Good sermon. Good illustration. As a matter of fact, becoming all things and becoming nothing comes hand in hand. The life of Jesus illustrates that, followed closely by Apostle Paul. And the early disciples in Acts.
Eng
Kevin O'MalleyDec 5 2007
Hi Paul. I think this was the sermon where you started off with "Underwater Spelunking" or more commonly known as Cave Diving. I have an angle or 2 I just wanted to throw in... It was an excellent sermon.
The concept of the lifeline was excellent. I have a friend who was in training to be a firefighter, and he said exactly the same thing about a fireman and his hose. The hose is your lifeline, you let go of it and your chances of survival diminish rapidly. I really liked how you stuck with the analogy all the way through, and our lifeline pulls us back to Christ. If we lose our lifeline, we get lost in wherever we're exploring. Excellent application on the analogy.
One comment I found pretty hard hitting was when you said, "there are some of us around here with PhD's in Underwater Spelunking, and yet our wetsuit hangs dry on the wall." It was well said.
I have actually thought of taking up cave diving. It was because I read an article many years ago where some guy in Idaho (not really sure any more which state) had bought some worthless farm land. His friends thought he was crazy. The land wouldn't even grow good grass on it because there was a hot spring underneath, one that was too cold to do any good for generating geothermal power, so it was basically worthless.
Well, this guy bought the land, then dug a hole. And made a million dollars.
The hole opened up an entrance to the underwater hot spring, which was basically at about bath temperature. No other human being had ever been in there. He went diving. He brought his friends. Within 2 years, it became the #2 winter destination in that state for SCUBA divers. He put up a small hotel on the site and probably continues to make money to this day, by digging a hole in some worthless land.
After reading that story I wanted to visit the place, and I wanted to find my own version of digging a hole & making a million bucks. In many terms, the digging & finding Christ (really, He found me) was an application of the same analogy. But worth so much more than just a million bucks.
Matthew 16:26
What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?
Comments
Good sermon. Good illustration. As a matter of fact, becoming all things and becoming nothing comes hand in hand. The life of Jesus illustrates that, followed closely by Apostle Paul. And the early disciples in Acts.
Eng
The concept of the lifeline was excellent. I have a friend who was in training to be a firefighter, and he said exactly the same thing about a fireman and his hose. The hose is your lifeline, you let go of it and your chances of survival diminish rapidly. I really liked how you stuck with the analogy all the way through, and our lifeline pulls us back to Christ. If we lose our lifeline, we get lost in wherever we're exploring. Excellent application on the analogy.
One comment I found pretty hard hitting was when you said, "there are some of us around here with PhD's in Underwater Spelunking, and yet our wetsuit hangs dry on the wall." It was well said.
I have actually thought of taking up cave diving. It was because I read an article many years ago where some guy in Idaho (not really sure any more which state) had bought some worthless farm land. His friends thought he was crazy. The land wouldn't even grow good grass on it because there was a hot spring underneath, one that was too cold to do any good for generating geothermal power, so it was basically worthless.
Well, this guy bought the land, then dug a hole. And made a million dollars.
The hole opened up an entrance to the underwater hot spring, which was basically at about bath temperature. No other human being had ever been in there. He went diving. He brought his friends. Within 2 years, it became the #2 winter destination in that state for SCUBA divers. He put up a small hotel on the site and probably continues to make money to this day, by digging a hole in some worthless land.
After reading that story I wanted to visit the place, and I wanted to find my own version of digging a hole & making a million bucks. In many terms, the digging & finding Christ (really, He found me) was an application of the same analogy. But worth so much more than just a million bucks.
Matthew 16:26
What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?