Hi, our friend is getting ready to deliver this serman soon and wanted
feedback.
What do you think?
I thought it was pretty good and I didn't see anything offensive about it.
That's something he was worried about.


Sermon:

NO DRY BRANCHES

Do you ever feel like a dried up branch?  Do you ever feel useless and
forgotten?  Like your best years are behind you or you never did and
never will accomplish anything?  Like you can never be used by GOD to do
anything?

If so, it's because you've allowed yourself to be cut off from the only
source of true Life, JESUS CHRIST.  And I bring you good news in His
Name tonight.

In Isaiah 56, the LORD tells those who think they must have children to
count in the world and leave a posterity that in Him they have more of a
legacy than even children can ever be.  He tells foreigners who have
come to Him but feel as if they're not as good as others that He will
not abandon them and He will use them as He gathers them together with
all other Believers in His House of Prayer.

Prayer.  That is a service that you can do -- whatever you are, whoever
you are, wherever you are.  You can pray!  You can pray for others and
you can pray that you would be used to bless others in the Name of GOD.

If you "can't" preach...you CAN pray!
If you "can't" give money...you CAN pray!
If you "can't" heal the sick or raise the dead...you CAN pray!
If you can't do any other ministry, you CAN pray!

But it's even better than that, because GOD is the GOD of the disabled,
handicapped, challenged or whatever politically correct term you want to
use.  What is it you think you can't do?

(Using Sign Language):

If you can't hear...you CAN pray!
If you can't speak...you CAN pray!
If you can't work...you CAN pray!
If you can't walk, you CAN pray!

How do I know so much about the handicapped?
Because when I was born my mother had "German Measles" or Rubella and my
parents were told to leave me in the hospital and let me die because I
would only be living a few hours or a few days at most.  The doctors
said my death would be a blessing because if I lived, I would be:
profoundly retarded, unable to see, unable to speak, unable to eat,
unable to control my bowels or bladder, unable to walk.  In other words, I
would soon be a dry, dead branch, physically.  But the LORD had other
ideas.

On my second Christmas, I started walking around the house with my sister's
brand new doll stroller. She wasn't very happy about it, but the rest of
the
family was, and it wasn't long before that when I started to walk on my
own.

I got through school with the usual scrapes and scratches and challenges.
When we took an IQ test, the principal called me into his office.  He
told me
that I had only missed a few points on an IQ test and that was
impossible, so if I told
him how I had cheated on an IQ test, he would make sure I didn't get into
trouble.  I  told him I had no idea how anyone could cheat on an IQ test
so if he did he must obviously be much smarter than I, and that when he
figured out a way he
should let me know.  He told me to get out of his office. When I was
about to graduate high school, some doctors told me that there
was  no logical reason I was able to walk.  They said if I let them open
up my
back and figure out how I could walk when I wasn't supposed to, they
would give me a
full scholarship to college.  I told them that if they couldn't figure
out how I
could walk,  chances were if they messed things up they wouldn't figure
out how to fix
it, so I declined.  (I got a full scholarship to college anyway.)

While at college I heard a lecture by the author Eric Von Daniken who wrote
about how the Bible is just a series of stories about aliens from other
planets visiting earth.  Since I was known for being able to write and
draw, I
thought I would write an illustrated book about how all of the Bible was
really
storires about extraterrestrial astronaughts.  I would make a million
dollars!  I
would ascend to the throne of the Most High...I would...But before
beginning the
project, I wanted to be fair, so I bought a Bible in a second-hand
bookstore
and prayed "I want to know the Truth, whomever and whatever is out there!"
And before I finished reading that Bible through from cover to cover the
first time, I met and fell in love with JESUS CHRIST, Who says "I AM the
Truth."

Life has been an adventure since then.  I found work at the U.S. Army
Chaplain  Center and School and moved with them from New Jersey here to
South Carolina and here before you today.  In every situation, JESUS has
brought me
through. Did I always get the answers I wanted to prayers?  No.  In many
ways, I'm
like that fellow in Isaiah who is alone and feels as if he has never
contributed and never will, has never had love and never will.  But in
the end, we are simply to pray without thought to the answers, because
the answers will come though not in the way we expect.  The prayers
themselves are the leaves that precede the fruit in our lives GOD will
bring forth.

There's only one requirement to pray.  JESUS.  When JESUS meets the
woman at the well, He tells her that GOD is Spirit and those who worship
Him must worship in Spirit and in Truth.  In John 15, He explains that
in order for dry branches to blossom and bear fruit, they must be
grounded in Him.  In JESUS, the Way, the Truth, and the Life, the Vine,
the Root of Jesse, the Branch.  Without Him, we can do nothing.  He is
our Life.

JESUS is our Life because He is our GOD, GOD in the flesh, fully GOD and
fully man, who gave His Life for us when we were dead branches in our
sin to give us His Life in His Resurrection so we can bear fruit...much
fruit...in His Name to the Glory of the Father.  He can give you that
life right now.  He can make the dry branch of your life blossom and
bear fruit in many ways.  All you need do is ask Him.  All you need do
is pray!

References:

Isaiah 56:3-8 (NAS) Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the
LORD say, "The LORD will surely separate me from His people." Nor let
the eunuch say, "Behold, I am a dry tree." For thus says the LORD, "To
the eunuchs who keep My sabbaths, And choose what pleases Me, And hold
fast My covenant...To them I will give in My house and within My walls a
memorial, And a name better than that of sons and daughters; I will give
them an everlasting name which will not be cut off. Also the foreigners
who join themselves to the LORD...I will bring to My holy  mountain And
make them joyful in My house of prayer.

John 4:24 (NAS)  "God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship
in spirit and truth."

John 15:4-6 (NAS)  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it
abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. "I am the
vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears
much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing. "If anyone does not
abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather
them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.

John 14:6 (NAS)  Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and
the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me."

Romans 15:12 Again Isaiah says, "THERE SHALL COME THE ROOT OF JESSE, AND
HE WHO ARISES TO RULE OVER THE GENTILES, IN HIM SHALL THE GENTILES HOPE."

Jeremiah 33:15 (NAS) 'In those days and at that time I will cause a
righteous Branch of David to spring forth; and He shall execute justice
and righteousness on the earth.

Colossians 3:4 (NAS) When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you
also will be revealed with Him in glory.