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    Pack Up Your Troubles: Sermons on How to Trust God
    Pack Up Your Troubles: Sermons on How to Trust God
    Pack Up Your Troubles: Sermons on How to Trust God
    Ebook118 pages1 hour

    Pack Up Your Troubles: Sermons on How to Trust God

    By Maxie Dunnam

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    About this ebook

    Maxie Dunnam's direct, persuasive, and often humorous style will appeal to pastors seeking new insight based on biblical themes. The author also provides a treasury of contemporary illustrations and anecdotes.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAbingdon Press
    Release dateSep 1, 2010
    ISBN9781426726927
    Pack Up Your Troubles: Sermons on How to Trust God
    Author

    Maxie Dunnam

    Maxie D. Dunnam became the fifth president of Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky and served for 14 years. Dunnam came to Asbury after 12 years of fruitful ministry at the 5,000-member Christ United Methodist Church in Memphis, Tennessee. From 1975–1982, Dunnam was world editor of The Upper Room. Dunnam is the author of more than 40 books, including the best-selling Workbook of Living Prayer (over one million copies sold). Dunnam presently serves as director of Christ Church Global at Christ United Methodist Church in Memphis, Tennessee.

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      Book preview

      Pack Up Your Troubles - Maxie Dunnam

      Pack Up Your Troubles

      BOOKS IN THE PROTESTANT PULPIT EXCHANGE

      Be My People: Sermons on the Ten Commandments

      Ross W. Mans

      Be My Guest: Sermons on the Lord's Supper

      C. Thomas Hilton

      Believe in Me: Sermons on the Apostles' Creed

      James A. Harnish

      Fatal Attractions: Sermons on the Seven Deadly Sins

      William R. White

      What Are You Waiting For?

      Sermons on the Parables of Jesus

      Mark Trotter

      Pack Up Your Troubles:

      Sermons on How to Trust in God

      Maxie Dunnam

      Ripe Life: Sermons on the Fruit of the Spirit

      C. Thomas Hilton

      Pack Up

      Your

      Troubles

              Sermons on       

      How to Trust in God

      Maxie Dunnam

      Image1

      Abingdon Press

      Nashville

      PACK UP YOUR TROUBLES:

      SERMONS ON HOW TO TRUST IN GOD

      Copyright © 1993 Abingdon Press

      All rights reserved.

      No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed in writing to Abingdon Press, 201 Eighth Avenue South, Box 801, Nashville, TN 37202.

      93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 — 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

      This book is printed on recycled, acid-free paper.

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Dunnam, Maxie D.

      Pack up your troubles: sermons on how to trust God / Maxie Dunnam.

      p. cm.—(Protestant pulpit exchange)

      Includes bibliographical references.

      ISBN 0-687-09755-X (acid-free paper)

      1. Bible N.T. James—Sermons. 2. Methodist Church—Sermons. 3. Sermons, American. I. Title II. Series.

      BS2785.4.D86 1993.

      252'.076—dc20

      92-42037

      Quotations noted NRSV are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, Copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission.

      Those noted RSV are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Copyright 1946, 1952, 1971 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission.

      The story of Mama Hale in Chapter 8 is excerpted with permission from Mama Hale and Her Little Angels by Claire Safran, Reader's Digest, September 1984. Copyright © 1984 by the Reader's Digest Assn., Inc.

      MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

      To three persons

      –––

      Mary Evelyn Marino

      Robbie McQuiston

      Mary Hall

      –––

      without whose faithful assistance

      I could not have been effective in

      ministry during the past twenty years.

      They served not only as my secretaries,

      but as counselors and encouragers.

      Contents

      Introduction

      1. Count It All Joy

      James 1:1-4

      2. Don't Mess with Mr. In-between

      James 1:5-8

      3. How to Be Rich and Poor

      James 1:9-11

      4. Meeting and Mastering Temptation

      James 1:12-15

      5. Will the Real God Please Stand?

      James 1:16-18 40

      6. Swift to Hear—Slow to Speak

      James 1:19-20; 3:1-1247

      7. It Isn't Easy Being Green

      James 2:1-13

      8. Faith Working in Love

      James 2:14-26

      9. Draw Near to God

      James 4:7-9

      10. What Is Your Life?

      James 4:13-17

      11. Pack Up Your Troubles

      James 5:1-11

      12. Who Are Christians?

      James 5:13-20

      Introduction

      If I were to give a subtitle to the Epistle of James, I would call it A Manual of Practical Christianity. And isn't that our need? We are always asking that things be made more practical. Speakers are admonished to use the kiss principle: Keep it simple, stupid.

      There is a sense in which the Epistle of James is a how-to book, and any bookstore has a large section of such books, from How to Build a Patio to How to Repair Your Motorcycle. We are a sort of "do it yourself people. Many who can afford to have anything and everything done by others like to do it themselves.

      The possibility of a how-to manual for the Christian life is appealing. We hear a lot in church about what we should do, but perhaps not enough about how to do it. My prayer is that, throughout this book, I will not forget the how to, in How to Trust in God.

      I'm aware of the controversy that has surrounded this book of James, even before it was included in the canon of scripture we call the Bible. Unfortunately, Martin Luther tied a millstone around this book's neck when he called it an Epistle full of straw. He felt there was nothing evangelical about it. I'm aware that there were many pros and cons in its journey to being accepted as a part of Holy Scripture. But the burden of tradition and the church's response to it has given it a place among the General Epistles of the New Testament.

      While Luther called it an Epistle of straw, others have called it The Epistle of Rock or Epistle of Reality or Epistle of Common Sense.

      So I believe it's a book we are well advised to heed. Its purpose is not to proclaim the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, yet there is wisdom and guidance for those who would be followers of the Risen Lord. In fact, some have even thought it was a commentary on sections of the Sermon on the Mount. Throughout the letter, you will find those words of James, which sound very much like the words of Jesus.

      I like to think of it as a manual of discipleship—very practical guidance, as well as challenge and inspiration. Seeing it this way, I preached twelve sermons based on this Epistle to the congregation I serve. I sought to center on the crisp, pungent truths, which fall one after another from the letter.

      Some believe that the Epistle was originally a sermon or sermons preached by James, the brother of our Lord, and then recorded in this fashion. In fact, one theory of authorship has it that this was a sermon preached by James in his Aramaic tongue, taken down by someone who translated it into impeccable Greek, edited it, judiciously added to it with loving care, and issued it to the church at large.

      So the sermons that follow here center on these pungent points made by James the preacher. I have elaborated on these points and sought to apply them to our lives.

      As you read the chapters, stay aware that they are sermons, written to be heard. Few changes have been made from the original text for preaching. My prayer is that in their published form, they may have an added quality that will inspire reflection, questions, and elaboration, to enable readers to apply the message to their lives. In that way, this book will extend the manual of practical Christianity dimension of the Epistle of James.

      CHAPTER ONE

      Count it all joy . . . when you meet various trials,

      for you know that the testing of your faith produces

      steadfastness. And let steadfastness have

      its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete,

      lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4 RSV)

      Count It All Joy

      After a greeting, the Epistle begins with a shout: Count it all joy!

      No hesitation here. No fumbling to get to the point. No tiptoeing around the thorny issue. And what is the first thorny issue James addresses? Suffering, trials, troubles—all those flies in the ointment, all those thorns in the flesh—all those knockdowns in life—all that being pushed back to the goal line and having to start again. That's where James begins, and he shouts, Count it all joy!

      Now I can feel you thinking, and maybe saying beneath your breath, And you call this a how-to book! To call this an epistle of practical Christianity sounds rather naive. Count it all joy! sounds more like a Cloud-9 approach, not a down-to-earth grappling with reality.

      Well, at least James gets our attention right off. Anyone who grabs our attention, shoulders and shakes us, looks us straight in the eye, and, with a steady voice, hones in, Count it all joy! deserves our hearing. So let's listen to him.

      Maybe we will hear best, and appropriate most, if we begin at the end of the verses of our text—the last part of verse 4: That you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

      That appeals, doesn't it? I mean, isn't that what everybody who wants something from us is offering us—everything? And don't we want it all?

      One of my favorite columnists, Russell Baker of The New York Times, began a column with these thoughts:

      It's all right to want it all. We have advertisements

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