While working with the purpose sentence “Making proper requests of God demands forethought,” I used a recording of Zero Mostel singing Tevye’s pitiful prayer from Fiddler on the Roof. In it he dialog’s with God about the many poor people in the world and states that though it’s not a shame to be poor, it isn’t a great honor either.
Tevye’s plea is that he become a rich man, and he inquires as to whether granting this request would upset some great eternal plan. Explaining how characteristic such praying is even in Christian circles, I showed why it was not proper. How much more effective this was than simply stating that we often don’t make proper requests of God.
A good illustration of utilizing outside helps was exemplified by a recent team-preaching sermon, “Building Blocks of Our Faith.” Attempting to be basic, we determined that an individual must have all four of the following ingredients present in his “between Sundays” life:
- The study of Scripture.
- Private worship and prayer.
- The influence of other Christians.
- Involvement in ministry.
In discussion the staff decided that a team-preaching approach would more satisfactorily amplify our thrust than a solo presentation. With one person emphasizing each point, it would make the divisions more distinct and the content clearer.
We hoped to further couple this with a visual approach for even greater emphasis. Ka Tong thought of the Parker Brothers puzzle, Instant Insanity—four building blocks with different colored sides. The purpose of the game is to stack the blocks so that each side of the column has all four colors showing. The idea clicked. We had large wooden blocks made and painted by a man in the congregation.
The central section of the service, “God Speaking Through His Written Word,” began with Ka Tong’s explaining that for many people, living the Christian life is a great puzzle, a spiritual struggle somewhat like trying to accomplish the impossible. Then, he pointed to the four giant blocks, revealing the difficulty of stacking them properly and why the puzzle was called Instant Insanity. He concluded: “What we are attempting to do this morning is to give you the keys that unlock the secret of this puzzle and at the same time give meaning to the puzzle of spiritual living as well.”
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