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Foundational
April 21, 2019

Foundational

Preacher:
Passage: 1 Corinthians 15:1-22
Service Type:

The audio was accidentally cut off from the beginning, here is the actual start of the message:

"I’ve stolen a joke because it fits so well with what Paul is dealing with in 1 Corinthians 15, I think it’ll be helpful.

There was this Texan Sheriff who had gone into Mexico to find a criminal who had been stealing from their banks. The Criminal’s name was Jose Rivera. So this Sheriff from Texas, big guy, intimidating guy, (I think of Tommy Lee Jones as the Marshall in The Fugitive movie), he goes into Mexico, he’s going from village to village and from town to town. And arrived in this bar room and he walked over to the bartender and he said, “I hear Jose Rivera hangs around these parts and I am looking for that bandit Jose Rivera”

And the bartender gradually raised his eyes, and he pointed, “Do you see the man in the corner table there?” “That’s Jose Rivera, this man you’re looking for. But I want to tell you he doesn’t speak English.”

The Sheriff says, “Well you do, why don’t you interpret for me.” So they walked over to the corner and the Sheriff looked down at the man and said, “Are you Jose Rivera?” and the bartender looked at the man and translated, “he wants to know if you’re Jose Rivera.”

Rivera tells the bartender to tell him, “Yes, what about it?”

So the bartender looks at the Sheriff and says, “He says, yes, what about it?”

The Sheriff says, “Tell him I want to know where every penny of all these banks he’s robbed and where he put it away, I want to find out where he’s got them stashed and if he doesn’t tell me where it is and if I don’t get it back, I’m going to shoot to kill…

And the Sheriff, moves his jacket so Jose can see his gun.

So the bartender looks at Jose Rivera and says, “This sheriff needs every penny back he wants to know where you’ve stashed all this money and if you don’t tell him where it is, he is going to shoot to kill…”

So Jose Rivera pauses and says,

“Okay…tell him to step out this bar, make a left turn, go about 100 yards, you’ll see a Well, right next to that Well you’re going to see this Gigantic tree, and if he counts his steps going from the Well to the tree and if he digs a hole exactly between those two spots about 3 feet deep there is an encasement built out of concrete and all the bags of money are right there, tell him he can he can get it, and take it, and to leave me alone!!!”

And the bartender looks at the Sheriff and says… “Jose Rivera says….*Pause*

“Jose Rivera says…Go ahead and shoot”…."