8.25.24 Sermon @ Tulip CC - Fruit of the Spirit: Goodness
Children’s Message
Sermon Outline
Intro/Review:
Bodie Thoene, coauthor of bestselling Christian fiction such as the Zion Chronicles, once worked for John Wayne as a script writer. In Today’s Christian Woman, Thoene tells how that opportunity came about.
By the time I was nineteen, I was commuting to Los Angeles and doing feature articles on different stunt men and other film personalities for magazines. Four years later, an article I co-wrote with John Wayne’s stuntman won the attention of the Duke himself. One day he called and invited [my husband,] Brock, and me to come to his house. He talked to us as if we were friends, showing keen interest in us as individuals. From that day on, I began writing for his film company, Batjac Productions. Brock helped me with the historical research.
We were awestruck. Here was this man who had been in film for fifty years and he takes a young couple with small children under his wing! Once I asked him, “Why are you doing this? You’re so good to us.”
He replied, “Because somebody did it for me.”
Goodness doesn’t originate with us. We receive, and then we give. God is good to all, enabling all to be good to others.
Transition to Message:
Fallen Condition Focus (FCF):
Dominant Thought (DT):
Passage Focus & Teaching:
Closing/Call to Action:
Sermon Planning & Notes
Complements:
Illustrations:
Bodie Thoene, coauthor of bestselling Christian fiction such as the Zion Chronicles, once worked for John Wayne as a script writer. In Today’s Christian Woman, Thoene tells how that opportunity came about.
By the time I was nineteen, I was commuting to Los Angeles and doing feature articles on different stunt men and other film personalities for magazines. Four years later, an article I co-wrote with John Wayne’s stuntman won the attention of the Duke himself. One day he called and invited [my husband,] Brock, and me to come to his house. He talked to us as if we were friends, showing keen interest in us as individuals. From that day on, I began writing for his film company, Batjac Productions. Brock helped me with the historical research.
We were awestruck. Here was this man who had been in film for fifty years and he takes a young couple with small children under his wing! Once I asked him, “Why are you doing this? You’re so good to us.”
He replied, “Because somebody did it for me.”
Goodness doesn’t originate with us. We receive, and then we give. God is good to all, enabling all to be good to others.
The Contagion of Love
The early Latin writer, Tertullian of Carthage, declared that the one thing that converted him to Christianity was not the arguments they gave him, because he could find a counterpoint for every argument they would present. “But they demonstrated something I didn’t have. The thing that converted me to Christianity was the way they loved each other.”
Costly Missions
The HH-3F settled on its pad like a mighty bird returning from an exhausting flight. Though noisy, the landing was beautiful.
The giant helicopter, weighing approximately sixteen thousand pounds, carrying four thousand additional pounds of fuel, had safely borne her crew back from a hazardous, attempted-rescue mission at sea. For three hours, six courageous and highly skilled men had penetrated the fog, searching for a fishing vessel. Its captain had contacted the Coast Guard station at Saint Petersburg, Florida, reporting that a member of his crew had sustained a broken leg and needed medical attention.
Back on the ground, occupants of the aircraft gracefully and carefully disembarked. There were brief comments and admiring gestures between air and ground crews. The last man to leave the craft was the flight surgeon, dressed in fire-resistant gear topped off with an extraordinary white helmet.
At the first opportunity, I asked, “How did it go, Son?”
“Not too well,” he replied. “The fog was too dense.… They would not allow us to approach, let alone make a rescue.”
Memory of this dramatic and daring adventure brings into focus the incalculable, persistent love of God, who sent His Son on the greatest of all search and rescue missions.
From the beginning of recorded history, good people in the context of time and in proportion to their abilities have endeavored to save one another from despair and destruction.