"I Pity Da Fool..."

This past Sunday I preached at TrueNorth. The sermon title handed to me by the creative team was called "I pity da fool!" The reason was because it was April's Fool day - makes sense. So I took it from the point of Christ saying: "I pity da fool who..."

And before the picture of Buddy Christ is spread across CNN for sacreligious images - one of the points was to explain that using the word "fool" will not send you to hell...Matthew 5:22 says "Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,[c]' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell."

So the picture was a point of the different images of Jesus we have Buddy Christ, Rock Star Jesus, Judgemental Jesus - who would send you to hell for saying "fool".
There was discussion of the graphic being too controversial - but I put that fire out on stage!

So here are some of my "I pity da fool who...." that I believe Jesus would say:

..believes diet is better than regular
…doesn’t take care of the widows and orphans
…thinks I was just some Jewish dude who wore Birkenstocks.
…doesn’t understand why I came from Heaven to Earth
…thinks the designated hitter is good for baseball
…doesn’t believe we drink sweet tea in heaven
…has never felt my love
…doubts my miracles
…really thinks the BCS system is better than a playoff in College Football.
… doesn’t know me.

The main point of the day was this fool statement: "I pity da fool who believes you must work to get into heaven." From there is all about Grace.

My prayer is always that God would be glorified even though I am the goober delivering the message. And I feel good that when I walked off the stage - His message was delivered and He was glorified by it...corny jokes and all!