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<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: left" align="left"><span>John 3<font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">,</font></font> the sermon title "Looking at the World through the Eyes of God"</span><span>____________________</span><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Sermons for Lent 4</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>John 3:14-21 - "Looking at the World Through the Eyes of God" </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>John 3:14-21 - "</span><span>The Simplex Faith of 3:16</span><span>"</span><span> by Leonard Sweet</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>I can't think of a
greater condemnation to be levied against a people than this: They loved
darkness instead of light. I would never want that to be said of me.
But that is the way God sees the world. You and I see the world as it is
right now. Most of the people around us try and do the right thing and
when we are wrong hopefully we apologize. So we tend to think well of
most people. But look out on the passage of time. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The Ancient World
of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Hellenism, Rome, Persia, India, and East Asia was
filled with the ignorance of hundreds of thousands of gods, magic,
rituals, superstitions, human sacrifice, conquests, sewage(refuse was
mostly thrown into the streets for the rats and dogs), disease (priests
attempted to foretell the course of a disease by examining the livers of
sacrificed animals). And the list doesn't end there: ethnic bigotry,
civil wars, persecutions, despots, tyrants, class rule, and the
systematic murders of tens of thousands.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The Middle Ages of
Persia, Constantinople, Islam, Britain, China, India, Genghis Khan and
the Mongols, Timur and the Turks, Europe, African Empires and the
Americas. All of them covered in the darkness of man's inhumanity to
man: Revolutions, expansionism, Mohammad's Conquest and Christianity's
Crusades, warlords, heretics, witchcraft, increased trade bringing death
and plagues to millions, and the crowding in the cities spreading the
misery all the more. And on top of this misery wars fought for every
ridiculous reason known to man.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The Enlightenment
and the Modern world also have fared no better. We too have loved the
darkness instead of the light. Europe, Africa, Mid-East, India, and the
Americas have all dipped their finger into the cesspool of sin: Guns,
germs, slavery, the need for women's suffrage, massacres, socialism,
resistance to democracy, religious fundamentalism's resistance to
progress, Fascism, Communism, The Holocaust, the Ku Klux Klan, greed,
the market crash, The Depression, world wars, The Bomb, terrorism, the
crisis in Africa.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>I can't tell you
what a short list this is. And this says nothing of the millions of
women and children who have suffered throughout the ages at the hands of
ruthless men. There is no way to write that history because it is
hidden from the pages of history.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Yes! Men have loved
darkness rather than light. There is a morbid destructive tendency in
all of us. We dabble in the diabolical. We revel in revenge. And we hate
in our hearts. My, how we love to live in the shadows! What must God
think of us?</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Here is his
verdict, as true today as it was when it was pronounced 2000 years ago:
Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light,
because their deeds were evil. This is Jesus' description of mankind.
And can any of us argue with him?</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>For a few moments let's look at the world through the eyes of God. What does he see? He sees that....</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>1. There are those who acknowledge not the darkness.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>2. There are those who acknowledge the darkness.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>3. There are those who acknowledge their need for forgiveness.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The rest of this sermon can be obtained by joining <a __removedlink__1985362939__href="http://www.sermons.com/signup" target="_blank">http://www.sermons.com/signup</a></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 full text of the following sermon is available at <a __removedlink__1985362939__href="http://www.Sermons.com" target="_blank">www.Sermons.com</a>.</span></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;"><span><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"><br>
</font></font></span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>John 3<font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">,</font></font> the sermon titled "The Simplex Faith of 3:16" by Leonard Sweet </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>If I were to say three numbers, "3:16," what would you say?</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Wow! Some of you didn't even say "John 3:16," you just started quoting the verse: "For God so loved the world . . . "</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>If there is one Bible verse both locked down and totally lapsed Christians might know, it is John 3:16. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Thank you, Tim Tebow. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>John 3:16 is held
up at half -time in sports arenas. It is flashed on cardboard placards
on freeway off-ramps. Tim Tebow found a creative new place to assert
John 3:16 when he scraped out the three numbers in the black-out smears
he made on his cheekbones before every one of his college football
games.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>We all know John 3:16.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>But let me try again. Who can tell me John 3:15? Or John 3:17? Or John 3:14? Or 3:18? </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>If you can, you are
the exceptions that prove the rule. You are a minuscule minority. If
you don't know, it is not because your faith is fainthearted. Not
because your Sunday school failed you. Not because of any form of
faithlessness. If you don't know what John 3:15 or John 3:17 say, it is
because of a common disease that has affected many Christians. It is a
malady perhaps best described as "versitis."</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>No, I didn't say "bursitis." I said "versitis." </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Anyone remember
"sword drills" in Sunday school? Or did you ever earn "jewels in your
crown" in Awana classes? If so, then you have a good number of Bible
verses committed to memory. Both "sword drills" and Awana prizes reward
children for committing Bible verses to memory. But knowing individual
Bible verses, as helpful, hopeful, and healing as they might be, does
not mean that you know the Bible, the story of the scriptures. The whole
story. The big story. The back story. Both the huge moments and the
hidden asides. All of the components of God's story are necessary in
order to comprehend the whole, unfolding drama of the divine words and
work that are found in scripture...</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The rest of this sermon can be obtained by joining <a __removedlink__1985362939__href="http://www.sermons.com/signup" target="_blank">http://www.sermons.com/signup</a></span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> <font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">- - - - -</font></font> <br>
</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Born of the Spirit</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Windborne! That's a
far better moniker for Christians than that mistaken term "born again."
That's a phrase we picked up from Nicodemus' misunderstanding of
entering a second time into the mother's womb rather than Jesus'
terminology "born from above" or "born of the Spirit." "No one can enter
the kingdom of God without being born of water and wind - Spirit -
pneumatos."<br>
<br>
Windborne speaks of being carried along by the wind
of the Spirit of God. Here is a lifestyle that is not bogged down with
the how questions, but a life that soars among the clouds powered by the
mystery of God. "The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the
sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes."
Ours is a life filled with mystery and the unexplainable.<br>
<br>
Science
has taught us to ask the how questions. Our contemporary culture seems
to be obsessed with the tangible, the explainable, and the measurable.
And we are tempted to believe that the only reality is that which we can
see and touch. But Jesus calls us to a life of the spirit. It's a life
lifted by the invisible power of the wind.<br>
<br>
Mickey Anders, Windborne<br>
_________________________________________<br>
</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>God Is Seeking You in Love</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Fred Craddock tells the story of his father, who spent years of his life hiding from the God who was seeking him out:</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>"When the pastor
used to come from my mother's church to call on him, my father would
say, 'You don't care about me. I know how churches are. You want another
pledge, another name, right? Another name, another pledge, isn't that
the whole point of church? Get another name, another pledge.'</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>My nervous mother
would run to the kitchen, crying, for fear somebody's feelings would be
hurt. When we had an evangelistic campaign the pastor would bring the
evangelist, introduce him to my father and then say, 'Sic him, get him!
Sic him, get him!' May father would always say the same thing. 'You
don't care about me! Another name, another pledge. Another name, another
pledge! I know about churches.'</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>I guess I heard it a
thousand times. One time he didn't say it. He was at the Veteran's
Hospital. He was down to 74 pounds. They had taken out the throat, put
in a metal tube, and said, 'Mr. Craddock, you should have come earlier.
But this cancer is awfully far advanced. We'll give radium, but we don't
know.'</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>I went in to see
him. In every window-potted plants and flowers. Everywhere there was a
place to set them-potted plants and flowers. Even in that thing that
swings out over your bed they put food on, there was a big flower. There
was by his bed a stack of cards 10 or 15 inches deep. I looked at the
cards sprinkled in the flowers. I read the cards beside his bed. And I
want to tell you, every card, every blossom, every potted plant from
groups, Sunday School classes, women's groups, youth groups, men's bible
class, of my mother's church-every one of them. My father saw me
reading them. He could not speak, but he took a Kleenex box and wrote
something on the side from Shakespeare's Hamlet. . . . He wrote on the
side, 'In this harsh world, draw your breath in pain to tell my story.' I
said, 'What is your story, Daddy?' And he wrote, 'I was wrong.'" </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>It is not until you
know God is seeking you in love, not in condemnation; it is not until
that moment that the gospel becomes Good News for you.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Fred Craddock, adapted by James Fitzgerald, Serpents, Penguins, and Crosses</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>______________________________________</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
</span></div>
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