wayne Brouwer
We all believe in justice; we all cry out to have our rights protected. Yet the power of revenge eventually takes us beyond where any of us truly want to go, for two reasons.

First of all, because of sin, we tend to be more zealous in our vindictiveness than we are in our love. I am much quicker to strike out at someone else and seek revenge against him for what he’s done to me, than I am to be that righteous myself.

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Carlos Wilton
Some years back, there was a best-selling book that got a lot of attention in the church, one written by a rabbi, Harold Kushner. The book was called When Bad Things Happen to Good People (HarperCollins, 1982). It is an honest attempt to grapple with the problem of evil. Why is it, Rabbi Kushner wants to know, that good and faithful people sometimes have to suffer?

John T. Ball
The honored dead from our fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq have created a problem for Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C. So many have rightly claimed burial in Arlington National Cemetery that the cemetery is running out of space. Rightful burials may soon have to be denied because there is no place for them.

Mary S. Lautensleger
Sibling rivalry. It's the pits. It has been around as long as there have been siblings around. Beginning with Cain and Abel, we see one brother disgruntled because God likes the other brother's sacrificial offering better. We remember, too, Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, Rachel and Leah, the prodigal son and his older brother. Life is not fair.
James T. Garrett
When a person enters into any society or any fellowship, he takes upon himself the obligations to live a certain way, by certain standards. If the person fails to live the kind of life necessary, he hinders the purpose of the society.

Once we make the claim that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true then a claim is put on our lives. In today's Scripture lesson, Jesus sets down behavior patterns for kingdom people.

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