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<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Don't Forget Your Dance Partner!</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>C.S. Lewis once
penned some thoughts on worship, particularly in the face of liturgical
innovators in England who seemed to think that every worship service
needed to be a kind of variety show with each week being different from
the week prior. Lewis had no truck with that kind of thinking. Worship,
Lewis wrote, should be a bit like dancing. Once you have learned how to
dance and have become good at it, you are able to immerse yourself in
the dance and just do it almost without thinking about it. But if you
must constantly look down at your feet, if you have to think about each
movement before you actually make it, then you can't dance yet but are
just learning how to dance.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Worship is like
that, Lewis thought. A believer should be able to move through the
liturgy without having to check his every movement first. An ideal
service would be one you hardly notice in the sense of your simply being
immersed and caught up in a set of actions and a series of thoughts
that are fully a part of you already. Overall, Lewis makes a good point.
Still, I would throw in a cautionary note to his analogy: worship may
be like a dance that you are so good at you can just do it freely and
flowingly, but we dare never forget who our dance partner is! <br>
<br>
Scott Hoezee, Center for Excellence in Preaching </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>___________________________</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Help in Facing Our Fears</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Leslie Weatherhead
once told a parable of a little boy who fled from a witch who had turned
herself into a cat. As the boy ran, he kept glancing fearfully over his
shoulder. The first time he looked back, the cat was the size of a
calf. The next time he looked, it had grown to the dimensions of an
elephant. Then the boy fell, and was unable to go farther. Resolutely he
got up and faced the pursuing horror. It stopped. So he took a step
toward it. It backed away. As he continued to advance toward it, it
began to shrink in size as it retreated from him. Finally it changed
into a mouse and ran under the door of the witch's cottage to be seen no
more. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The moral is clear:
it pays to face up to your fears. But sometimes that is hard to do.
That is when we need to turn to Christ. He can help us stand up to our
fears and conquer them. He can cast out demons.<br>
</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Adapted from Leslie Weatherhead.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>____________________________</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Christ Has Come to Free Us</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>That man with an
unclean spirit understands who Jesus is better than anyone else in the
room. He is on the margins of society and the margins of sanity, but he
knows exactly who Jesus is. Remember that the disciples don't figure it
out until Chapter 8, when Peter says, "You are the messiah, the one sent
by God." This man of unclean spirit is way ahead of everyone, and he
wants to know, "What are you going to do with people like me? Are you
going to destroy us?" </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>"Be silent and come
out of him!" And then the man convulses and cries out loudly and the
unclean spirit leaves him. I still have no idea what an unclean spirit
is, but I am impressed. Mark still hasn't told us a thing about what
Jesus taught, but he has showed us that Jesus had a power over things
that people label as unclean. Mark is making this point: that the will
and purpose of God present in Jesus is engaging and fighting against the
purposes of evil that exist among humanity. This battle is not fought
just at the highest levels of government or industry, but right in the
midst of common folk like us. The battle of good versus evil, right
versus wrong, life versus death happens amidst the people who are
gathered for worship. Christ has come to shatter the domineering designs
that shackle people to lower standards for life than God
intends. Christ has come to free us from the demons like prejudice and
pride, greed and guile. Christ is among us, whenever we gather in
church, to demonstrate a power among us. If we devote ourselves to
anything less than a divinely directed destiny, we have missed the goal
of faith.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Todd Weir, What Will You Do with Us, Jesus?</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>____________________________<br>
<br>
</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Authority without Relationship </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>A young second
lieutenant at Fort Bragg discovered that he had no change when he was
about to buy a soft drink from a vending machine. He flagged down a
passing private and asked him, "Do you have change for a dollar?" The
private said cheerfully, "I think so, let me take a look." The
lieutenant drew himself up stiffly and said, "Soldier, that is no way to
address an officer. We'll start all over again. Do you have change for a
dollar?" The private came to attention, saluted smartly, and said, "No,
sir!"</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>James W. Hewitt, Illustrations Unlimited, p. 42.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>________________________</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>My Best Demons</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Kathleen Norris
writes, "When I think of the demons I need to exorcise, I have to look
inward, to my heart and soul. Anger is my best demon, useful whenever I
have to go into a Woman Warrior mode, harmful when I use it to gratify
myself, either in self-justification, or to deny my fears. My husband,
who has a much sweeter nature than I, once told me that my mean streak
grieved him, not just because of the pain it cause him but because it
was doing me harm. His remark, as wise as that of any desert Abba, felt
like an exorcism. Not that my temptation to anger was magically gone,
but I was called to pay closer attention to something that badly needed
attention, and that was hurting our marriage. It confirmed my
understanding of marriage as a holy act: one can no more hide one's true
faults from a spouse than from God, and in exorcising the demon of
anger, that which could kill is converted, transformed into that which
can heal."</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>What are your best demons? To name them for what they are and how they bring suffering, is half the battle.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Kathleen Norris</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>________________________</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>What an Understatement!</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Now comes the
understatement. The people in the congregation, having witnessed a scene
to rival anything in The Exorcist, look around at each other and say,
"What is this? ... A new teaching!" </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>A new teaching? If
this had happened in any congregation I know, they may have sat for
hours in stupefied silence, they may have rushed to the altar in sudden
repentance, or they may have jumped out of the church windows in terror,
but the last thing they would have done was to comment on how this
casting out of a demon constituted an innovation in Christian education.
A new teaching? Indeed. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>To call such an
extraordinary event of the casting out of a demon a new teaching, well, I
think that constitutes understatement for most of us because our
ordinary experiences of teaching are so dull. So much of our teaching
and learning involves stuff that is on the periphery of our lives. We
may need to know it, but it doesn't exactly hit the core of us, the
things which most centrally define us as persons. It doesn't move us,
change us, make us new persons.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Christ's teaching,
on the other hand, transform us. Just ask the demon-possessed man, ask
the apostle Paul, ask Martin Luther, ask John Wesley. You could describe
this as a new teaching but better yet describe it as God with us. For
if God is with us, that changes everything.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Brett Blair, <a __removedlink__449504481__href="http://www.eSermons.com" target="_blank">www.eSermons.com</a>. Adapted from an unknown source.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>______________________</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>What's The Other Reason?</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>A few years ago a
teacher noticed one of her students, a shy young girl, was having
trouble working out her arithmetic assignment. The teacher went to the
child quietly and asked if she could help with any questions knowing the
girl was timid about asking for help.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>When the problem
was sorted out the little girl thanked the teacher. The teacher told the
little girl not to be shy about asking questions, "That's one of the
reasons I am here."</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The little girl thought about that for a moment and asked quietly, "What's the other reason?"</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Unknown</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>_______________________</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The Church Dare Not Have an Influence </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>In his penetrating
book The First Circle, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the famous Russian author
who defected to America, makes an interesting observation about how the
Russian authorities handle the church. He writes: "No one stops them
from ringing their bells; they can break communion bread anyway they
please. They can have their processions with the cross. But they will in
no way allow them to have any connection with social or civic affairs."
The church was allowed to go through the motions; it could have a
presence, but it dare not have an influence.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>What bothered the
scribes was not that Jesus prayed and preached. It was the fact that his
prayers and his sermons were moving the people to action. I wonder if
the church still has that concept of authority. So often our problem is
not that we do not have authority, it is that we do not use the
authority that we have. It is time that we quit defining the problems of
the world and start applying the power of the church to the problems. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>We have been given
authority by God, through Jesus Christ, to heal, to proclaim, to change,
to bring redemption, and to expel. We are under an imperative from God
and we need not fear either principalities or death for Christ has been
given all authority over heaven and earth. Now we need to start applying
that authority. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Now the ball is in our courts...</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Many additional illustrations and sermons, including many sermon series for Lent, can be accessed at <a __removedlink__449504481__href="http://www.Sermons.com" target="_blank">www.Sermons.com</a>.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
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