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Sermon Details
- Pastor Name: Jonathan Cornell
- Date & Time: August 9, 2015 | 10:00am
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SERMON SERIES:
Practicing Faith, Hope, and Love
Wemmicks are little wooden people who live in the town below the woodcarver’s house. Each Wemmick was different. Some were tall, others were short, some had big noses others had big eyes, some wore hats, others wore wool coats, but all were made by the same woodcarver. Each Wemmick carried with them two little boxes, one that has gold star stickers, the other has gray dot stickers. All day long they go around giving one another stars or dots. There are some Wemmicks who have smooth wood or nice paint got stars, others with rough paint got dots. Some Wemmicks could carry heavy things, these Wemmicks get lots of gold stars. Punchinello couldn’t lift heavy things and his paint wasn’t very nice, Wemmicks like him got lots of gray dots. Wemmicks are very concerned about what other Wemmicks think of them, and they spend a lot of time trying to accumulate gold stars and avoid gray dots. Punchinello the Wemmick was covered in gray dots, he had so many gray dots he didn’t want to go outside.
Max Lucado tells this modern day fable of Punchinello in his children’s book You Are Special, in which he emphasizes the point that we as people spend far too much time worrying about what others think of us.
This morning, we are continuing in a series of messages in which we are looking at the first letter the Apostle Paul wrote to a group of Christians in the Macedonian city of Thessalonica. Last week, we looked at his greeting where he praises the people for their work of faith, their labor of love, and their steadfastness of hope.
Now before we begin, I am going to do something a little different. I am going to give you the claim of the sermon at the beginning—then I will unpack what I mean. Here goes: if you try to follow Jesus in the world it will be difficult, because you will face opposition. Every person who endeavors to follow Jesus will face opposition and will tempt you to give up. God’s way for your life is the best possible way, and there will always be someone or something that tries to keep you from that. You are God’s instrument and there will always be something in the way of that instrument being used to sound God’s good news.
But if we will walk through opposition and grow in faith, hope, and love, we will be God’s instrument in the midst of challenging circumstances—that is why we are here today, so that we can grow strong in this way.
Download the entire transcript here: 1 Thessalonians 2 1-12 Approved and Entrusted with the Gospel
