Sermon Tone Analysis

Kids Thought

There is a story told about a rich man, an art dealer.

The man and his son, went all over Europe buying and selling art and

they kept quite a collection of the best paintings from all over Europe.

The mans beloved son got drafted.

That means he had to go fight in a war.

Within a year, word came that his son had died, saving his wounded friends.

The last man he was saving when he got killed was an artist.

He came to visit his friends Father.

He came to tell the father what a great son he had and

How many people he had saved, getting them to medical help when

he got shot and died.

The young man, also wanted to give a present to the father, it was a painting of his son.

The old man gratefully took the painting, which was not very good and hung it up in the middle of his collection.

He had to move priceless painting out of the way, to hang it in the center of his collection.

Over time, more men came to thank the father for his courageous son who saved them.

The old man’s sadness gave way to thankfulness for the kind of man his son was.

Later the old man died and a great auction was set up.

Art dealers, art collectors from around Europe and America came to buy from his collection, to enhance their collects.

The first item for bit, was the sons portrait.

The the buyers wanted to skip that worthless painting and get onto the good stuff but the Auctioneer insisted,

“The will clearly states, that painting must be sold first.”

So he started the bidding at $100.

No body made a bid, not even to hurry things along

The auctioneer asked if there were any bids for the picture.

A neighbor spoke up and said, I knew that lad, he was a nice boy, I’ll give $10, that’s all I can give.

The auctioneer asked if there were any more bids.

Silence

The auctioneer then declared sold.

He looked at the audience and announced the auction was over.

Stunned disbelief quieted the room.

Someone spoke up and asked, “What do you mean it’s over?

We didn’t come here for a picture of some old guy’s son.

What about all of these paintings?

There are millions of dollars of art here!

I demand that you explain what’s going on here!”

The auctioneer replied,

“It’s very simple.

According to the will of the father, whoever takes the son…gets it all.”

Puts things into perspective doesn’t it?

Just as those art collectors discovered on that Christmas Day, the day of the auction,

the message is still the same:

the love of a Father,

a Father whose greatest joy came from His Son,

who went away and gave His life rescuing others.

And because of that Father’s love,

whoever takes the Son, gets it all.

– Unknown

https://tonycooke.org/stories-and-illustrations/son-gets-it-all/

If we love Jesus, then we can be forgiven and some day go to be with Him in heaven were things are so rich and fine

the streets are made of Gold.

The rejected catfish

I once caught a catfish.

He definitely took my bait and I hooked him.

Then for the longest time there was no resistance, it was like I had caught an old boot and was just reeling it in until the moment that the fish caught sight of the surface, and then it made a mighty lung for the bottom and broke my rod.

That’s when I got mad and determined in my heart that

If I landed that fish,

I was going to keep him and

eat him.

Despite the broken rode,

I did land him and

kept him.

When we were done fishing,

I returned to camp, with my my catfish.

My dad’s friend saw the catfish and

he told us ALL about his famous catfish recipe

which involved a lot of side dishes,

and the last step in serving up the catfish dinner was

to through out the useless catfish and eat the sides instead.

I guess he didn’t like eating catfish.

The rejection of the catfish reminds me that

sometimes there are presents that never get opened.

It’s a sad sight to see a lonely present,

left un-opened, under a tree.

Heart breaking for the giver.

A loss for the receiver.

Why do some presents get left un-opened?

Sometimes the recipient can’t or won’t come:

Busy job,

traffic/ weather delays,

un-forgiveness,

Just gone: stationed too far away

Can’t contact them any more

or they have gone on their eternal abode

be it heaven or hell.

Sometimes it’s by choice

Don’t value the gift

Sometimes we think we know what the gift is, and we don’t want it.

We may be right about the gift,

but sometimes we are very wrong.

Don’t like the person who gave it

Their weird

Their different

They don’t follow the popular crowd,

so we reject the gift, because the giver is not popular.

We think we know what the gift is, and we don’t want it

Many people have a wrong picture of the Christian life

We forget about the gift, lost neglected gift, we have too much

Gift got lost in the mail,

the delivery person failed to get it too us.