OPPORTUNITY

“Quality of Life Series”

3/31/05

LEADER: If your window of opportunity opens, will you be ready. Tom Peters, who wrote “In Search of Excellence”, says, “If a window of opportunity appears, don’t pull down the shade.” FROM: http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/opportunity/?page=4

Mo and Bro say… “Carpet Denim!” “Seize the day!”

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #1

http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/opportunity/?page=4

"Opportunity knocks at the strangest times, It's not the time that matters But how you answer the door."

Steve Gray, Australian Author “Stick To Your Dreams”

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #2

http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/opportunity/?page=4

"It is better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one than to have an opportunity and not be prepared."

Whitney M. Young 1921-1971 US civil rights leader

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #3

http://www.cybernation.com/victory/quotations/subjects/quotes_opportunity.html

“ Always have your hook baited, in the pool you least think, there will be a fish.”

Ovid 43 B.C. Roman Poet

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #4

http://www.cybernation.com/victory/quotations/subjects/quotes_opportunity.html

“Opportunities multiply as they are seized.”

John Wicker, Exec. VP VISTA International, Publishing guru

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #5

http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/opportunity/?page=4

"Opportunities are like sunrises. If you wait too long, you miss them."

Willilam Arthur Ward – Author

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #6

http://www.cybernation.com/victory/quotations/subjects/quotes_opportunity.html

“People wait for opportunity to come along...yet it is there every morning.”

Dennis the Menace

LEADER: Let’s look at missed and seized opportunities:

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #7

http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/opportunity/?page=4

"Opportunity is often missed because we are broadcasting when we should be tuning in."

unknown

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #8

http://www.cybernation.com/victory/quotations/subjects/quotes_opportunity.html

“Some people expect the door of opportunity to be opened with an electric eye.”

Howard Hendricks – Author/Professor Dallas Theological Seminary, Chairman – Center for Christian Leadership

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #9

http://elbourne.org/sermons/index.mv?illustration+1941

“When one door closes, another opens, but we often look so long and regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one that has opened for us.”

Alexander Graham Bell - Inventor

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #10

http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/opportunity/?page=4

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls, and looks like work."

Thomas Edison 1847-1931 American inventor & industrialist

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “J.C. Penny”

http://elbourne.org/sermons/index.mv?illustration+1533

J.C. Penney in his early days -- when he first started the chain -- would look up and down the street at 10 o'clock each night before he closed the store ... just in case there was a customer. That is the way he built that chain. There was a Studebaker dealer once ---I owned a Studebaker myself ---some of you young people probably don't even know what a Studebaker is ... Well no one had ever told this dealer that Studebakers didn't sell. He sold Studebakers like crazy... when they weren't selling anywhere else, he was selling them. He would go out at 10 p.m. and literally squat down and look up and down the street to be sure there wasn't someone else who wanted a Studebaker before he closed.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #11

http://www.quoteworld.org/browse.php?thetext=opportunit,a+chance

"Working hard overcomes a whole lot of other obstacles. You can have unbelievable intelligence, you can have connections, you can have opportunities fall out of the sky. But in the end, hard work is the true, enduring characteristic of successful people."

Marsha Evans, Rear Admiral

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #12

http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/opportunity/?page=4

“The competitive marketplace is strewn with good ideas whose time came and went because inadequate attention was given to moving rapidly and hitting an open window of opportunity. The same marketplace is strewn with broken glass of windows of opportunities hit after they were slammed shut."

Constantine Nicandros President, Conoco

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “Ob Portu” Bits & Pieces, March 2, 1995, pp. 16-17

illus.asp?topic_id=1003

In the days before modern harbors, a ship had to wait for the flood tide before it could make it to port. The term for this situation in Latin was ob portu, that is, a ship standing over off a port, waiting for the moment when it could ride the turn of the tide to harbor.

The English word opportunity is derived from this original meaning. The captain and the crew were ready and waiting for that one moment for they knew that if they missed it, they would have to wait for another tide to come in. Shakespeare turned this background of the exact meaning of opportunity into one of his most famous passages. It’s from Julius Caesar, Act 4, Scene 3:

There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.

On such a full sea are we now afloat;
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “Anxious Times” Bits & Pieces, June 25, 1992

http://www.bible.org/illus.asp?topic_id=1003

The Irish Potato Famine (1846-1851) resulted in a 30 percent drop in the population of the west of Ireland. The prolonged suffering of the Irish peasantry had broken the survivors in body and spirit.

John Bloomfield, the owner of Castle Caldwell in County Fermanagh, was working on the recovery of his estate when he noticed that the exteriors of his tenant farmers’ small cottages had a vivid white finish. He was informed that there was a clay deposit on his property of unusually fine quality. To generate revenue and provide employment on his estate, he built a pottery at the village of Belleek in 1857. The unusually fine clay yielded a porcelain china that was translucent with a glass-like finish. It was worked into traditional Irish designs and was an immediate success.

Today, Belleek’s delicate strength and its iridescent pearlized glaze is enthusiastically purchased the world over. This multimillion-dollar industry arose from innovative thinking during some very anxious times.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “F.W. Woolworth” Bits & Pieces, Vol. F, #41

http://www.bible.org/illus.asp?topic_id=1003

Some years ago an energetic young man began as a clerk in a hardware store. Like many old-time hardware stores, the inventory included thousands of dollars’ worth of items that were obsolete or seldom called for by customers. The young man was smart enough to know that no thriving business could carry such an inventory and still show a healthy profit. He proposed a sale to get rid of the stuff. The owner was reluctant but finally agreed to let him set up a table in the middle of the store and try to sell off a few of the oldest items. Every product was priced at ten cents. The sale was a success and the young fellow got permission to run a second sale. It, too, went over just as well as the first. This gave the young clerk an idea. Why not open a store that would sell only nickel and dime items? He could run the store and his boss could supply the capital. The young man’s boss was not enthusiastic. “The plan will never work,” he said, “because you can’t find enough items to sell at a nickel and a dime.” The young man was disappointed but eventually went ahead on his own and made a fortune out of the idea. His name was F. W. Woolworth.

Years later his old boss lamented, “As near as I can figure it, every word I used in turning Woolworth down has cost me about a million dollars!”

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “They Saw Opportunity” By Karl Vesper

http://elbourne.org/sermons/index.mv?illustration+4273

Opportunity, Seizing: They Saw Opportunity

Leo Gerstenzang thought of "Q-Tips" when he saw his wife trying to clean their baby's ears with toothpicks and cotton. Otto Diffenbach came up with the cellophane soda straws when he twisted the wrapper from a cigarette pack and saw he had created a tube. King C. Gillette had been looking for a throw-away product ever since having a conversation with the inventor of pop bottle caps. When he found his razor dull, he thought of the safety razor with disposable blades. Ole Evinrude got angry when the ice cream in his rowboat melted before he got to his island picnic spot and invented the outboard motor. Ralph Schneider decided to form Diners Club one night after he lost his wallet. Charles Strite was fuming at the burnt toast in the factory lunchroom where he worked and thought up the automatic toaster.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #13

http://www.cybernation.com/victory/quotations/subjects/quotes_opportunity.html

“A good deal happens in a man's life that he isn't responsible for. Fortunate openings occur; but it is safe to remember that such "breaks" are occurring all the time, and other things being equal, the advantage goes to the man who is ready.”

Lawrence Downs – GLOBAL Link - Tobacco control advocate

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “Too Busy” By Pastor L.E. Brown

http://www.sermons.org/search.html

Waiting to be interviewed for a job as a wireless operator, a group of applicants paid little attention to the sound of the dots and dashes which began coming over a loudspeaker. Suddenly one of them rushed into the employer's office. Soon he returned smiling. "I got it!" he exclaimed.

"How did you get ahead of us?" they asked.

"You might have been considered if you hadn't been so busy talking that you didn't hear the manager's coded message," he replied. "It said, 'The man I need must always be on the alert. The first one who interprets this and comes directly into my private office will be hired.'"

The lesson is clear: Too many Christians are not really tuned in, so they do not hear God's directives.

LEADER: How do trials, difficulty and challenges tie in with opportunity?

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #14

http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/opportunity/?page=4

"If you view all the things that happen to you, both good and bad, as opportunities, then you operate out of a higher level of consciousness."

Les Brown 21st Century Motivational Speaker

HAVE SOMEONE READ: Ephesians 5:15-16

Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil, so then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #15

http://www.quoteland.com/topic.asp?CATEGORY_ID=104

“We are confronted with insurmountable opportunities."

Pogo – Cartoon Character

LEADER: Trials and challenges give us the opportunity to make lemonade out of lemons.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #16

http://www.quoteworld.org/browse.php?thetext=opportunit,a+chance

"Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently."

Henry Ford 1863-1947 Automobile manufacturer/Philanthropist

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #17

http://www.quoteworld.org/browse.php?thetext=opportunit,a+chance

"I always tried to turn every disaster into an opportunity."

John D Rockefeller 1839-1937 Oil magnate/Philanthropist

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “Wolves A Plenty” By Wayne Rice

http://elbourne.org/sermons/index.mv?illustration+3276

An organization in Montana offered a bounty of five thousand dollars for every wolf captured alive. Two hunters named Sam and Jed decided to head for the hills and make some money capturing wolves. Day and night they scoured the mountains and forests searching for their valuable prey. Exhausted after three days of hunting without any success, they both fell asleep.

During the night, Sam suddenly woke up to find that he and Jed were surrounded by a pack of fifty wolves, with flaming red eyes and bared teeth, snarling at the two hunters and preparing to pounce.

Sam nudged Jed and said, "Hey, wake up! We're gonna be rich!"

Sometimes when we are surrounded by what appears to be many difficulties, we may in fact be surrounded by many opportunities. The Chinese symbol for the word "crisis" actually combines the two words "danger" and "opportunity." When a crisis occurs, we can choose to be frightened and cowardly, or strong and courageous. It's all a matter of perspective.

Next time you find yourself in a jam, remember: "You're gonna be rich!" You have the opportunity to learn and grow, and to experience the grace and power of God in that situation. Situations like that don't come along every day!

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #18

http://www.quotationspage.com/subjects/opportunity/

The Chinese use two brush strokes to write the word 'crisis.' One brush stroke stands for danger; the other for opportunity. In a crisis, be aware of the danger - but recognize the opportunity.

Richard Nixon 1913-1994 37^th US President

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #19

http://www.quoteworld.org/browse.php?thetext=opportunit,a+chance

"A problem is a chance for you to do your best."
Duke Ellington -1974 Jazz musician

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #20

http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/opportunity/?page=4

"Entrepreneurs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage."

Victor Kiam CEO of Remington, Corp.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #21

http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/opportunity/?page=4

"Out of clutter, find Simplicity. From discord, find Harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies Opportunity."

Albert Einstein 1879-1955 Genius

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #22

http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/opportunity/?page=4

"It still holds true that man is most uniquely human when he turns obstacles into opportunities."

Eric Hoffer 1902-1983 American writer & philosopher

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #23

http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/opportunity/?page=4

"Entrepreneurs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage."

Victor Kiam CEO of Remington, Corp.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #24

http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/opportunity/?page=4

"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."

Winston Churchhill 1874-1965 British prime minister

LEADER: Do we have an obligation to our opportunities?

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #25

http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/opportunity/?page=4

"I believe that every right implies a responsibility, every opportunity an obligation, every possession, a duty."

J.D. Rockefeller 1937- Industrialist/Philanthropist/Politician

LEADER: “Making the Most of Every Opportunity” Brian La Croix EXCERPT

http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon.asp?SermonID=47144&ContributorID=6622

Have you ever walked away from a situation frustrated because you realize you just missed an opportunity?

· Maybe it was to make a sale, or make an improvement, or maybe even make a point.

· Maybe it was an opportunity to minister to someone you haven’t seen in a while, or to give someone a quick word of encouragement.

· Maybe it was an opportunity to learn from someone who had something to contribute to your life, either for your career or family life.
Don’t you just hate that?

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #26

http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/opportunity/?page=4

"Prepare yourself in every way you can by increasing your knowledge and adding to your experience, so that you can make the most of opportunity when it occurs."

Mario Andretti 1940- US champion auto race driver

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #27

http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/opportunity/?page=4

"The prizes go to those who meet emergencies successfully. And the way to meet emergencies is to do each daily task the best we can; to act as though the eye of opportunity were always upon us. In the hundred-yard race the winner doesn't cross the tape line a dozen strides ahead of the field. He wins by inches. So we find it in ordinary business life. The big things that come our way are seldom the result of long thought or careful planning, but rather they are the fruit of seed planted in the daily routine of our work."

William Feather 1889-1981 American writer & publisher

LEADER: Are we ready to take action or are we just sitting around waiting?

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #28

http://www.quoteland.com/topic.asp?CATEGORY_ID=104

“If your ship doesn't come in, swim out to it.”

Jonathan Winters - Celebrity Speaker/Comedic Genius

LEADER: You’ve heard of striking while the iron is hot…to make the most of the opportunity.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #29

http://www.cybernation.com/victory/quotations/subjects/quotes_opportunity.html

“Make the iron hot by striking it.”

Oliver Cromwell 1649-1658

Lord Protector of England during political unrest.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #30

http://www.cybernation.com/victory/quotations/subjects/quotes_opportunity.html

“Plough deep while sluggards sleep.”

Benjamin Franklin 1706-1790 Journalis/tPublisher/Author

1st US Postmaster General

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #31

http://www.cybernation.com/victory/quotations/subjects/quotes_opportunity.html

“Enlarge the opportunity and the person will expand to fill it”

Eli Ginzberg 1909–2002) Economist and Policy Guru

LEADER: How do we make our open windows into spiritual opportunities?

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #32

http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/opportunity/?page=4

"Men and women who turn their lives over to God will find out that he can make a lot more out of their lives than they can. He will deepen their joys, expand their vision, quicken their minds, strengthen their muscles, lift their spirits, multiply their blessings, increase their opportunities, comfort their souls, raise up friends, and pour out peace. Whoever will lose his life to God will find he has eternal life."

Ezra Taft Benson 1899-1994 American church leader

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #33

http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/opportunity/?page=4

"To awaken each morning with a smile brightening my face; to greet the day with reverence for the opportunities it contains; to approach my work with a clean mind; to hold ever before me, even in the doing of little things, the Ultimate Purpose toward which I am working; to meet men and women with laughter on my lips and love in my heart; to be gentle, kind, and courteous through all the hours; to approach the night with weariness that ever woos sleep and the joy that comes from work well done—this is how I desire to spend wisely my days."

Thomas Dreier- copyright and information technology expert

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “Moving Toward Eternity”

http://elbourne.org/sermons/index.mv?illustration+4261

Scientific measurements indicate that we are moving even when we are standing still. Continental land masses sit on enormous slabs of rock that slide very slowly at the rate of 1 to 8 inches per year. America is gradually moving westward, away from Europe, at the rate of 3 inches per year.

Our Milky Way galaxy is hurtling through space at 375 miles per second or 1.3 million miles per hour. But that's not all. Within our own galaxy the sun and its solar system are zooming along at 12.4 miles per second (43,000 mph) in the direction of the star Vega in the constellation Lyra.

Just as we are hurtling through the heavens at unimaginable speeds, so too we are moving from here to eternity. Our days and opportunities to live for the Lord pass so rapidly that we cannot afford to waste time.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: Galatians 6:10

So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #34

http://www.zaadz.com/quotes/topics/opportunity/?page=4

"My beloved young friends, determine to serve one another. Opportunities for Christian acts of service do not always come at convenient times. Listen to the spirit when your flesh is weak. For truly the Master said, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me" (Matt. 25:40). The blessings are tenfold when we do those good, kindly acts of Christian service when it is inopportune or not convenient."

Vaughn J. Featherstone 1931-

American religious leader -corporate training executive

LEADER: QUOTE #35

http://elbourne.org/sermons/index.mv?illustration+4268

How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and the strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these. --

George Washington Carver

HAVE SOMEONE READ: QUOTE #36

http://www.cybernation.com/victory/quotations/subjects/quotes_opportunity.html

“Great opportunities to help others seldom come, but small ones surround us daily.”

Sally Koch - Vice President of Business Development - Dallas

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “Walt Disney” By Dick Innes

http://www.sermonillustrator.org/illustrator/sermon2d/walt_disney.htm

"Then King Agrippa said to Paul, 'Almost you persuade me to be a Christian.'" Acts 26:28

Years ago Walter took his friend Arthur to see some land in open country where cattle were idly grazing. Walter explained about his dream for developing this area. He told his friend that in time the area would be surrounded by many restaurants, hotels and convention centres. He told Arthur that his plan would take all of his money and he needed others to develop the surrounding area. He wanted his friend to have the first opportunity to buy into this project.

But Arthur thought to himself, "Who in the world is going to drive twenty-five miles for this crazy project?"

He said to Walter that he would think about it and decide later on.

"Later on will be too late," Walter cautioned Arthur.

"You'd better move on it right now."

"And so Art Linkletter turned down the opportunity to buy up all the land that surrounded what was to become Disneyland. His friend Walt Disney tried to talk him into it. But Art thought he was crazy."

Life's like that. King Agrippa had the opportunity to accept Christ and become a Christian. He turned it down. Judas had one of the greatest opportunities in all history to become a follower of Jesus. Instead he betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. The two thieves who were crucified with Jesus also had the opportunity to receive the gift of eternal life. One accepted. The other didn't.

Life offers all of us many opportunities. We all have the opportunity to become followers of Jesus and to be a part of what God is doing in the world today. That choice is ours. Now.

As God's Word says, "Now is the accepted time. . .now is the day of salvation" 2 Corinthians 6:2.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “Marco Polo’s Father” http://www.ozsermonillustrations.com/searchbytopic.htm#D

Marco Polo is one of the most famed explorers of history. It seems he inherited the travel bug from his father. In 1260, when Marco polo was 6, his father and uncle travelled to Mongolia (part of modern day China). When they arrived there the Mongol emperor revealed an interest in Christianity. He asked the brothers to take a letter to the Pope requesting as many as 100 wise men to spread the Gospel among his subjects.

Three years later the brothers arrived home, and two years later set out on their return trek. Did they take the 100 wise men with them? No. Just two friars, for this was all the church felt they could spare. And even those two didn’t make it, turning back shortly into their journey.

What a tragedy! Imagine if the Kublai’s request had been fulfilled. Perhaps the whole history of China may have been changed.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “Sirhan Sirhan” By Dr. Jimmie Allen, Pastor San Antonio

http://www.bible.org/illus.asp?topic_id=1003

We missed him. Our chance to change things came and passed and we did not know it was there. A dark-skinned little boy sat through Sunday School classes for three years at a great Baptist Church (First Church, San Antonio) but someone missed him. His name was Sirhan Sirhan, and at age 24 he shot and killed Senator Robert Kennedy. In a welter of words and the shudder of grief throughout our nation, the persistent thought keeps recurring...someone missed him.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: Colossians 4:2-6

Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving; praying at the same time for us as well, that God may open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have been imprisoned; in order that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak. Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned, as it were with salt, so that you may know how you should respond to each person.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “Wise Men” By R.Dunkerly

http://www.bible.org/illus.asp?topic_id=1003

In 1269 Kublai Khan sent a request from Peking to Rome for “a hundred wise men of the Christian religion...And so I shall be baptized, and when I shall be baptized all my baron and great men will be baptized, and their subjects baptized, and so there will be more Christians here than there are in your parts.”

The Mongols were then wavering in the choice of a religion. It might have been, as Kublai forecast, the greatest mass religious movement the world has ever seen. The history of all Asia would have been changed. But what actually happened? Pope Gregory X answered by sending two Dominican friars. They got as far as Armenia, could endure no longer and returned home. So passed the great missionary opportunity in the history of the church.

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “Billy Graham”

http://www.bible.org/illus.asp?topic_id=1003

In his autobiography, Just as I Am, Billy Graham tells about a conversation he had with John F. Kennedy shortly after his election:

“On the way back to the Kennedy house, the president-elect stopped the car and turned to me. ‘Do you believe in the Second Coming of Jesus Christ?’ he asked.

‘I most certainly do.’ ‘Well, does my church believe it?’

‘They have it in their creeds.’

‘They don’t preach it,’ he said. ‘They don’t tell us much about it. I’d like to know what you think.’

I explained what the Bible said about Christ coming the first time, dying on the Cross, rising from the dead, and then promising that he would come back again. ‘Only then,’ I said, ‘are we going to have permanent world peace.’

‘Very interesting,’ he said, looking away. ‘We’ll have to talk more about that someday.’ And he drove on.”

Several years later, the two met again, at the 1963 National Prayer Breakfast.

“I had the flu,” Graham remembers. “After I gave my short talk, and he gave his, we walked out of the hotel to his car together, as was always our custom. At the curb, he turned to me.

‘Billy, could you ride back to the White House with me? I’d like to see you for a minute.’

‘Mr. President, I’ve got a fever,’ I protested. ‘Not only am I weak, but I don’t want to give you this thing. Couldn’t we wait and talk some other time?’

It was a cold, snowy day, and I was freezing as I stood there without my overcoat.

‘Of course,’ he said graciously.”

But the two would never meet again. Later that year, Kennedy was shot dead. Graham comments, “His hesitation at the car door, and his request, haunt me still. What was on his mind? Should I have gone with him? It was an irrecoverable moment.”

HAVE SOMEONE READ: Revelation 3:20

'Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.

LEADER: “When Opportunity Strikes” By Paul Decker EXCERPT

http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermon.asp?SermonID=54234&ContributorID=7538

The Five P’s of opportunity are:

Preparation

Position

Prayer

Planning

Providence

HAVE SOMEONE READ: “Preparation”