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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">It Is Not I</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">It
is said that St. Augustine was accosted one day on the street by a
former mistress some time after he had become a Christian. When he saw
her he turned and walked the other way. Surprised, the woman called out,
"Augustine, it is I". Augustine as he kept going the other way,
answered her, "Yes, but it is not I."</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">It
is an amusing story - one that comes close to making the same point the
German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer made when he wrote "When Christ
calls a man to follow him, he calls him to die."</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Richard J. Fairchild, In the Way or on the Way</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">______________________________</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Taking Risks for Faith</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">It
doesn't seem to me that many of us are risking very much for our faith.
I once heard someone describe the average Christian today in terms of a
person dressed in a deep-sea diving suit, oxygen mask firmly in place,
marching resolutely into the bathroom to pull the plug out of the
bathtub. An old slogan says: "Expect great things from God; Attempt
great things for God." We're pretty good at the first; not so hot with
the second.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Remember
the words of Shakespeare: "Our doubts are traitors, And make us lose
the good we oft might win, By fearing to attempt." (Measure for Measure,
I, iv.) Peter at least dared to attempt. </span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Donald B. Strobe, Collected Words, <a href="http://www.sermons.com/" target="_blank">www.Sermons.com</a> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">________________________</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Costly Grace </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Cheap
grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance,
baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession,
absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without
discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ living
and incarnate. Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for
the sake of it a man will gladly go and sell all that he has. It is the
pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all he his
goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck
out the eye which causes him to stumble, it is the call of Jesus Christ
at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him. Costly grace is
the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be
asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is costly
because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it cal
ls us
to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life,
and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly
because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner.
Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: "ye
were bought at a price," and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for
us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a
price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is
the Incarnation of God.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">______________________________</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">He’s Going to Make It Hard on You</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Bob
Hodges, a Presbyterian minister in Rogersville, Tennessee, tells about
duck hunting with a friend of his on Cherokee Lake in East Tennessee.
His friend, Riley, who had just recently given his life to Christ, began
to ask some serious questions about his Christian pilgrimage. Riley's
old friends were making it very difficult for him to remain consistent
in his obedience and commitment to Christ. They seemed to delight in
trying to get him to fall back into the old patterns of life. They
ridiculed him for spending so much time with "the preacher." Riley
asked, "Why is it that I'm having more trouble since I became a
Christian than I ever did when I was lost? Everything seems to go wrong.
I'm having such a struggle!"<br>
<br>
Bob Hodges spoke up, "I'll tell you why, Riley. A couple of ducks fly
over and you shoot. You kill one and injure the other. They both fall
into the lake. What do you do? You have to get out of the boat and go
pick up the ducks, but which one do you go after first?"<br>
<br>
"Well," Riley drawled, "that's easy. I go after the injured one first. The dead one ain't goin' nowhere!"<br>
<br>
Hodges said, "And that's the way it is with the devil. He goes after
injured Christians. He's not going to bother with the man dead in his
sin. But the minute you give your life to Christ, you'd better get
ready; the devil is going to come after you. He is going to chase you;
he's going to make it hard on you."</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">King Duncan, <a target="_blank" href="http://mail.churchmail.com/lists/lt.php?id=Kk8FCgUDCwFRRAMDCUsDAABWWg%3D%3D">www.Sermons.com</a>, adapted from Don Emmitte</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">____________________________________</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">A
clay pot sitting in the sun will always be a clay pot. It has to go
through the white heat of the furnace to become porcelain. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Mildred Witte Struven</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">______________________________</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Scandelon</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Some
years ago Michael Card, a contemporary Christian artist, wrote a song
called Scandelon. It is about the scandalous nature of the cross. The
chorus goes:</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">He will be the Truth</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">that will offend them one and all.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">A stone that makes men stumble</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">and a rock that makes them fall.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">And many will be broken so that He can make them whole.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">And many will be crushed and lose their very soul.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Peter
understood the scandalous nature of the cross. It repulsed him. There
was no way Jesus was going to go to Jerusalem and be killed. Peter could
see Jesus being king and killing others but being king and being killed
was not, in his mind, the Messiah's fate.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Brett Blair, <a href="http://www.esermons.com.%c2%a0/" target="_blank">www.eSermons.com. </a>;</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">_______________________________</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Our Logo</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Marketing
experts are always quick to tell start-up businesses how important it
is to develop a corporate logo. "Brand identity" they call it, pointing
out that symbols serve to generate not only product familiarity but also
identification with the overall philosophy of an organization. As the
authors of one book on logo design state, "The success of any business
or organization lies in its ability to persuade its audience to do what
it wants. The ultimate goal of any designer when creating a logo is, of
course, to develop a rhetorical and informative mark - one that not only
identifies the company and its business, but also helps persuade
viewers to respond in a specified manner."</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">For
Christians and other religious groups we might agree that the same
holds true. The old adage, "a picture's worth a thousand words" reminds
us that even around the spiritual dimensions of our lives we can be
consistently and powerfully moved by a single sign or symbol. For the
Jewish people it is often the Star of David, for Buddhists, the figure
of their enlightened teacher, and for us as Christians the central
"logo" of our life together is the cross, that sacred sign of God's
sacrifice offered through Christ. Through this marking we're continually
reminded of God's undying love for the world and of our call to love
and serve one another throughout the course of our earthly existence.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Lael P. Murphy, Come Survey the Wondrous Cross as a Symbol of Our History</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">______________________________________</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">The Sacrifice Play</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Sacrifice
is not a word we use much these days, is it? When was the last time you
used it or thought about it in terms of your own life? When was the
last time you sacrificed anything for anybody? Come to think about it,
there’s only one sport as far as I know where the term is actually used.
Do you know which sport that is? You can almost hear Harry Cary
announcing it over the radio, “And there it goes, a long fly ball to
left; easy out, but the man on third tags up and trots home. Sacrifice
fly.”</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">What
a great idea -- you’re out, but you helped someone else score a run.
Baseball is one of the few sports where you lose but the team still
gains. Do you remember the way comedian George Carlin spells it out in
his routine about the contrast between the hardness of football and the
softness of baseball? He says: In football you Tackle! In baseball, you
“catch flies…” In football you Punt! In baseball you “bunt…” Football is
played on a Gridiron! Baseball is played on a “field…” In football you
Score! In baseball you “go home…” In football you Kill! In baseball you
“sacrifice…”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Baseball may be the only sport where you actually can hear this word…</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">The conclusion to this list and for many additional illustrations and sermons for Proper 17 can be accessed at <a target="_blank" href="http://mail.churchmail.com/lists/lt.php?id=Kk8FCgUDCwFRRAMDCUsDAABWWg%3D%3D">www.Sermons.com</a>.</span></div>
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