Reaching for Cracker Jacks or the Prize?

TEXT: "Blessed are the hungry; woe to the full."

NOTE: Cracker Jacks are a snack of caramel popcorn & peanuts, with a prize in every box. Much of the sermon is developed around the analogy of reaching for Cracker Jacks or the prize of Christ's righteousness.

LESSON: Life’s peanuts may gratify you for a season but Christ’s righteousness will satisfy you forever.

REFLECTIONS: Are you reaching for the good life or the right life -- for popcorn & peanuts or something deeper?

QUESTIONS: Who are The Hungry? Ans: Those who hunger for Christ's righteousness.

Who are The Full? Ans: Those who are satisfied with the good life of this earth.

SERMON QUOTES: “There are two things to do about the gospel — believe it and behave it” (Susanna Wesley)

"We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased" (CS Lewis)

"Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the greatness and the genius of America"
(Alexis de Tocqueville)

PRAYER: Dear heavenly father,
Forgive us for reaching too often for life’s ‘good things’ instead of the right things. Thank you for giving us the righteousness of Christ; help us to wear it and wear it well, every day. Amen.