Infusion Bible eStudies are downloadable small group studies that can be read online, printed, or emailed. Each study includes a leader guide and a study guide and is suitable for a one-hour group Bible study.
Listen...to the words of the Scripture, and in them discover God's message for you today.
Look...at a brief verbal snapshot from the scrapbook of contemporary life and discover its connection both to you and to the Scripture passage.
Live...inside the Scripture to discover its context and message; then allow the Scripture to come alive in you and cause you to live out your faith in new and more-effective ways.
Read an excerpt from this study below.
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People love conveying sermon jokes and cartoons to preachers. Here are a few memorable ones people have gleefully shared with me:
A police officer is on the precinct phone with a priest. “You say thieves broke into your computer and stole all your sermons, Reverend? Listen, I’ve heard you preach. It wasn’t an accidental deletion, believe me!”
Another cartoon shows a long-winded pastor in the pulpit. Next to him stands a delivery boy with a steaming pizza box. The pastor, looking annoyed, says to the congregation, “I’m quite aware what time it is. Now who’s the wise guy who ordered the pizza?”
A pastor arrived in the pulpit one Sunday apologizing for the adhesive bandage on his face. “I was thinking about my sermon while shaving,” he said, “and I cut my face.” After the service, he found a note in the collection plate that read, “Next time, think about your face and cut the sermon.”
A preacher’s young daughter asked her father why he always bowed his head for a moment before he preached. He explained, “That’s to ask God to help me with the sermon.” The little girl looked puzzled, then responded, “Then why doesn’t he?”
Then there was the preacher who read his sermons word for word from a manuscript he placed on the pulpit early each Sunday. One Sunday, two mischievous boys sneaked in before the service and stole the last page. During the sermon, the preacher got to the end of the next-to-last page and said as he turned the page, “And Adam said to Eve ... uh ... Oh my. There seems to be a leaf missing!”
The humor in these examples arises from the fact that there is sometimes a significant difference between how preachers view their sermons and how they are perceived by those who hear them.
This is an age-old problem, as Jeremiah discovered when he preached by the Temple gate. Many of his listeners considered his message an irritant, a troublesome word they did not wish to hear. Nonetheless, they could have profited by listening to Jeremiah; and so can we.
