Lessons Learned the Hard Way
Categories: Sermon Outlines, Topical Sermon OutlinesINTRODUCTION:
1. This morning (1/2/05) my grandfather, Louis Green died.
2. This was a man who was a child during the First World War, and survived the death of both parents at an early age.
3. He made it though the Great Depression by sheer determination and hard work.
4. He was about 30 years old when he joined the Navy after Pearl Harbor.
5. His generation was one that went through hell on earth and stood tall.
6. He was at Iwo Jima when that stronghold was assaulted. He drove the Marines to the beach and dodged mortars.
7. He was at the Battle of Okinawa where suicide planes rained from the sky. We almost lost him there.
8. After the war he supervised men and equipment in road construction and materials work.
9. Make no mistake, my grandfather wasn’t a saint. In fact he didn’t want to be one.
10.He had very little formal education yet he wasn’t ignorant.
11.What he did was learn some very basic lessons and passed them on to his grandson.
1) “Work, but work smarter.”
a. “Make your money work for you.”
b. “Learn the easy way to do things.” “There’s an easy way and there’s a hard way.”
2) “Get your education, no one can take that away.”
3) When someone bought something because it was on sale he would say, “Buy two and save twice as much!” He learned that saving a dollar was just as good as earning one.
12. This last one is to be the focus of the rest of this lesson. “You don’t know what you can do until you have to.” He also said it like this, “Nothing’s impossible. The impossible just takes a little longer.”
DISCUSSION: God isn’t shy about giving us big jobs.
I. BUILD AN ARK. Genesis 6:5-21
1. No one builds an ark in an instant.
1) Must begin. (Resolve)
2) Must continue. (Be faithful)
3) THEN the day when all is finished will come.
2. Genesis 6:22
II. GET THEE OUT OF THY COUNTRY. Genesis 12:1-3
1. This was an 800 mile journey at the pace of the slowest in the herds. Took months.
1) Had to begin.
2) Had to continue.
3) Then he got to the end.
2. Genesis 12:4-5
III. TELL PHARAOH TO LET MY PEOPLE GO. Exodus 3:10; Exodus 12:37
IV. GO YE THEREFORE AND TEACH ALL NATIONS. Matthew 28:18-20
1. Now it gets personal.
2. Never finished till Jesus comes.
3. Still must begin.
4. Must remain faithful.
5. At Okinawa Grandpa’s ship was hit by a kamikaze plane through the bow of the ship at the waterline. Grandpa and others were locked in flooding compartments and ordered to patch the holes. It was “do or die.” Water was rising but he still had to do it.
6. “You don’t know what you can do until you have to.”
7. “It’s hard” – Go ye.
8. “People are mean.” – Go ye.
9. “How will I pay the bills if I preach.” – Go ye.
10.”They might throw me in jail.” – Go ye.
11.2 Timothy 4:1-5; Rev. 2:10; Hebrews 12:1-2.
CONCLUSION:
1. I’ll never forget the living example I’ve had of someone who learned to do difficult things.
2. We must take on the challenges of the Gospel. God has not relented in His commands. There are things we just have to do.