Sermon Central
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John 12:26...the Word (Diakoneo) Means To Wait ...
Contributed by Russell Brownworth on Apr 3, 2006 (message contributor)
John 12:26...The word (diakoneo) means to wait on. We get our English equivalent deacon, or servant from the word. The other word (servant) means literally union on the road. So Jesus is saying something like, Join me on the road of serving others.
The world in which we live says, Grab on, hold tightly, squeeze til you get what you want. Jesus teaches the paradox that you can never touch what you grab for…and you cannot keep what you think you’re holding. The moment you think you’ve piled-up the good life for yourself – made your mark – it will come crashing-down around you like the twin towers on 9-11. In wanting to be-served, you lose all.
The most well-known fact about a boomerang is that, once- thrown, it will return to the thrower. The least-remembered reality is that the boomerang is intended to be used as a weapon. It only returns when it misses the target.
You can keep thinking that throwing yourself at life with more effort, more wisdom, more money, more, more, more – will somehow change it all in your favor. But, here you find that everything you’ve thrown has missed the target of new life. What is coming back is slightly more used than when you threw it. The paradox is that in keeping your life, building your life, living your own life, you have wasted all the life that was in you.
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Citation: N.t. Wright In For All God's Worth. ...
Contributed by A. Todd Coget on Feb 27, 2004
Citation: N.T. Wright in For All God’s Worth. Christianity Today, Vol. 41, no. 12.] We live in a world full of people struggling to be, or at least to appear, strong in order not to be weak; and we ...read more
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Several Years Ago At A Promise Keepers ...
Contributed by Timothy Smith on Sep 3, 2005
Several years ago at a Promise Keepers conference, Dennis Rainey placed animal traps on stage. They were big ones too. Bear traps and even an African safari large animal trap that took two men to open. There were a dozen or so traps, and he set or opened them all. Then Dennis Rainey had a father ...read more
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Beauty's True Source PRO
Contributed by A. Todd Coget on Feb 27, 2004
[Beauty’s True Source, Citation: Jim Congdon] A jarring TV commercial didn’t say a word. It simply shows a series of people who have one thing in common—a nasty injury or scar. There’s a cowboy with a huge scar around his eye, and something wrong with the eye itself; a fellow with a bulbous ...read more
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Marty Williams A Pastor Of Family Ministries Asks ... PRO
Contributed by Michael Mccartney on Jul 15, 2004
Marty Williams a Pastor of Family Ministries asks the question that we all must ask ourselves today, “Am I Teachable?” He has 12 thoughts to help us discover if we are teachable: 1. I am willing to listen more than talk. 2. I admit when I am mistaken. 3. I observe before acting on a ...read more
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A Jewish Man Was Confronting A Christian Man: ...
Contributed by Ed Vasicek on Mar 15, 2005
A Jewish man was confronting a Christian man: “You know, you people borrowed the 10 Commandments from us.” “Well,” responded the Christian, “we may ...read more
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