<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.19019">
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT size=4>
<P style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Sermons
for the Lent 1:</SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">
Matthew 4:1-11 - <STRONG>"The Temptation of His Life " </STRONG></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">
Romans 5:12-19 - <STRONG>"Like"</STRONG> by Leonard Sweet</SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Matthew
4, the sermon titled "The Temptation of His Life" </SPAN></P>
<P
style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P
style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 28.0pt 56.0pt 84.0pt 112.0pt 140.0pt 168.0pt 196.0pt 224.0pt 3.5in 280.0pt 308.0pt 336.0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Robert
Penn Warren wrote a novel called All The King's Men. It was the story of a
governor of Louisiana and his rise to power. His name was Willie
Stark.</SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">At the
end of his story he is shot down dead. Here was a man who gained a kingdom and
lost all he ever had.</SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Two
thousand years earlier a man from Galilee said, "What would it profit a man if
he gained the whole world and lost his soul?" Perhaps when He made that
statement He was not only addressing it to those who heard Him, but also was
looking back to a time of decision in His own life.</SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">There is
something so very curious about the man from Galilee. He has captivated the
imaginations of people throughout twenty centuries. He transcends time and
place, culture and custom, race and language. Something there is in Him that
always speaks clearly to us. We see it throughout the gospels, everywhere He
went, in everything He said and did. Son of God and Son of Man, we know He
became one of us.</SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">While He
is the answer to all our struggles, we see Him struggling with the things He
faced. And, as He finds the way for Himself He finds the way for us as well. We
see this truth at the very beginning of His ministry. He left His home up in
beautiful Galilee, and went down the Jordan Valley to a place at the river. His
cousin John the Baptist was there and he baptized Jesus in the river. And, a
voice from Heaven said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."
Then, Matthew writes in the very next verse, the first of chapter four, "Then
Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil."
Immediately following His baptism Jesus faces the temptations, the greatest
temptations of His life. The issue was not whether He would rule the world, but
how He would take it. So, out there in the wilderness of those barren Judean
hills Jesus struggled with what He would do and how He would do it.</SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Sometimes
we may not take this very seriously. We may not think Jesus was really tempted,
not the way we are tempted, not our Jesus. But we need to understand that the
temptations of Jesus were real temptations. Jesus was tempted. The New Testament
clearly states this. Matthew tells us plainly that Jesus was in the wilderness
tempted by the devil. He did not say Jesus wondered, imagined, was charmed, or
that He considered his options. He tells us He was tempted, and that He went
there to be tempted. Mark tells us He was tempted. Luke tells us He was tempted.
John does not take time to mention it. He was in too big a hurry to get Jesus
back up to Galilee. However, the book of Hebrews tells us, "He was in all
points tempted like as we are."</SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">The city
of Jericho isn't far from the place where Jesus was baptized by John the
Baptist. You can stand there in Jericho and look up into the Judean hills to a
place called the Mount of Temptation. It is easy to imagine Jesus being up
there, by Himself, fasting for forty days, alone and hungry, struggling with
what He would do and how He would do it.</SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Surely,
He must have thought of some easy ways to do what He had to do. That was the
temptation of His life. So, there we see Him. He was tempted. Let's take a look
at what He faced at all that he was offered:</SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">1. The
First Temptation: Jesus was tempted by the wrong use of power.</SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">2. The
Second Temptation: Jesus was also tempted by the wrong way to popularity.
</SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 12pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">3. The
Third Temptation: Jesus was tempted by the wrong kind of
partnership.<SPAN> </SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><SPAN style="COLOR: black"><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&et=1104755468044&s=45429&e=001W8hfT94nU0KRhyIdbTGa0dsH-Vzt0iaAWPr73tl_-zzh_8LwNWWVEkpc3X-p7nfBujS1TapXx99bl0Zp6ysJnU-hmA4j_bBWFeT9rKre-fHUrtpDybNJtg=="
shape=rect target=_blank>www.Sermons.com</A><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">. </SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">_______________________</SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Romans 5,
the sermon titled "Like" by Leonard Sweet </SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Happy
Lent! </SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Oops! No
such thing. Of course not. Lent is a solemn season, full of serious stuff. We
run special educational courses during Lent. Baptismal candidates are on their
"cram course" during Lent. Practicing Christians are supposed to be more
intentionally focused on one's prayer life during Lent. We "give up" things for
Lent - chocolates, meat, sweets, smoking, bad TV shows. </SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Forty
days is long enough to learn something new, miss something old, and change some
habits. Unfortunately, it is not so long that we cannot get through it. Truth be
told, even as the Easter eggs are turned into deviled eggs, so a lot of our good
Lenten habits can get "deviled" as well.</SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Yet Lent
should not be colored as an Ash Wednesday grey grind. What if instead of
thinking about "getting through" Lent we look at these next forty days as a
journey towards a miraculous destination - Easter Sunday. Doesn't everybody
"like" to go on a road trip now and then?<SPAN> </SPAN>What do you "like"
about your annual journey to Jerusalem? What makes the Lenten trip to that empty
tomb so awesome?</SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">It might
be difficult to come up with a "like list" at first. Our culture doesn't
normally do "like." This is one of the great things about Facebook. There is
seldom a day goes by that I am not asked to speak out against something, or take
a stand against something, or support a cause that attacks something. But
Facebook is against against. It only has a "like" tab. You can't dislike
something, only like it. </SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">But the
rest of this culture had not said "No" to negativity like Facebook has. All you
have to do is listen to the news or surf a few websites to discover that
commenting on what you "like" is not part of our twenty-first century
communication culture. Instead it is all too easy to find thousands of "hate
sites." There are sites dedicated to hating political parties, to hating
politicians, to hating religious preferences, to hating religious leaders, to
hating racial groups, to hating the rich, to hating the poor. There are sites
devoted to hating a certain individual, and sites devoted to hating whole
countries. </SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Hate is
an easy sell. Vitriol is a vital and sustainable substance. No wonder being told
to "list your likes" sounds foreign to our ears and hearts. That is a great
tragedy of our world....</SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><SPAN style="COLOR: black"><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&et=1104755468044&s=45429&e=001W8hfT94nU0KRhyIdbTGa0dsH-Vzt0iaAWPr73tl_-zzh_8LwNWWVEkpc3X-p7nfBujS1TapXx99bl0Zp6ysJnU-hmA4j_bBWFeT9rKre-fHUrtpDybNJtg=="
shape=rect target=_blank>www.Sermons.com</A><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">. </SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: black; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">___________________</SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">The
Tempter Turns Our Strengths Against Us</SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">One
night a well-known and highly respected preacher was working on his sermon for
the following Sunday. His little son came in and asked his daddy to come tuck
him in. The father told him to get into bed and he would come in a few minutes
to give him a goodnight kiss and tuck him in. But then, he became engrossed in
his preparation, and much later, he remembered the promise. He went into his
son's bed room only to discover that the little fellow was already asleep. That
story is heart-breaking because it has a familiar ring to it. His passion to be
a good preacher - a good thing - had tempted him that night to be a bad father.
Do you see what happened? The tempter even turns our strengths against us if we
are not careful.<BR><BR>James McCormick, Selected Sermons, ChristianGlobe
Networks, Inc. <BR>__________________________________<BR><BR> </SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">The
Strong Timber Is Tested<BR><BR> </SPAN></P>
<P style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">A group
of mountain hikers came across an old woodsman with an axe on his shoulder.
"Where are you going?" they asked him.<BR><BR>"I'm headed up the mountain to get
some wood to repair my cabin," replied the woodsman.<BR><BR>"But why are you
going up the mountain?" they asked incredulously. "There are plenty of trees all
around us here."<BR><BR>"I know," he said, "but I need strong timber and it
grows only on the highest elevations, where the trees are tested and toughened
by the weather around them. The higher up you go, the stronger the timber
grows."<BR><BR>And that is what God desires for us - that through the winds of
trial and the storms of temptation we would grow strong and live on a higher
level - strong to resist the devil's urging, strong to serve God, and strong as
we stand together in faith and service to one another.<BR><BR>Lee Griess, Return
to The Lord, Your God, CSS Publishing Company, Inc.
<BR>_______________________________________<BR><BR> </SPAN></P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>