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<div><span style="font-size: medium"><b><span style="color: black">Sermons for Lent 1</span></b></span><span style="font-size: medium"> </span></div>
<div><span style="font-size: medium">Luke 4:1-13<span style="color: black"> – “</span><b>Would You Take The Crown Without The Cross?”</b></span></div>
<div><span style="font-size: medium">Romans 10:8b-13<span style="color: black"> - <strong>"Give It Up"</strong> - by Leonard Sweet </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium"><span style="color: black"> Luke 4<font size="4">,</font> the sermon titled <strong>"Would You Take the Crown Without the Cross?"</strong> by Brett Blair</span></span>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: medium">The
local sheriff was looking for a deputy, and one of the applicants - who
was not known to be the brightest academically, was called in for an
interview. "Okay," began the sheriff, "What is 1 and 1?" "Eleven," came
the reply. The sheriff thought to himself, "That's not what I meant, but
he's right." <br>
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Then the sheriff asked, "What two days of the week start with the letter
'T'?" "Today & tomorrow." Replied the applicant. The sheriff was
again surprised over the answer, one that he had never thought of
himself. <br>
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"Now, listen carefully, who killed Abraham Lincoln?", asked the sheriff.
The job seeker seemed a little surprised, then thought really hard for a
minute and finally admitted, "I don't know." The sheriff replied,
"Well, why don't you go home and work on that one for a while?" The
applicant left and wandered over to his pals who were waiting to hear
the results of the interview. He greeted them with a cheery smile, "The
job is mine! The interview went great! First day on the job and I'm
already working on a murder case!" <br>
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In our Gospel reading this morning in Luke 4 it is Jesus' first day on
the job. Immediately he is confronted with three major temptations. And
he is confronted with this basic question: Would he take the crown
without the cross? <br>
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These are the most basic temptations in life and they form the foundation for all other temptations…</span></div>
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<div><span style="font-size: medium"><span style="color: black">The rest of the sermon can be found by joining Sermons.com. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: medium"><span style="color: black">Romans 10<font size="4">,</font> the sermon titled <strong>"Give It Up" </strong></span></span>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: medium">Sometimes
it seems like there are only two types of films being made today in
Hollywood. There are “chick flicks” and there are “man movies.” Coming
off Valentine’s date weekend, the cinema hormone level is heavy with
estrogen. But don’t worry, gentlemen. With the approach of “March
Madness” and the full court press of basketball, the testosterone level
will climb steadily over the next month. </span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: medium">These
movie “types” are actually less about male vs. female, Mars vs. Venus
than they are about the different ways human beings act and react to the
world. We think about things. We feel things. We take action on things.
Our interior convictions and emotions inform our exterior actions. Our
mind, marrow and muscles, our heart, head and hands, can never be
disconnected. We are bodies. We are spirits. We are souls.</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: medium">Did
everyone have pancakes on Tuesday? “Shrove Tuesday” traditionally is
the day all the grease and fat in the home is used up (frying pancakes)
so that there will be no more rich, greasy, goodness consumed during the
forty days of Lent. Reflecting the forty days of temptation that Jesus
spent in the wilderness, the forty days of Lent are supposed to be
marked by some sort of personal sacrifice. Giving up great, greasy fried
foods. Giving up meat. Giving up carbs. Giving up sweets. Giving up
drinking, smoking, swearing, or some other “vice.” Lent is about giving
up things. </span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: medium">“Giving
up” something for Lent may strike us as a rather old-fashioned notion.
But it is exactly half of what Paul was preaching about in today’s
epistle text…</span></div>
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<div><span style="font-size: medium"><span style="color: black">The rest of this sermon following the outline above can be obtained by joining </span></span><span style="color: black"><a shape="rect" target="_blank" __removedlink__1515546481__href="http://www.sermons.com/signup"><span style="font-size: medium"><font color="#0000ff">http://www.sermons.com/signup</font></span></a></span><span style="font-size: medium"><span style="color: black">. </span></span></div>
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