What: Puzzles – Most are designed to entertain, or develop one’s mental skills.

• sodoku
• word – scrabble, crossword, word search, word scramble
• mathematical
• jigsaw
• logic
• mazes
• mechanical – Rubik’s cube, Zenga
• dot-to-dot
• Missing letters – Wheel of Fortune
• Clue Puzzles — “What’s My Line” / “Jeopardy”
• riddles
• world events — the cause of the sinking of the Titanic / Flight 447 Air France
• scientific / physics — Stonehenge / Pyramids
• pattern guessing – 1, 3, 5, 7, __?__
• sliding pieces around to form a picture
• ciphers – figure out the combination
• which one is different

Here’s is a puzzle that you have probably run across before. . . .

What do they have in common?

Example: Hurricane, camera, needle = eye

1. 1. 1. Curtain, fisherman, nuclear reactor
      2. Computer, dip, poker
      3. Bowling, tailor, wrestling
      4. Dentist, oil field, army training
      5. April, locker room, bride, a new baby
      6. Barber, rooster, beehive

ANSWERS:

1. 1. 1. Rod
      2. Chip
      3. Pin
      4. Drill
      5. Shower
      6. Comb

^

Key Illustrative Thoughts:

• discernment
• unity
• diversity
• wisdom
• “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.”
• biblical “mysteries” — the Gentiles and the church
• Daniel & the writing on the wall
• clarity
• biblical patterns
• temptation
• Christian living
• prophecy
• biblical interpretation
• trial and error
• creation

^

Sermonic Example: 

. . . . Where are my puzzle solvers?  Who thinks that they are pretty good at solving those mental puzzles that show up on social media, in magazines, or in our newspapers?

I am going to name three or four items, and you tell me what they have in common.  For instance . . .

Example: Hurricane, camera, needle

You would then raise your hand and say “eye.”

Okay, here goes . . . . .

How about this one. . . . .

1. Bowls, Seals, Two Witnesses, 666 — yes — The Book of the Revelation . . .

. . . . and it is filled with unsolved puzzles and other puzzles that can be solved by understanding what other biblical writers have written — such as Daniel, Zechariah, Isaiah, and Matthew — particularly what Jesus said in chapter 24

Some of the puzzles found in Revelation we are not going to be able to solve or resolve.  Other puzzling events we will find ourselves fairly certain as to what is happening and what to expect in the last days. . . . .

^

---