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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Seeing Only the Smoke, Never the Fire</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">In
Luke 7:32, Jesus observed that this generation is like school children
who pipe and their friends won't dance, who wail and their chums won't
cry. "There is no pleasing you!" We simply find something wrong with
everything. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">John
Wesley pointed out that every gift God gives man is quickly sullied by
human hands. He said every revival comes with defects. So he'd pray,
"Lord, send revival without the defects." But then he told the Lord, "If
you won't do it, then send the revival with the defects." </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Pharisees
only see the smoke, never the fire. They complain about defects, never
seeing the revival. Negative, critical persons, they are judgmental. </span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Stephen M. Crotts, Sermons for Sundays after Pentecost, CSS Publishing </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">_____________________</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Tradition Is a Powerful Thing</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Years
ago Harry Emerson Fosdick told about a church in Denmark where the
worshipers bowed regularly before a certain spot on the wall. They had
been doing that for three centuries -- bowing at that one spot in the
sanctuary. Nobody could remember why. One day in renovating the church,
they removed some of the whitewash on the walls. At the exact spot where
the people bowed they found the image of the Madonna under the
whitewash. People had become so accustomed to bowing before that image
that even after it was covered up for three centuries, people still
bowed. <br>
<br>
Tradition is a powerful thing. The Pharisees had learned to substitute
tradition, custom, habit for the presence of the living God.
Traditionalism rears its head in many ways, in many times and in many
places. <br>
<br>
</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">King Duncan, Collected Sermons, <a __removedlink__909448072__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: small">_______________________</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Fault-Finding</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Shakespeare
said, "What's in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name
would smell as sweet." Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet?
I'm sure it would. You see, the truth is that the thing is what it is,
not what someone calls it. Names are assigned to us, based on our
outward circumstances by ourselves and other people. "Sinner, Failure,
Stupid, Dummy, Unclean" all are names which label us. But what we are
called, either by others or by ourselves does not determine who we are.
It might speak of those external circumstances, but it might be wholly
inaccurate. You see, a failure is not someone who fails. In reality, the
people who fail the most are the ones who succeed. You only get to
success by taking risks and risk-taking brings many failures along the
way. A failure is someone who simply doesn't try. No, names do not
determine who you are. You are who
you
are on the inside.</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">So, the first important lesson is that we must cultivate the inner person.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">The inner person is the person who counts. The apostle Paul desired that we</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">be strengthened in the inner man.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">It boils down to relationship. We are only as strong as our personal relationship with Christ.</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">J. David Hoke, The Inside Story, Mark 7:14-23.</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">_________________</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">The Shoeshine Boy</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">A
certain downtown businessman became fond of the little boy who shined
his shoes every day. He did such a good job that one day the businessman
asked him, “Son, how come you are so conscientious about your work?”
The boy felt complimented. He looked up to the man, and said, “Mister,
I’m a Christian and I try to shine every pair of shoes as if Jesus
Christ were wearing them.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">The
businessman saw something genuine in the shoeshine boy. Soon after that
he began reading his Bible. When he decided to be a Christian himself,
he credited his decision to the little boy who shined every pair of
shoes “as if Jesus Christ were wearing them.” That’s a blessing.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Charles R. Leary, Mission Ready!, CSS Publishing Company.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">___________________</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Which Flowers Are Real?</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">The
queen of Sheba came to visit Solomon, and one day she put him to the
test. She brought artificial flowers so perfectly formed that no human
eye could detect them from real flowers. She put them in a vase on
Solomon’s table, in his throne room next to his flowers. As he came in,
the queen of Sheba is reported to have said, "Solomon, you are the
wisest man in the world. Tell me without touching these flowers, which
are real and which are artificial." It is said that Solomon studied the
flowers for a long time and spoke nothing, until finally he said, "Open
the windows and let the bees come in." </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">There
are ways to tell the artificial from the real—let the bees come in;
they will know where the real is. If we live with the authentic Jesus
long enough, we will recognize the artificial when we see it. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Brooks Ramsey, When Religion Becomes Real </span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Humor: A Tradition of Fighting</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">There
is a story about a young, newly ordained minister who went to serve his
first church. He noticed that on the first Sunday, when he said the
prayers, the congregation on the left side of the church stood at the
beginning of the prayers, and the congregation on the right side
remained seated. The young minister thought this was a bit odd, but he
kept going in the prayers—until he began to hear some murmuring between
the two sides, then the murmuring turned into grumbling and then people
yelling at each other, proclaiming that they were doing the right thing
when came to the tradition of the church.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Distressed
by what he had seen and all that was taking place, the young pastor
went to seek the council of the former, now elderly pastor, who had
served this congregation for years. He asked him, “So is it the
tradition of the congregation to stand during the prayers?”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">The older minister, whose memory was now failing, stroked his beard, replied, “No, that is not the tradition, as I recall.”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">“So, the tradition is that they remain seated during the prayers?”</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">To which the old minister responded…</span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"><span style="color: black">The rest of this illustration, as well as many additional illustrations and sermons for the whole year, can be accessed at </span></span><span style="color: black"><a target="_blank" __removedlink__909448072__href="http://mail.churchmail.com/lists/lt.php?id=Kk8CAAADDAdXC0kCCQRKDAtXUVw%3D"><span style="font-size: small"><font color="#0000ff">www.Sermons.com</font></span></a></span><span style="font-size: small"><span style="color: black">. </span></span></div>
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