 |  Preaching to today's fragmented congregations.
Winter 2000
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PreachingToday.com
January 1, 2000
Holy Expectation
Recently LEADERSHIP launched an online sermon resource, www.PreachingToday.com, which offers a searchable database of illustrations and a monthly online journal. Here's a sampling of some recent elements in the journal.
If I had to make my living with my hands, I would probably starve to death. Living in the tenements of New York City, my family depended on the superintendent to make repairs when things in our apartment broke. So I never learned to fix things myself. A few years ago a neighbor, noting my ineptness, asked my wife, "Bonnie, how do you live with a guy like that?"
She replied, "Very, very carefully."
Because I don't believe I can fix things, I usually don't even try. When I do try, I tend to give up whenever I hit a snag. That's normally right after I pick up a tool. I live with low expectations, and Bonnie and I pay a price for it—to plumbers, mechanics, and handymen.
Recently, I purchased some software for my computer and tried to install it myself. I followed the directions closely, step by step, and I was stunned when it worked! I was surprised by my surprise. But that is the result of living with shriveled expectations.
Our ministries are stunted when we live with diminished expectations. In fact, our surprise when God works is a dead giveaway of our condition.
We preach the Word of God and then are startled when a woman in our congregation hears the gospel and finds that it is, indeed, the best news ever.
We register shock on our personal Richter scale when a young man who was a victim of abuse hears what Jesus says about forgiveness and decides to confront his older brother who had molested him and get things settled.
We can hardly believe it when a husband involved in an affair sits at ...
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