BE A BURDEN BEARER (6 OF 6)
by Jeff Strite
Scripture: Galatians 6:1-10
This content is part of a series.
Be a Burden Bearer (6 of 6)
Series: Who Are You?
Jeff Strite
Galatians 6:1-10
OPEN: There's a true story of a preacher trying to reach out to his community. His idea was to get a group from the church to go and work for free at local grocery stores and laundromats. He phoned several of these stores and for permission to do what he'd planned.
But on one call, the employee who answered the phone hesitated... then said, ''I'll need to ask the manager. But first, let me make sure I understand: You want to clean up the parking lot, retrieve shopping carts, hold umbrellas for customers and you don't want anything in return.''
''Yes, that's right,'' the preacher replied.
The employee set the phone down and went to talk to the manager. When he came back to the phone he said: ''I'm sorry. We can't let you do that. If we let you do it, we'd have to let everyone else do it, too!'' (Ann Jeffries, Kansas City, KS Christian Reader, ''Lite Fare.'')
APPLY: Really? Why wouldn't that store let them help? Well, I can think of several possible reasons, but my suspicion is that... they were suspicious.
What caught my attention about this story was the comment by the employee: ''let me make sure I understand: You want to clean up the parking lot, retrieve shopping carts, hold umbrellas for customers and you don't want anything in return.''
I think the store turned the church down because they suspected an ulterior motive
You see, we live in a world where there's a lot of people out there who tend to have ulterior motives. A lot of seem to live their lives based on their own self-interest.
ILLUS: Just as an example, let's play a little mind-game.
Let's say you just inherited $1 million. What would you do with that kind of money? Think about it for a few moments. (Pause)
Now, some folks would pay off bills, maybe or buy new a house or a new car, invest in a business, or an IRA (money market account), or maybe even give some of the money to their relatives. All ...
Series: Who Are You?
Jeff Strite
Galatians 6:1-10
OPEN: There's a true story of a preacher trying to reach out to his community. His idea was to get a group from the church to go and work for free at local grocery stores and laundromats. He phoned several of these stores and for permission to do what he'd planned.
But on one call, the employee who answered the phone hesitated... then said, ''I'll need to ask the manager. But first, let me make sure I understand: You want to clean up the parking lot, retrieve shopping carts, hold umbrellas for customers and you don't want anything in return.''
''Yes, that's right,'' the preacher replied.
The employee set the phone down and went to talk to the manager. When he came back to the phone he said: ''I'm sorry. We can't let you do that. If we let you do it, we'd have to let everyone else do it, too!'' (Ann Jeffries, Kansas City, KS Christian Reader, ''Lite Fare.'')
APPLY: Really? Why wouldn't that store let them help? Well, I can think of several possible reasons, but my suspicion is that... they were suspicious.
What caught my attention about this story was the comment by the employee: ''let me make sure I understand: You want to clean up the parking lot, retrieve shopping carts, hold umbrellas for customers and you don't want anything in return.''
I think the store turned the church down because they suspected an ulterior motive
You see, we live in a world where there's a lot of people out there who tend to have ulterior motives. A lot of seem to live their lives based on their own self-interest.
ILLUS: Just as an example, let's play a little mind-game.
Let's say you just inherited $1 million. What would you do with that kind of money? Think about it for a few moments. (Pause)
Now, some folks would pay off bills, maybe or buy new a house or a new car, invest in a business, or an IRA (money market account), or maybe even give some of the money to their relatives. All ...
There are 15981 characters in the full content. This excerpt only shows a 2000 character sample of the full content.
Price: $5.99 or 1 credit
