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Sermons By Dr. Glenn W. Mollette

 

Here are some rough sermon notes that were later edited and 
placed in some of my early Spiritual Chocolate Books titled
Spiritual Chocolate: Inspirational Delights For The Heart 
You can find this book and other Devotional/Sermon books in the Spiritual Chocolate Series
on Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com and other dealers. 

 

 

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Our Greatest Need

 

By Dr. Glenn W. Mollette 

 

We worry a lot.


We worry about people we love.
We worry about life – food, bills, housing, buying a gallon of milk, a gallon of gas.
We worry about health….we worry period.

  “Our Father In heaven knows what you need….Matthew 6: “ and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

 

  Hebrews 7:  'You are a priest forever.' " 22Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant.

    23Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; 24but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. 25Therefore he is able to save completely[c] those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

 

Jesus is the great intercessor – My little children these things I write unto you, that you sin not, but if any man sins we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ the righteous….

Do you remember in Genesis 37, Joseph’s brothers threw him away. He was going, going, going…..gone…nope God caught him. God intervened.  And God took care of him and eventually set him in a high and glorious place in the very kingdom of the Pharoah of Egypt.   In the same way God in Christ, caught us, he has saved us and someday we will reign with him in glory.  

 

So, Jesus is our Interceptor.  We are going to hell, but he catches us, and you know what the bible says, “I know my sheep and they hear my voice….and nothing can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.”   You were falling, losing, dying, but in Christ, God caught you and the world can not pry you out of God’s hand.

 

Jesus is not only our Interceptor, but He is also our Intercessor.  He is our advocate.   He always lives to intercede for you.  He is not a priest that comes and goes. He lives forever.

   Hebrews: 7:  26Such a high priest meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. 27Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. 28For the law appoints as high priests men who are weak; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever

 

Jesus said in Matthew 6 that Our Father knows what we need.

Hebrews 7: 26 “Such a high priest meets our need”   Jesus is the high priest

1.     You see, Jesus meets our sin need.     I was sinking, deep in sin, far from the peaceful shore,   But, who rescues us from Sin?      Hebrews says, “He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.”  

When I survey the wondrous cross, on which the prince of glory died. My richest gain I count but loss and poor contempt on all my pride.

 

2.     Jesus meets our love need – Everybody needs to be loved…and you are …but not like Jesus. Jesus gave himself on the cross for you.  …Romans 5.8 “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

 

3.     Jesus meets our greatest needs.   He knows what we need.  Yes indeed he knows what we need.   Hebrews 7: Such a high priest meets our need.”

 

 Hebrews 13:5
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." [ Deut. 31:6]

Philippians 4:19
And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

 

Illus. We had some hard times as a kid. My dad fell off a barn, was disabled and for six months I thought we would starve to death.  ….guess what we didn’t. My mother and I were looking at JC Penny catalog the day before he was injured. We were getting ready to place this big order. We didn’t do it. 

 God took care of us.

I didn’t grow up in a perfect family. I loved my daddy, but sometimes we communicated like two rocks. After my mother died, he had to talk to me every week.

Illus. On the porch

  Such a high priest meets our needs

 

Illus. when I was saved

Illus. I was married the first time for 27 years. Karen died after battling multiple sclerosis for 12 years.  Watching your wife die one day at a time for 12 years is painful.

 Such a high priest meets our needs.

 We all have stories…. Carole and I have been married for just over three years.
And we’ve never gone to bed mad….we stayed up all night the other night…but…

She went through a hard time with her husband leaving her after 20 years of marriage. She had three girls, I have two boys.  It’s not easy. But one thing we have in common is our love for Jesus…..our high priest meets our needs.

 

Illus. dying man…..oh bless God that’s what I need, yes Lord come into my life.

 

 

You see, that’s what we all need. We all need Jesus.
We need Jesus, when we are living, we need Jesus, when we are dying, we need Jesus beyond this world. 

 

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A Ray for a Dark Day

 

By Dr. Glenn W. Mollette

 

Psalm 31: 21 – 24…. “Vs. 22…you heard my cry for mercy when I called to you for help.”   Vs. 24 be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord.”

Luke 24: 21 “But we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.”

 

Have you ever given up on something? What about a course in school?

Some of you while going to college may have started out in a course and said I’m doing terrible at this course. It’s hopeless and you went to the registrar’s office and dropped the class.

 

A friend became discouraged in college. He said he went away to school but at the end of the semester he had four F’s. And he said, “I’m hopeless and he dropped out of college.” Of course he confessed he squandered his time playing cards, running around and never opened a book.

 

A relative came back from Vietnam in the sixties and after about only three or four months he and his wife divorced. I don’t know to this day what all the problems were. There were family rumors about the marriage…but the bottom line was that he quit.

 

My first cousin gave up on life when his wife left he and his daughter to run off with another man. He loved his wife completely. After realizing he could not reconcile the marriage he asked his mom one day, “Mom…if something happens to me. Will you take care of our little girl? Well of course I will,” and a few days later he took his life…because he felt hopeless.

 

Now there are all kinds of scenarios that cause us to have a sense of feeling hopeless.

 

        Sickness, relationship separation, divorce, failure at school, job termination, unreasonable people or unrealistic expectations of ourselves or even others.

 

  Sometimes we have these perceived expectations of other people and then when we cannot convince or manipulate them to fulfill our expectations we are frustrated and we say… “Sigh, it’s hopeless.” Or, “They are hopeless.”

 

 Hopelessness tempts us to quit.

Often it drives us to quit because we feel it is no use.

 

 

A young couple may marry and stay that way for a few months and say it’s hopeless we can’t make it. And then we hear of couples that have been married 20 years and say the same thing.

 

I heard about this one couple that had been married 51 years and they divorced. And the wife was asked “Why after all of these years?” And she said, “I just couldn’t go another day of life with picking his socks up and I gave up.”

 

What is there in life that has the ability to grind you down? Is it the tenacious marriage partner who will not change or altar a little habit that drives you crazy? Is it the daily battle you have to fight to get your child to practice the piano, do his homework or clean up the room?

 

Or maybe your kids are older now and they still can’t grow up and assume responsibility. Or you’ve worked at the same job for 20 years and they have done nothing to insure some kind of retirement plan for you and you are getting close to that …and its scary for you.

 

  The disciples said in Luke 24:21 “But we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.” 

              They weren’t hoping this now. They had witnessed their hope beaten, bruised, bloodied and executed in humiliation by a mob of soldiers and all of it applauded by a very religious crowd of people.

  Jesus did not look like the fulfillment to their hopes nor their answer hanging naked on that cross.

 

 1st These disciples experienced devastation.

   Demolition occurred right before their eyes. Their hope was destroyed in front of them.

 Devastation takes on all different forms. Job layoff. A failure in school. A spouse walks away from the marriage. But to you it might mean a feeling like you have no friends at school. You didn’t make the varsity athletic team. You weren’t able to achieve prominence in the school band or make the cast for the spring play. Maybe the guy you really wanted to go to prom with asked somebody else.

     Everybody has his or her own worlds of devastation.

  You weren’t close to your Father growing up. He never spent any time with you. Your mother was less than an ideal mother to you. You had a stillborn baby or a child to die before they achieved any opportunities to live life.

 

You were treated unfairly at work or you made a bad choice or two that cost you and the consequences were grave.

 

These disciples saw their best friend mistreated worse than a cruel criminal.

They had seen Jesus love, heal, forgive and bring back to life the dead and they were devastated that anybody could mistreat a man like Jesus.

 

You ever been through devastation? Ever had a dream demolished? Have you ever had anything bad happen to you? Maybe you are going through some kind of horrible devastation this morning and it hurts and nobody here can feel the pain you are going through.

 

There is one who does. Jesus understands. Not only does he understand but also he cares and he wants to comfort and encourage your heart today.

 

 

 

 

2nd Despondency - When hope is lost you feel bad.  You feel depressed. Your countenance is lowered. When you are despondent it takes the zeal away from your life. You lose your sunshine and it makes it harder to smile.

 

A girl at Georgetown College who went on to work for our denomination was always telling everybody to smile. And a fellow sitting at our table one day said, “I just came from taking a Hebrew test and I don’t feel like smiling.”

 

You ever had one of those days when you didn’t feel like being happy? It was just easier to be despondent. But it’s not. Long-term depression and despondency takes it toll on your body. And when you are depressed work on getting out of it.

 

And you likely look for distance. Sometimes it’s some semblance of a way to just get away from it all.

 

These disciples were walking away …and to someplace else.

                  

 

 

 

 

3rd Discussion – two disciples experience devastation and despondency. And devastation and despondency always cries out for somebody to talk to. “Two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, and Jesus when he joined them asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”

  Well have you not heard they replied? Do you live in a cave? Where on planet earth have you been?

 

And so these disciples as they walked along had a lot to talk about. They both shared the grief of an executed Jesus but they also had heard reports of his missing body and this was the third day and so they are talking not exactly clear what to make of it all.

 

Who do you talk to? Who helps you bear your burden? Or helps you celebrate life? Who do you talk to when you deal with those trials that are devastating to you?

 

Obviously you can’t just talk to the first person you run into because they may not even care. And then you can’t just talk to anybody because some people are stupid and they may give you some off the wall response that you really don’t need to hear. And then there are others you cannot talk to because you may not want everybody in Southern Indiana to know about it and they can’t keep a confidence because they tell everybody they meet and so you have to be picky about whom you talk to.

 

I suggest you find someone with some maturity about him or her and some Godly wisdom.

 These disciples were talking among themselves.

  1st they had been through the same experience

  2nd. They had likely followed Jesus for the same amount of time…maybe even three years

 3rd. They were on the same side.  You see if Cleopas had been having a conversation with Pilate or one of the screaming religious leaders that had Jesus executed …then the chemistry of conversation and empathy would not have been the same.

 

  You think …well I’m going to talk to this guy who may even come to our church. He may sympathize with you and pray for you but he may not be able to understand and it’s hard to talk to people who don’t understand.

 

You see in this conversation the other disciple is apparently not telling Cleopas to shut up and get a grip! Or, okay Jesus is dead – get over it. Sure our dream and life just went up in chaos and death…but come on now don’t feel so bad. There is conversation occurring with a spirit of empathy, understanding, concern and willingness to listen and take it in.

 

Do you know anybody that can listen? Most people today are thinking about what they are going to say while you are talking and so they seldom are really tuning in intensely what you are saying.

 

I want say to you today Jesus listens. When Jesus got involved in this conversation he listened to what they had to say. But he responded to what they said and when Jesus started talking these disciples obviously loved it because when they reached their destination they begged Jesus to come in and stay with them. They just loved hearing what Jesus had to say.

 

We feel like prayer is taking sixty seconds and saying a few words …sometimes the same words to God. But prayer is listening to all that Jesus has to say.  The Bible says vs. 22 “We’re not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the scriptures to us? Their hearts burned within them as they had their discussion time with Jesus.”

 

4th But next their despondency was turned to discovery.  As they talked with Jesus they began to worship with him. In verse 30 he took bread symbolizing his body and gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them and suddenly their eyes were opened and they recognized the Lord…”

    As they fellowshipped with Jesus and talked with Jesus and even worshipped with Jesus, they made an incredible discovery.

  Now they didn’t know whom they were fellowshipping with and even worshipping with but they knew he was okay. His spirit bonded with theirs and that’s why they compelled him to stay with them.

 

Now you don’t know all these other people here today. But with many here you feel okay because we are teaching from the same book the Bible. We are talking about the same savior and we all have the same eternity if we are in Christ.

 

 

Some of the greatest discoveries are made in worship. As you study God’s word and sing songs about Christ and share in the worship experience not only do we feel his presence but also there are those discoveries that give us hope.

 

Before Karen’s death on an October dismal night when Karen was really feeling bad I sought out a Christian chat room on the Internet and went in there and told ten or fifteen complete strangers about my wife’s illness and asked for prayer. Those people had an incredible prayer meeting for me that must have lasted 20 minutes. Now folks, that’s a lot of typing on those computer keys to pray for twenty minutes.  I felt a genuine Spirit from that prayer time.

 

I thanked them and later found a multiple sclerosis discussion room. And these people were sharing about their disease most of them talking about different types of medicines they were using. And this one girl said, “I’m on the chemotherapy. “Yea I said…that’s new isn’t it.” Yes…Dr. Fallis from Louisville gave it to me.” Dr. Fallis. Dr. Fallis. When we lived in Pikeville KY we use to drive to Lexington to see Dr. Fallis. But that was ten years ago and everything then was experimental and so we looked for others.

 

So…we have researched it some and have found there are cases where the chemotherapy helps chronic progressive cases. And Thursday we had our first session of Chemotherapy. Will it help? Don’t know for sure. Are we hopeful? Absolutely. New discoveries give us hope.

  A new discovery is a beautiful bright ray of sun on a dark day. The sun pierces the darkness and that light gives us hope.

 

When the ship is sinking any port looks good.

 

But I find it interesting that God revealed that to me after a 20 minute prayer meeting with some of his children that I’ll never meet until I get to heaven.

 

5th Delight – When Jesus revealed himself to these disciples everything changed. Jesus changes everything.

 

  When devastation strikes – Romans 8:28 “All things work together for good to them who love God and are called according to his purpose.”

 

  We say…we don’t understand it but God is somehow going to see me through.

 

When we are complete failures and sin against God… we remember, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ…shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? NO, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

 

Jesus said in John chapter 10 nothing shall pluck them from my Father’s hand…

 

When we are empty and without strength we remember Philippians 4.13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

 

Godly discussion, prayer, worship, spiritual seeking can lead to great discoveries for your life. It’s those little discoveries and sometimes even the big discoveries that ignite us, and give us hope. And hope is always delight!

Hope is always a beautiful ray that encounters us on the dark day of devastation and depression and that ray brings delight.

 

You need some hope about something? You need that ray of light?

 Will you open your heart to God’s guidance today? Will you be willing to let God speak to you and help you? You have to be willing. You have an attitude that says I’m listening Lord. When Jesus talked to these disciples their hearts burned within them and their devastation was turned to delight.

 Jesus can do that. HE can do that for you today. It may not happen in three days. It may not happen the way that you would even like it to happen. You might not get your wish.       But The Bible says, nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.”  And that is a hope not only for this world but beyond this world and over there …there will never be a dark

 
 




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