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The Best Rest of Your Life :: Hebrews 4:9-13

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[Introduction] Are you tired? Are you “reTIRED” ... working too hard too often for too long, “reTIRING” yourselves after tiring yourselves during a lifetime of work? Do you long for rest? Even if you don’t feel you are, you should know our children are tired ... our mothers and fathers are tired ... our husbands are tired ... our wives are tired ... our world is tired. We’re all constantly confronted by bickering and unrest ... upheaval and tension ... pressure and anxiety. We’re making demands of others trying to feed the need for rest. And it’s downright tiring. We’re even too busy to call our pastor and say, Hey, Pastor, I’m tired. ... Will you help me?  I need rest ... Will you pray for me?   Yes, we long for good rest. ... So where are we to find it? The evangelist to the Hebrews has the answer. He proclaims that ... THE LIVING WORD OF GOD DELIVERS THE BEST REST TO HIS PEOPLE I. God has given and promised this best rest to his people from the beginning. The best rest is...
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Thank God, He Is Not Only Fair, But Just :: Matthew 20:1-16

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In this way the last will be first and the first last (v 16). [Introduction] So, it’s not fair.  That’s what Jesus just told us, right? The last will be first, and the first last. After being among the first to bear the burden of work ... after sweating for twelve hours through the heat of the day ... after getting paid the same as the guy who showed up just before quitting time ... not only do the last go first ... (Don’t you hate those who cut in line without asking?) ... but everyone receives the same wage.  And that’s not fair, is it?  See , we say, I’ve worked longer and harder ... I have sweat equity in this place.  Didn’t you see all the good work I have done here? I deserve more! I deserve better!  It’s not fair that the newest members of the congregation, and the sporadic, will receive the same inheritance as those who have come every Sunday for decades. It’s not fair, we say, that those who do NOT enumerate ... Every. Single. Sin. Every single time th...
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Jesus Is Our Life :: Psalm 139

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Because You, You possess my inner being and character, You have woven me in the womb of my mother. I will be brought to a thankful confession on account of this: Because I have been fearfully and wonderfully set apart. Your works are leaving us in wonder, and my whole being continues to know it very well (vv 13-14). [Introduction] Brothers and sisters in Christ, today is Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. Therefore, I am going to talk to you about life ... not only life that begins at conception, but life to its fullest ... life in the womb, life of the vulnerable, life of the aged, life to its natural end ... your life, my life, our life with God and our life together. To diminish the value of one category of life is to diminish all life; it is against the fifth commandment.  Part of the miracle of life is the God-given capacity for men and women to be fruitful and to multiply. By procreating, you and I participate in and reflect God’s own creative nature.  He made me, and he ma...
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Fulfilling All Righteousness :: Matthew 3:13-17

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[Introduction] There are not many events in the ministry of Jesus that are more striking ... more defining ... than the Baptism of Our Lord. That’s because Baptism of Jesus shows us who God is. As Matthew writes, after receiving baptism, Jesus immediately went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending, as if a dove, upon him, and behold, a voice out of heaven saying, This One is My Son, the Beloved One, in whom I delight (vv 16-17). Though he had become one with mankind when he was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary ... though Simeon recognized that he had seen God’s salvation when he held Jesus in his arms ... we would not have known ... nor could we have known ... who he really was until this moment, his baptism.  Not even John the Baptizer, who leapt in his mother’s womb when he heard the greeting of the mother of God (Lk 1:41), knew who Jesus was until he saw the Trinity in Unity and Unity in...
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