Short Messages And Sermon Starters Vol. 1: SHORT MESSAGES AND SERMON STARTERS, #1

By R. H. McGraw

Ministers and Bible study group leaders occassionally need some new material to inspire their presentations. This book is a collection of chapters that will do just that. The topics covered are both diverse and focused. Included in the book are two four-part series, one of which is "Spiritual Identity Theft." This latter item plus the other four-part series will lend some continuity in weekly presentations for a full month each. All of the chapters have scriptural reference citations, some of which are extensive, and easily lend themselves to further Bible study. An effort has been made to make each message both easy to read and to understand. Chapters in this book include discussions on prayer, evangelism, individual spiritual growth, faith, and many others. Ministers can readily embellish any one or all of the topics presented to fit their individual requirements for sermon preparation.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Reggie McGraw Ministries
• Release date: Oct 28, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201229146

Book preview

MESSAGE #4  DIVINE HEALING PART 1:

GOING BEYOND "IS IT GOD'S WILL TO HEAL?

MESSAGE #5  DIVINE HEALING PART 2:

GOD'S MEDICINE

MESSAGE #6  DIVINE HEALING PART 3:

THE LAYING ON OF HANDS

MESSAGE #7  DIVINE HEALING PART 4:

HEALING ALWAYS COMES, SO WHY NO HEALING MANIFESTATION?

MESSAGE #8  DON'T LET THIS BE YOU!

MESSAGE #9  FEAR NOT AND BECOME FISHERS OF MEN

MESSAGE #10  HARD SAYINGS

MESSAGE #11  HEY! THAT'S MINE!

MESSAGE #12  IDENTITY CRISIS PART 1:

IDENTITY THEFT

MESSAGE #13  IDENTITY CRISIS PART 2:

WHO ARE YOU?

MESSAGE #14  IDENTITY CRISIS PART 3:

NEW WINE IN OLD WINESKINS

MESSAGE #15  IDENTITY CRISIS PART 4:

LIVING WITH THE DEAD

MESSAGE #16  MORE THAN A GRAMMAR LESSON

MESSAGE #17  NOW OR LATER?

MESSAGE #18  ON BEHALF OF THE CHOIR: YOU’VE BEEN SET UP !

MESSAGE #19  SCARS

MESSAGE #20  SPIRITUAL IMPOVERISHMENT

MESSAGE #21  STUCK IN THE COURTYARD

MESSAGE #22  THE KINGDOM OF GOD

MESSAGE #23  THE SAMSON PRINCIPLE

MESSAGE #24  TO BE OR NOT TO BE

MESSAGE #25  UNPROFITABLE FAITH

FINAL THOUGHTS

ADDENDUM

PREFACE

As the title of this e-book indicates, this is a collection of both short messages that can be utilized as stand-alone sermons and an array of short studies that can be embellished to become full sermons. In addition, the chapters of this book can be utilized as weekly Bible study group material. The alphabetical listing of the various chapters is in no way to be taken as a linear progression through the topics covered. As a consequence, Bible study group leaders are invited to hopscotch within the table of contents to whatever pattern or sequence suits their particular needs. Any one Bible study group may cover some of the individual messages in only one session, whereas other chapters may necessitate multiple weeks of discussion.

It should be noted that two four-part series are included in this book. This in and of itself will lend continuity for at least two occasions of month-long development of one particular topic in Bible study groups and/or regular pulpit sermons.

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Many of the chapters are stand-alone teachings, but others are presented with sufficient clarification information and scripture references such that they will point to additional areas of biblical investigation. This is deliberate, as pointed out in Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge... By the text leading to further insights and searching out various additional passages of scripture, the intent of this book has been realized.

MESSAGE #1

AN INTERESTING PRAYER

The prayer life of Jesus is not extensively documented in the pages of the New Testament. Indeed, we have been given only a few examples of the words our Lord utilized in His conversations with the Father. One of those prayers is so captivating, however, that it bears closer inspection. Specifically, that prayer is the entire seventeenth chapter of the gospel of John.

The key parts of that prayer on which this message is centered are found in verses 11 and 22 of John 17, ...that they may be one even as we are one... Greek scholars indicate that this use of the word for one (heis) indicates a primary number or unit. While whole libraries could contain the volumes of discussion on the Trinity, suffice it to say that Jesus clearly states that He and the Father are one (God). Jesus also prayed something very interesting in John 17:22, The glory which thou hast given me I have given to them... That glory is no less than the Spirit of the Living God, i.e., the Holy Spirit. So if Jesus prayed for us all to be one, what did He mean, since we are obviously separate from each other in our fleshly body? This is a key point, since much depends upon an understanding of the unity embraced here.

Some of the foundational truth for this message is contained in First Cor. 12:12-13:

12 For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.

13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.

Jesus is pointing out a corollary between the many parts of the individual human body, and the many members of the body of Christ. Just as the finger or the eye is a part of the anatomically whole person, so too, the body of Christ has many individual components (people) that figure prominently in the spiritual wholeness of the body. Nevertheless, the Bible clearly states that there is much more to this corporate unity. We read in Ephesians, chapter one:

22 And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,

23 Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

The local church is rightly referred to as a body of believers, each serving in some capacity within that assembly. However, notice that verse 22 declares Jesus to be the head.  God does not make headless bodies, and neither does He make bodiless heads! So what is the fulness of Him that filleth all in all? Believers! We are the spiritual body of Jesus, who is the head over the entire corpus. We are one Spirit with Him (First Cor. 6:17 and 12:13,) and this how He could declare that we were raised up with Him and made to sit in heavenly places (Eph. 2:6) because He has made us one with Himself! Hence, the Word declares, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? (Rom. 8:35), and therefore nothing separates us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord, (Rom. 8:39.) We are one with Him!

Since we are one with Christ, a very interesting question arises: Who is the Bride of Christ? Few persons would question that Jesus is the Bridegroom referred to in the New Testament, but if believers constitute His spiritual body, we cannot simultaneously be some hermaphroditic bride and bridegroom. So who, or what, is the Bride? The answer is found in The Revelation, chapter 21: 9-11:

9 And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and  talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.

10 And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,

11 Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;

Jesus Himself declared that believers were neither married, nor given in marriage to each other in heaven (Matthew 22:30). So herein we can clearly discern that it is the New Jerusalem which constitutes the "Bride of Christ," not the saints of the ages. There are those who would point out passages such as Second Corinthians 11:2 which would appear to contradict this identification of the Bride of Christ:

2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

The translators used some liberty in this simile (a grammatical construction using the words like or as to compare two unlike things), where the word for espoused could also be rendered woo, as in drawn into relationship with. The chaste virgin concept comes from that of a female who has not had sexual relations with a man, hence she is chaste. In this same manner, we are chaste in Christ, as declared in Second Corinthians 5:17:

7 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Our former stained nature has been replaced by a chaste and spotless nature in Christ, as we were wooed into relationship, thus becoming one, with Him. The simile in the phrase as a chaste virgin is merely a comparison and not a literal fact. So, for example, in the Song of Solomon we can find further corroboration of this comparison concept in yet another such simile: My beloved is like a roe or a young hart, (Song of Sol. 2:9). Either this verse can be used as a basis to defend beastiality, which is ludicrous, or else the writer was again using a simile for effectual comparison and not a literal fact.

The mystery hidden through the ages concerning Jesus and revealed to the Gentiles was Christ in you, the hope of glory (Col. 1:27). He is in us, and we are in Him. Nothing can separate us from Him (Rom. 8:35-39), and ...as He is, so are we in this world (I John 4:17). This is not to be taken as prima facie evidence for the erroneous belief once saved, always saved, but rather a statement of the intense and complete identification we have in Him. One old chorus sung in some churches included the words, Oh to be His hand extended; reaching out to the oppressed. In truth, we are His hands extended, because we are His body! Why should we sing such nonsense when He has already made it a fact? This should give each of us new boldness in ministering to the sick, for instance, because we are the hands of Jesus, and He is in each believer yearning to release His Love and power into their ailing body!

Certainly if anyone ever got their prayers answered, it was Jesus. Therefore, the prayer He prayed to the Father in John chapter 17 was indeed manifested ...that they may be one even as we are one... (John 17:11 and 22). This oneness has made us one with the bridegroom in Him. We have been made to sit with (in) Him in the heavenly places at the right hand of the Father. This is our heritage in Christ, and it is our privilege to be members of the Kingdom of Light now, having been translated out of the kingdom of darkness. Glory to God!

MESSAGE #2

ASKING AMISS

Unanswered prayer is one of the more universal experiences for believers. We are told, for instance in James 4:3, Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts (KJV).  The phrase from this verse that is most striking regarding prayer is because ye ask amiss. The Bible, however, uses the term amiss in different contexts, so this is the initial study of this message.

One rendering of the term amiss is found in the admonition to the children of Israel by King Solomon if they were ever carried away into captivity, because they had done amiss (Second Chronicles 6:37). Literally, this meant that they had sinned, missed the mark, made crooked their ways, acted perversely before God, and therefore needed to confess and repent of their wrongdoing. Another facet of this term amiss is used in reference to our conversation. It can be found that King Nebuchadnezzer decreed a horrible death to anyone who spoke falsely, badly, or erroneously (amiss) against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (Dan. 3:29). One of the two thieves who were crucified with Jesus indicated that nothing illegal, harmful, wicked or unreasonable (amiss) had been done by our Lord to warrant His death on the cross (Luke 23:41). Lastly, in the verse from James quoted previously, the Greek word translated amiss (kakos) carries the connotation of something that is sick, perverted, evil, or miserably bad either physically or morally.

In his writing to the twelve tribes, James stated that praying only for things that were intended to be spent upon natural and/or sensual pleasures was to have perverted the whole point of prayer. Indeed, as one man has said, the attitude of prayer in the lives of many Christians is My name is Jimmy; I’ll take all you can gimme. Lord bless me, my wife and two kids; us four and no more! While it is certainly God’s good pleasure to bless us with wonderful things in this life, it is unreasonable and erroneous (amiss) to treat the Lord like some sort of divine Santa Claus who makes home deliveries daily to satisfy the every whim of selfish Christians!

Quite apart from such narcissistic prayers, however, is the praying amiss concerning that which can be construed as symptoms rather than the real problem. Most of the time, the outwardly visible aspects of some situation are the fruit of the issue, but the basis for these conditions is the root of the dilemma that should be the focus of our prayers. So, for instance, rather than trying to use our faith to cast the calories out of our food in order to lose weight, Christians should use their faith to receive the grace of discipline in their eating habits. Praying for more money to meet all the bills is useless until we stop robbing God in not paying our tithes and offerings (Mal. 3:8-10). Seeking God for favor in getting a job is a total waste of time unless we actually get off of the couch, update our resume, and get out there to put in applications.

Years ago during the so-called faith movement, some individuals even went so far as to pray in direct opposition to the Word of God! So, for instance, some lonely well-meaning lady would cast her eye on the gentle, securely employed, and reasonably good-looking husband of another woman in the church, and begin releasing her faith in prayer for this gentleman to leave his current wife and marry her! Some of these wanna-be brides even went to the extreme of confronting the man