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We have to get MORE serious about the Great Commission
I’ve grown up always thinking about the Great Commission. It’s only over the past few years I’ve realized how incomplete my thinking was on that goal. “Great Commission” Christians meant missions. It meant going overseas or sending people to go overseas. We were focused on the “all nations” part. What we need to recapture is the “obey everything” part. THAT…
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Discipleship — The Vision of What is Possible
I am currently working my way through the book, The Theology of Dallas Willard: Discovering Protoevangelical Faith by Gary Black, Jr. It is refreshing me on the thoughts and theology of Dallas Willard. The quotes Black gives plunge me back into the thoughts of Dallas Willard, reminding me of what I read over the years. I am also reminded I need…
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Understanding Prayer
I’ve related to readers before Dallas Willard’s take on the Lord’s Prayer. As I think about how we can talk about prayer when it relates to the Sermon on the Mount, I began to think about my own prayer life. I walk when I pray. I love pacing the sanctuary when I pray. I love being a bit outward and…
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Understanding the Discipline of Giving
1 “Watch out! Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven. 2 When you give to someone in need, don’t do as the hypocrites do- blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity! I tell you the truth, they…
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True Freedom
True freedom isn’t found in lack of discipline. True freedom is found as a result of discipline. Our lazy view of Christianity has reduced us to saying a prayer of salvation to get our “Get out of hell free” cards. The call of the Kingdom of God is freedom. Freedom to obey. Freedom to walk in the power of the Spirit.…
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The Righteousness of the Pharisees
20 “But I warn you- unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven! (Matt. 5:20, NLT) The righteousness of the Pharisees was a behavioral based righteousness. It’s a “disease” any of us can be afflicted with in our culture. It’s just too fun to pick…
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Go, and be an irritant
13 “You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless. 14” You are the light of the world- like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. 15 No one lights a lamp and…
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Statements of Jesus We Get Hung Up On
The big “hang up” statement we’ll be dealing with this week in our ministry time will be Matt. 5:48 — “So then, be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” We carry a lot of baggage with that word, perfect, and that is what hangs us up from understanding what Jesus is really asking of us… and what is possible.
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Not All Valleys are “of the Devil”
Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. (Matt. 4:1) Not every trial, not every test, can be blamed on the devil. The Lord can put us in tough situations to bring testing, to put fire to our faith… to forge the steel of faith in our lives. It is never comfortable, but when the Lord…
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Great Translation on the Proclamation of Jesus
“Change your hearts and lives. Here comes the kingdom of heaven!” (Matt. 4:17, Common English Bible) Get ready… the King has entered his realm and when he acts, there is a response called for. The best response? Change your hearts and lives. The power of the Kingdom of God is unleashed. It is time to pay attention.
Category: Sermon on the Mount
