Hello, this is pastor gary from first baptist church of laplata. We’ve all heard and probably used the phrase, “keep the ball rolling,” which means to ensure that something continues. What you may not know is the origination of the phrase. It goes back to the 1840 presidential election between Martin Van Buren and William Henry Harrison. Harrison’s campaign used slogan-decorated 10 foot diameter balls made of tin and leather which were pushed from one campaign rally to the next. Harrison’s supporters pushed the ball from one town to the next chanting, “keep the ball rolling.” Apparently the campaign balls worked, because Harrison beat Van Buren; however, Harrison only served as President for 31 days becoming the first president to die in office and the shortest-serving president in history. Harrison’s presidential tenure was short, but his inaugural speech was not: 8445 words lasting nearly two hours! For comparison, my sermon notes are around 800 words. While not using the same words of “keep the ball rolling,” the Great Commission from Jesus says the same thing. In Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus commanded, “Go ye therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you…” Jesus got the evangelism ball rolling, and believers are to keep it rolling until He returns. We are to keep going, keep teaching, and keep baptizing person by person and generation after generation until, as Paul writes in Titus 2:13, “the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ.”
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