The God that said, "Yes"

Yesterday’s sermon, “Death at Work” (Lon Allison using the text 2 Corinthians 4:7-15) at WBC was excellent. It really made me think. I just listened to it again on the WBC website. I went to the 8:15 a.m. service which is the traditional service and I think the sermon was better when I heard it than the sermon that is recorded. The worship music was magnificent. The song right before the sermon was “It is well with my soul,” with choir and orchestra. I felt like I was in heaven.

Here are a few of the illustrations that Lon used. I know, I know the illustrations are not the important part of the sermon but I just liked these and thought I would pass them on. . .

Lon Allison was talking about afflictions. He told us that recently he was with Cliff Barrows who is 90 gazillion years old now. Cliff said, “You know I still feel young.” (Cliff is blind now—he can tell some colors but everything is blurry and he cannot tell who people are when they come in the room.) “I do have one problem though, I cry,” he said. “However, my first wife told me that we need to leak from our eyes or if we don’t our brain will swell up.”

Lon said that as he was preparing his sermon, he asked his wife if she had ever been persecuted for her faith. She said, “No, I haven’t and neither has almost anyone at Wheaton Bible Church so don’t you suggest that they have been.” She is right. If a few people are offended here and there about our faith or think we are strange, that is not persecution. There are people all over the globe though who are persecuted daily for their faith. In fact, three times as many people die every year for their faith as died in the Vietnam War.

At the Hoover Dam there is a plaque commemorating the 96 men who officially died during the construction of Hoover Dam. The plaque says, “They died to make the desert bloom.”

Then on the way home, I listened to WMBI on the radio and I heard Tony Dungy talking about the death of his son, James. I thought this concurred with the message that I had just heard. This is not an exact quote but it is how I remember it. Tony Dungy said, “If God had talked to me before James’ death and said his death would help many people, it would save them and heal their sins, but I have to take your son, I would have said 'no, I can’t do that.' But God had the same choice 2,000 years ago with His Son, Jesus Christ, and He said, “yes,” and it paved the way for you and me to have eternal life. That is the God that I want to serve—the God that said “yes” for me and for you.”