TRANSCRIPT

Introduction and offering:

Thank you Harry and Eric, Dolores and Shelbi for sharing your stories with us. We’re better together! Old and young, black and white, male and female—we’re better together. Move toward the other! I’m so grateful that Pastor Noel invested his life in me. What would happen if each of us would ask God who He wants us to invest in? Pray!

Offering here. Your offering makes stories like you just saw possible. Thank you. Last weekend 18 people said yes to Jesus for the first time—your offering makes that possible. Thank you. Last weekend you heard from our missionaries in Fiji and their plans to plant 4 new churches—your offering makes that possible and you gave over $25,000! Thank you! Let’s dive into this talk…

ILL: This true story was reported in Campus Life magazine a few years ago.

Imagine a funeral. The preacher is giving the eulogy. And suddenly, the dead person pops up out of the coffin! Would that freak you out?

It really happened! A guy named George in South Africa decided to fake his death as a test. “I wanted to know what people would say about me when I’m dead,” he said. “I’m satisfied they spoke the truth about me and not lies.”

George says he’s gonna keep the coffin for his real funeral—which may be sooner than he thinks, if he keeps pulling stunts like this!

We’re going to read a story from the gospel of Luke in which a bunch of people experienced a shock like this at a funeral—but it wasn’t faked.

Welcome to our Summer Bible Series in the gospel of Luke. Today, we’re reading a beautiful little story in Luke 7:11-17 (p. 886) about a widow whose only son has died—she is alone in the world. Jesus happens to intercept the funeral procession, and something amazing happens. This story is only found here, in Luke’s gospel—none of the other gospel writers included it—and as we go along, we’ll see why Luke did. Here’s the story:

Luke 7:11–17 (p. 886)

Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. 12 As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being