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<div> Subject: Fwd: Sermon for this Sunday, 1 Lent, and illustration<br>
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<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: left" align="left"><span style="COLOR: #0000ff; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><strong>This week's Illustration:</strong></span></div>
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<div><span style="COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><strong>Experiencing God's grace</strong></span></div>
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<div style="text-align:justify; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:6px" class="body">When we experience God’s grace, it often comes in the midst of things that seem to wear us down.</div>
<div style="text-align:justify; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:6px" class="body">Bill
Wilson, the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, experienced grace in this
way. He had tried for years to quit drinking. An agnostic, Wilson
consulted a friend who counseled him to seek God’s help. Having been
treated with hallucinogenic drugs in a hospital, Wilson went to his
hotel room after a conversation with the friend. Crying out in
desperation, he prayed an unusual prayer, “If there is a God, let him
show himself! I am ready to do anything. Anything!” According to his
account, his room was bathed in a white light, conveying the presence of
God. In his words, “It seemed to me, in the mind’s eye, that I was on a
mountain and that a wind not of air, but of spirit was blowing. And
then it burst upon me that I was a free man.” That experience enabled
him to find a way to stop drinking.</div>
<div style="text-align:justify; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:6px" class="body">(Source: David Brooks, “Bill Wilson’s Gospel,” New York Times Online, June 28, 2010.)</div>
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<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" align="center"><span style="COLOR: #0000ff; FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><strong>Proclaim Sermon for this Week</strong></span></div>
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<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; COLOR: #ff0000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><strong>Recalculating, Recalculating, Recalculating ...</strong></div>
<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><span style="COLOR: #993300; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><strong>February 26, 2012</strong></span></div>
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<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 8pt"><strong>Mark 1: 9-15</strong><br>
<em>Lent 1</em></div>
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<div style="COLOR: #993300; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><em><strong>Summary</strong></em></div>
<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><em>When we are on the wrong path, we need someone to tell us so - maybe even Jesus!</em></div>
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<div style="COLOR: #993300; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><strong>Excerpt</strong></div>
<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana', ' Geneva', ' Arial', ' Helvetica', ' sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"> Sooner
or later, almost everyone experiences that uncomfortable feeling that,
no matter how confident we were at the start of a journey, we are now
lost.</div>
<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana', ' Geneva', ' Arial', ' Helvetica', ' sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"> The
feeling may come on gradually. Something doesn't seem quite right.
There's this odd feeling we're traveling the wrong way. The landmarks
don't look right. The signs are all wrong.</div>
<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana', ' Geneva', ' Arial', ' Helvetica', ' sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"> Or it may come as a jarring shock: We are way out of our reckoning. Translation? We are good, old-fashioned lost, lost, lost!</div>
<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana', ' Geneva', ' Arial', ' Helvetica', ' sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"> When
that happens, we have to get back on the right track. And that may be
easy, as easy as making a couple of quick turns, or it may mean having
to backtrack for however long we have been going the wrong direction.
Either way, there's no use waiting. We've got to start getting "unlost."</div>
<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana', ' Geneva', ' Arial', ' Helvetica', ' sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"> Or, as those little GPS units are fond of saying, "Recalculating, recalculating, recalculating ...."</div>
<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana', ' Geneva', ' Arial', ' Helvetica', ' sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"> Don't
we all, at some point, need a loved one, a friend or even an annoying
acquaintance, who will tell us what we don't want to hear? Something
like, "What were you thinking?" People who tell us we need a course
correction may be individuals we love and admire. Or they may be persons
we consider adversaries, rivals or even enemies. But if they set us on
the right track, we owe them hearty thanks - no matter how much we
resent hearing the truth.</div>
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<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana', ' Geneva', ' Arial', ' Helvetica', ' sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><strong>From spiritual high to spiritual low</strong></div>
<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana', ' Geneva', ' Arial', ' Helvetica', ' sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"> In
this short passage from Mark, there are not one, but two spiritual
forces that set Jesus on a major course correction. At least that's one
way of looking at this passage. The four gospels all agree that for
Jesus, his baptism was a major turning point. The Father says to him,
"You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well
pleased...(approximately 1,510 words remaining.)</div>
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<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana', ' Geneva', ' Arial', ' Helvetica', ' sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><a target="_blank" href="http://www.proclaimsermons.com/viewSermon.asp?title=Recalculating%2C%20Recalculating%2C%20Recalculating%20...%20" style="font-family: 'Verdana','Geneva','Arial','Helvetica','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;" shape="rect"><strong>http://www.proclaimsermons.com/viewSermon.asp?title=Recalculating%2C%20Recalculating%2C%20Recalculating%20...</strong></a><br>
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