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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 style="text-align:justify; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:0"><strong>Heaven</strong></div>
<div style="text-align:justify; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:3px; margin-left:3px"> An
ancient Asian tale gives two images that contrast the difference
between heaven and hell. The image of hell is this: There is a large
banquet hall. The room is prepared with all the finest that money can
buy. The table and chairs are made of oak from the Black Forest of
Germany. The linen is handmade by European craftsmen. The plates and
saucers are bone china and the glassware is Waterford crystal. The meal
itself has been prepared by the world's best chefs. The guests are
present and are dressed in their finest attire. The only odd thing about
this scene is the silverware utensils, which made of sterling silver,
are very long, heavy and cumbersome. When the guests sit down and begin
to eat, some people are not able to lift any of the utensils. Those that
are able to lift the fork, knife or spoon cannot maneuver it so as to
get anything to eat. Soon banqueters begin to bump into each other in
their attempt to eat. Frustration and even anger is the result. In the
end no one gets anything to eat.</div>
<div style="text-align:justify; margin-top:0; margin-bottom:9px; margin-left:3px"> The
image of heaven is a bit different. The same banquet hall is adorned in
the same way; the Black Forest oak, linen, bone china, Waterford
crystal and fine food are all present. Even the large and cumbersome
silverware is present. There is a different group of guests who are
dressed very smartly. Somehow these banqueters have learned an important
lesson. They realize that the utensils will not allow them to feed
themselves. Thus, as they sit down to eat, those that are able to lift
the utensils pick up food and maneuver it so as to feed a neighbor. When
necessary two people lift a fork and feed a third person, who, in turn,
with aid feeds those who fed him. In the end all eat well; each person
is satisfied, because they have learned to feed each other.</div>
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<span style="COLOR: #0000ff; FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><strong>Proclaim Sermon for this Week</strong></span><br>
<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; COLOR: #ff0000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><strong><em>Becoming Who You Forgot You Were</em></strong></div>
<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><span style="COLOR: #993300; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><strong>March 18, 2012</strong></span></div>
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<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 8pt"><strong>Ephesians 2: 1-10 (RCL)<br>
Ephesians 2: 4-10 (LFM)</strong><br>
<em>Lent 4</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>Being
created by God in Christ Jesus gives us the power and freedom to do the
work of God here on this earth now. How we respond to this determines
what we leave behind. We are created for good works.</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"> In
August 2011, a group of archaeological students on a learning dig off
the Central Coast of British Columbia, Canada, unearthed the remains of a
10,000-year-old village. They found fishing tools made from deer bones
and antlers. That find seems to connect with legends of a village that
was a winter gathering place where ancient peoples repaired tools,
shared harvests and joined in song and dance. There are legends, but the
full story has been lost to time. Those people existed within what
seemed to be a certain society but it is now gone: "From dust you came
and to dust you shall return."</div>
<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana', ' Geneva', ' Arial', ' Helvetica', ' sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"> We
will never fully know what life was like for earlier cultures. We might
find coins, tools, signs of advancement and achievement, but most
likely, we won't find the diary of a family trying to survive in a world
without grocery stores, Starbucks and indoor plumbing. We can't quite
know those earlier persons, and yet, they were likely similar to us in
trying to understand their place in the world, trying to put into
context how one moment life can feel like a wide-open landscape and then
the next, like a narrowing path with an end close in sight.</div>
<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana', ' Geneva', ' Arial', ' Helvetica', ' sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"> But
now fast-forward 1,500 years. What will future civilizations unearth
about us? When we are no longer remembered by our descendants and
Facebook albums have faded into technological history like cassette
tapes, what will remain about who we were? There is much about our
society that contributes to the sciences, arts and humanity, but then,
well, there's a lot of strange stuff in our culture like reality TV that
makes people famous but contributes nothing.</div>
<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana', ' Geneva', ' Arial', ' Helvetica', ' sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"> This
can be a bewildering world. If we find it difficult to make sense of
what is going on in our world, just imagine what tomorrow's
archaeologists will say about who we are, what we are about and what
mattered the most to us.</div>
<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana', ' Geneva', ' Arial', ' Helvetica', ' sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"> Cultures
come and go, but there are things we suspect are common to every
culture. If we shared a meal with someone from that long-ago village in
Canada and someone from a first-century house church in Ephesus, we
would likely find that we all want to know why we are here on this earth
and what is the purpose for our being. We would also want to know that
our lives mean something, that when the layers of dust have covered us
over, we will have left behind something that mattered.</div>
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<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana', ' Geneva', ' Arial', ' Helvetica', ' sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"><strong>A radical statement</strong></div>
<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana', ' Geneva', ' Arial', ' Helvetica', ' sans-serif'; FONT-SIZE: 10pt"> Our
scripture reading is addressed to a small community of believers in
Ephesus. In it, Paul writes of a new way to...(approximately 1,738 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=Becoming%20Who%20You%20Forgot%20You%20Were" style="font-family: 'Verdana','Geneva','Arial','Helvetica','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;" shape="rect"><strong>Click here to read more:<br>
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