Sermon Central
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Romans - A Gospel Shaped Life
Contributed by Pat Damiani on Sep 15, 2014 (message contributor)
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1. Keeping Believers Believing
Contributed on Sep 29, 2014
The gospel is about mroe than just making converts - its primary purpose is to help believers keep trusting in God
What is the purpose of the gospel? Take a moment to think about that and then write down your thoughts in the space I’ve given you at the top of your sermon outline this morning. [Give people a chance to write down their answers] Would anyone like to share what you’ve written ...read more
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2. Attending My Own Funeral
Contributed on Feb 24, 2017
If I really want to live for Jesus I must first attend my own funeral
When Mary and I were dating, I often used to leave here house quite late on Friday night or early on Saturday morning. On one of those occasions I was driving down Orange Grove Road in my bright yellow Ford Pinto when I was pulled over by a Pima County Sherriff’s officer. When he asked me if I knew ...read more
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3. Hope Against Hope
Contributed on Mar 1, 2016
Biblical hope is a matter of trusting that God’s promise is greater than my predicament
It’s easy to believe in God and have hope when I can see an answer to whatever situation I might be experiencing: • If I go to the doctor and he or she prescribes some medicine and assures me that medication will take care of whatever health issue I’m experiencing, it’s ...read more
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4. Go Worshipping To Church
Contributed on Sep 22, 2014
Genuine worship is a matter of serving God by serving others.
One of my favorite books on worship is a short, simple book by Louie Giglio titled “The Air I Breathe”. Toward the end of that book, Louie wrote something that didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me the first time I read it. But in the 10 years or so since I first read those ...read more
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5. The Purpose Of The Gospel
Contributed on Dec 15, 2015
The primary purpose of the gospel is to display God’s righteousness, not just to make me right with God
I want to begin this morning by looking at a few pictures and asking you to tell me what you see. [Show “optical illusion” faces and ask people what they see]. With every one of those pictures, what you saw depended on your perspective. And by changing your perspective, it was ...read more
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6. Diagnosing The Reason For God’s Wrath
Contributed on Oct 6, 2014
This passage answers three important questions about God's wrath: 1) What is it? 2) How is it revealed? 3) Why do we deserve it?
A week ago Friday, a man went to the emergency room at a Dallas hospital with flu like symptoms. Even though he told a nurse that he had recently returned from Liberia, the hospital sent him home. Two days later, after his symptoms continued to worsen, that same man was finally admitted to the ...read more
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7. What's In Your Heart?
Contributed on Jan 26, 2015
Our relationship with God is a matter of the heart, not a matter of externals.
On Halloween this year I was on Facebook when I ran across this post from Christian singer Natalie Grant: I've had many people over the years ask me if I "celebrate" Halloween. I don't celebrate evil. Or darkness. Or witches, ghosts and goblins. But I DO celebrate kids. And princesses. And ...read more
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8. A Worship Problem
Contributed on Oct 20, 2014
Sin, at its core, is a worship problem.
Sin, at its core, is a worship problem Sin is NOT: • An information problem • An emotional problem • A psychological problem • A political problem • A lust problem • A gossip problem • A lying problem • A substance problem or addiction ...read more
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9. The Curse Of Adam
Contributed on Mar 1, 2016
The cure for those who are in Jesus by faith is much more powerful than the curse for those who are in Adam by nature
It seems that in our world, doctrine has gotten a bad rap. Perhaps you’ve seen or heard people use a slogan like “Love unites, doctrine divides” or one of its relatives like “Service unites, doctrine divides” or “Justice divides, doctrine divides”. While ...read more
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10. This Sermon Is Not Just For Everyone Else
Contributed on Oct 20, 2014
It is impossible to really know God and not live a life of repentance
Most of us tend to categorize all sin into two categories – my sin and your sins. And of course when I do that I always think that your sins are so much worse than mine. Since it’s really important that all of us recognize that tendency in our lives in order to make a proper application ...read more
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11. God’s Accounting System
Contributed on Mar 1, 2016
My standing with God is dependent on what I receive not what I achieve
I’m sure all of us are pretty familiar with how our finances operate in this culture. We go to work and we earn wages which we deposit in a bank account. The bank credits that amount of money to our account. But we also have bills to pay. And regardless of how we might choose to pay those ...read more
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12. Delight, Deeds And Destinty
Contributed on Oct 28, 2014
My delight determines my deeds; My deeds determine my destiny
This morning I need to begin by asking for your forgiveness. As I was preparing the message this week, God brought to mind something that I did several weeks ago that was sinful and for which I needed to ask His forgiveness and for which I also need to do the same with you. That particular week I ...read more
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13. Silenced By My Sinfulness
Contributed on Dec 15, 2015
Salvation comes only to those who are silenced by their sinfulness.
I want you to consider for a moment two different doctors. Both are equally competent, but the way that they deal with their patients is quite different. Let’s imagine that you’re not feeling well so you go to both doctors who both do the same thorough examination and run the same tests ...read more
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14. God's Guarantee
Contributed on Mar 1, 2016
God’s love guarantees that since He saved me, He will keep me
I’d like to begin this morning with a question, one that I first came across more than 30 years ago in an evangelism training program called Evangelism Explosion: “Have you come to the place in your spiritual life where you know for sure that if you were to die today you would go to ...read more
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15. A Priceless Inheritance
Contributed on Mar 1, 2016
A priceless inheritance awaits those who trust in God’s promise
Sixty–seven year old Tomas Martinez was living on the street in Santa Cruz de le Sierra, Bolivia, when he was approached by police officers who had good news for him. His ex-wife (whom he had abandoned years earlier) had died and had left him her fortune of $6 million. However, Martinez ...read more
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16. "Yah But Christians"
Contributed on Nov 10, 2014
Talking without walking leads to mocking and blocking
As most of you know, I officiate high school volleyball and basketball. When I first began doing that over 15 years ago, I really wasn’t very good, but I was fortunate to have a lot of more experienced officials who have mentored me and helped me to become a better official over the years. So ...read more
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17. Making The Gospel My Gospel
Contributed on Nov 10, 2014
Unless the gospel is my gospel it is really no gospel at all.
Unless the gospel is my gospel it is really no gospel at all That is the theme of the passage from Romans that we’ll be studying together this morning. So obviously the question that all of us must answer as we’re confronted with that truth is whether or not the gospel is personally ...read more
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18. God’s Super-Abounding Grace
Contributed on Mar 1, 2016
The cure for those who are in Jesus by faith is much more powerful than the curse for those who are in Adam by nature
It seems that almost every time I turn on my TV lately there is a commercial for some new prescription drug. And I’ve got to tell you that when I watch most of those commercials, the required disclaimers make it seem to me like the cure is often worse than the disease. These two clips from a ...read more
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19. Sent, Separated Servants
Contributed on Sep 15, 2014
Paul reveals that Jesus wants all His followers to be like Paul - sent, separated servants.
As is probably true for many of you, the book of Romans has long been one of my favorites. Yet in nearly 25 years of ministry, I have never undertaken the task of preaching through what is certainly the greatest exposition of what it means to live as a follower of Jesus in the entire Bible. I think ...read more
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20. The Law Of Faith
Contributed on Dec 15, 2015
The difference between salvation by faith in the law and salvation by the law of faith is the difference between “do” and “done”
In his book, Fully Alive, Christian comedian Ken Davis recounted an incident from his college days. His class had been asked to deliver a persuasive speech in which they would be graded on creativity, persuasiveness and the ability to drive home their point in a memorable way. The title of his ...read more
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21. Ritual Or Relationship?
Contributed on Jan 26, 2015
Ritual that rejects relationship is pointless; Ritual that reflects relationship is priceless
The wedding ring that I’m wearing this morning is not the same one that Mary placed on my finger on our wedding day. Fairly early in our marriage we went to San Diego on our vacation and I managed to lose my wedding ring while swimming in the ocean. That ring was an important symbol of the ...read more
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22. A Gospel That Gives God Glory
Contributed on Sep 15, 2014
While we benefit from the gospel, it is primarily about God's glory and not my good.
Many of you may have seen a recent video clip of a prominent pastor speaking these words: I just want to encourage every one of us to realize that when we obey God, we’re not doing it for God — I mean, that’s one way to look at it — we’re doing it for ourselves, ...read more
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23. Why God Is Not A “helicopter God”
Contributed on Mar 1, 2016
God loves me too much to save me from all of my struggles
Most of you are probably familiar with the term “helicopter parent”. But just in case you aren’t, this short video does a pretty good job of showing what that term means. [Show “Copter Mommy” video] Although helicopter parenting might seem harmless, it seems like ...read more
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24. Conforming My Life To The Word Of God
Contributed on Dec 15, 2015
The Bible is an advantage only when we conform our lives to His Word rather than conform His Word to our lives
Since our dog chewed up the old one, last week I had to go get a new backwash hose for our pool. So when we were at Wal-Mart picking up a few other things, we grabbed the only one they had. Although the package said the hose would fit the 1-1/2” pipe on my pool filter it turns out it ...read more
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25. Good Works And The Gospel
Contributed on Mar 1, 2016
My good works are to be a response to God’s grace for the purpose of pointing people to Jesus
Last year when I decided to preach through a portion of the book of Romans each year for several years, I had to decide on an overall approach to that series of sermons. At one end of the spectrum, I could have followed the example of several pastors who have chosen to preach one or two sermons per ...read more
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26. Don't Let Sin Preside
Contributed on Feb 24, 2017
As a disciple of Jesus sin may reside, but it must not be allowed to preside
On May 28 of this year four-year-old Isaiah Dickerson climbed under a fence and fell 12 feet down into the gorilla enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo. In order to protect the boy zoo officials had to shoot Harambe, the 17-year-old gorilla, sparking a public outrage among many people. Sin is a lot ...read more
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27. "Dabbling" In Sin
Contributed on Feb 24, 2017
A genuine disciple of Jesus can’t go back to work for his or her old boss
This week I read about a teenager who was explaining to his father why he should be allowed to go see a movie at the theater. That particular movie had all of his favorite actors and it was “only” rated PG-13 because it merely suggested sex, but never really showed it. And the language wasn’t too ...read more
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28. Promises, Promises
Contributed on Feb 24, 2017
Sin never delivers what it promises but Jesus always does
Americans spend over $60 billion each year trying to lose weight. The National Institutes of Health estimates that includes $25 billion dollars spent on weight loss supplements. Most of the companies that pitch those products promote the idea that you can just take a pill and watch the pounds melt ...read more
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29. 'til Death Do Us Part
Contributed on Mar 7, 2017
Jesus did not come to lead us to the law; The law came to lead us to Jesus
Earlier this week, Ryan Fregoso shared a link on Facebook to “25 Christian Memes That Are Funny Because They’re True”. So I thought I’d share a few of them with you this morning. [Show memes] This last one is particularly relevant this morning: [But officer, I’m under grace, not law] No ...read more
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30. Why The Law Is Good
Contributed on Mar 7, 2017
The law is good because it shows me that I am not
Last weekend our elders held a retreat where we spent some extended time evaluating everything that we do as a church for the purpose of seeing how we can do a better job of helping people enter into a relationship with Jesus, grow in their faith and then help others to do the same. As a result of ...read more