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<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Sermons for Epiphany
3</SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Matthew 4:12-23 -
<STRONG>"The Powerful Moments That Change Your Life Forever"</STRONG></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">1 Corinthians 1:10-18 -
<STRONG>"Carbon Pure and Perfect"</STRONG> by Leonard Sweet</SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Matthew 4, the sermon
titled "The Powerful Moments That Change Your Life Forever" </SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">I am a collector of
lists. I want to share with you this morning my favorite list of all time. It's
a list of answers given by English school children on their religion
exams.<BR><BR>Noah's wife was called Joan of the Ark.<BR>A myth is a female
moth.<BR>Sometimes it is difficult to hear in church because the agnostics are
so terrible.<BR>The Pope lives in a vacuum.<BR>The Fifth Commandment is "Humor
your father and mother."<BR><BR>This is my favorite of all:<BR><BR>Lot's wife
was a pillar of salt by day and a ball of fire by night.<BR><BR>The point is:
right answers are important, but have you thought about this - so are right
questions! So the right question I want to raise with you today is this: How
long has it been since you had a powerful moment that changed your life
forever?<BR><BR>The New Testament was written originally in common Greek and the
Greeks had several different words for our one word love.<BR><BR>Agape =
unconditional love<BR><BR>Eros = erotic... bargaining love (I'll do this for you
if you do that for me, which, if you think about it, is not really love at
all)<BR><BR>Phileo = philanthropic, brotherly, sisterly, or humanitarian
love<BR><BR>Storge = family love.<BR><BR>New Testament Greek also had two words
for time - chronos and kairos. Chronos, which give us our word chronology, is
tick-tock time. Each second is exactly like the one that preceded and the one
that follows it. It is boring time, humdrum time, drudgery time, meaningless
time, empty time. Let me paint the picture of chronos time.<BR><BR>Imagine a
convict in a prison cell; a lawyer with insomnia, who hears the unrelenting
incessant ticking of a clock; an office worker who hates his job and can't wait
for 5:00 to come so he can get out of there; a college student in a 3-hour
biology lab (right after lunch) all experience chronos time. Chronos time is
empty time; it is a void that must be filled. It is time we must "put in" or
endure. It's what we are talking about when, of all things, we talk about
"killing" time. So, chronos equals tick-tock time, humdrum time, boring time,
and routine time.<BR><BR>Thank God, there is another kind of time. It's called
kairos. Kairos time is full time, vital time, crucial time, decisive time, God's
time. Kairos moments are those powerful, extra-special moments that are packed
with meaning. While chronos is tick-tock time, kairos is when time stands
still.<BR><BR>How long has it been since you a moment so powerful that time
stood still? Kairos is when God breaks into the routine and speaks loud and
clear and you are touched so powerfully deep in your soul that you can never be
the same again. A cartoonist depicts an idea with a light bulb flashing. It is a
Voila! moment, an "ah ha" experience. Theologians call it the moment of
revelation.<BR><BR>Kairos is a key word in the New Testament. When Jesus started
his ministry he came into Galilee preaching and saying, "The time is fulfilled.
The Kingdom is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel." And the word for
"time" there in Mark 1 was not chronos, it was kairos. This was crucial time,
decisive time, God's time.<BR><BR>Jesus' life was packed with kairos
moments:<BR><BR>Zacchaeus - he saw him in that sycamore tree. They connected and
that was a kairos moment.<BR><BR>Blind Bartimaeus - nobody else was paying
attention to him but Jesus heard his cries, connected with him, and it was a
kairos moment.<BR><BR>The hemorrhaging woman came up behind Jesus, touched his
robe, and he connected with her, and it was a kairos moment.<BR><BR>Jesus had so
many of those moments. We read one this morning. Matthew writes: "The kairos is
fulfilled." And what did Jesus do right at that kairos moment? He called his
disciples. It was a meaningful moment for them. It wasn't just another tick of
the clock. How long has it been since you had a powerful moment like that, that
changed your life forever? How long has it been since you had a kairos moment in
a chronos world? Kairos moments are all around us if we have the eyes to see
them, the ears to hear them, and the hearts to feel them. Now, this morning I
want to share with you three kairos moments that I have experienced that changed
my life. I am going to be very personal because kairos moments are very
personal.<BR><BR><SPAN>1. The Kairos Moment of Encouragement</SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">2. The Kairos Moment of
Love</SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">3. The Kairos Moment of
Inspiration</SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">The rest of this sermon
following the outline above can be obtained by joining </SPAN><A
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: #800080; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"
href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=aelnpceab&t=dv7coneab.0.ujcnvdeab.aelnpceab.45429&ts=S0589&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sermons.com%2F"
shape=rect target=_blank>www.Sermons.com</A><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">. </SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">_______________________</SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">1 Corinthians 1, the
sermon titled "Carbon Pure and Perfect" by Leonard Sweet </SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Jesus is our diamond.
</SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Jesus is the carbon
based incarnation of the divine transformed by the steady pressure of God's
endless love into the brightest Morning Star Diamond ever created. </SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Jesus is our diamond.
</SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Jesus is Carbon Pure and
Perfect, the pure and perfect way to the Father, our only eternal security. But
there are many ways to look at Jesus, just as there are many ways to look at a
diamond. </SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">This is what Paul was
getting at in our epistle reading for this morning. Paul is urging the
Corinthian Christians to stop their puny, petty squabbles over perceived
differences and instead to embrace the greater unity that bound them together.
These Corinthian Christians had benefitted from different teachers, hailed from
different backgrounds, were of different generations, and drew from different
social classes. They had genuinely unique histories and lives. But they all had
one thing in common: they had ultimately been led to the same place of wood and
water, the wood of the cross and the water of baptism. </SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Paul doesn't ask for
Jesus' followers to give up their unique identities. Later in this letter Paul
emphasizes the matchless role each member of Christ's body plays in making it
strong and whole. The existence and experience of the eye is different from that
of the hand or the ear or the foot. Each body part or "member" has a different
perspective on the whole. Each has a different function within the body. But the
body is still one whole. It is not at war against itself. When a body does begin
to take on parts of itself as an enemy, for example, cancer, HIV, food
allergies, the result is first disease, then ultimately death. In fact, disease
is nothing more than a body turned against itself. </SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">For the body of Christ
to be healthy today, it is in desperate need of rehearing Paul's message to the
Corinthians this morning...</SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">The rest of Leonard
Sweet's sermon can be obtained by joining www.Sermons.com </SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">______________________</SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>