Click on the image to hear the podcast for each sermon
below.
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Ever been haunted by a train of thoughts you knew were no good for you ?
Ever want to meet C.S. Lewis? We do both as we hear Lewis read
from the Preface of the Great
Divorce about how the choices we make
shape who we become.
Show Me the images referred to in this sermon |
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What if there was a wall in your mind that was keeping you from
crossing
over into the wide open spaces
of an intimate relationship with God ?
It turns out that the idea that we have
any rights before God is a wall that
shuts us out from the very thing we want. We look at the story of THE
BIG MAN
in The Great Divorce
and discover how to be out of excuses and into grace.
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In this third sermon in the Great Divorce series we
move from the basic sins of the Big Man to the sins of intellect of the
Bishop. We discover a man who views him self as very religious yet
doesnt even realize he is living in Hell. Not all spirituality leads us
to Jesus. There are ways of understanding faith, Jesus, and the
scriptures that are so distorted that they actually lead us away from
Jesus. The scriptures are full of warnings about false teachers. In our
own day we can feel the pressure to conform our beliefs to what is
currently in vouge, what is considered thoughtful, tolerant, reasonable
... even if it is actually none of those things. We look at 2 Timothy
3:1-17 and discover a practical way to uncover the assumptions of the
strand of heresy C.S. Lewis personified in the bishop - the very strand
we are most in danger of swallowing in our day.
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Do I lean towards Optimism, Do I lean towards Pessimism, Or do I lean on
Jesus? Today we discover
that two very common sense approaches to life actually
keep us from seeing the
Kingdom of God.
We take a look at two characters in the Great Divorce, Ikey the Business Man and
the Hard-bitten man in order to avoid
two dead-end streets. We end with the incredible words
of Isaiah 61:10
which
show us the way to live which is life indeed!
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Why is it that romantic relationships that can provide the greatest
joy in life can also produce the greatest misery? We explore 10 key
principles that can help us to
build relationships that age well.
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What do you do when shame or guilt has such
power over you that you would choose a life of hell rather than be exposed to your shame. It
turns out that guilt
and shame are not the same thing, and real freedom can found
in the strangest place - a scripture
about the dangers of pride.
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Do you sometimes think 'If
only I was more organized, and my house was more organized,
and my schedule was more organized, then I could have some
real peace and satisfaction? Maybe what is more important
than being organized is what your life is organized around.
With our busy schedules and hectic lives, is it possible to
be
both active and still and centered on God? Yes. We contrast
the deep peace of the Psalmist in Psalm 131 with what
organizes the grumbling woman and the artist described by
C.S. Lewis in The Great Divorce. We discover three basic
clues in
Psalm 131 on how to live with our heart and soul located in the very
presence of God, regardless of how crazy our lives are!
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Why do smart people do stupid things? Why are
bad habits so hard to break?
Who are you when no one is looking? How are we to break the cycle of bad habits
of thought or deed? In particular how are we to handle pornography
and sexual
addictions ?
How do you kill a red lizard?
The answer is found in Colossians 3:1-7.
Summary Slide for this Sermon
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A life of manipulation leads to a legacy of ashes. A
life centered on God leads
to a legacy of love that never
ends. Have you ever felt manipulated by someone? Worse yet,
have you ever caught a glimpse of your own manipulative
ways?
C.S. Lewis shows us the strangest ghost yet - a dwarf
chained to a mannequin
- to show us the truth about
ourselves. We turn to Colossians 1:3-14
to find out how to
leave a legacy that matters.
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Do you make choices or do your choices make you or does
God make both?
If God is in complete control of how things
turn out - how can my choices be real?
We look at proton
rain, sunlight on a stone, and stupid human tricks searching
for answers and find in Philippians 2:12-13 a tiny verse
that holds human free will, God's sovereignty, and the
mystery of human existence together !
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Would an all
loving, forgiving, merciful God really send people to Hell?
What is God really like?
Get ready to be offended.
In our concluding sermon on the Great Divorce we look at the great
questions
and we discover that our ability to see and enter the gate to the freedom,
forgiveness, and joy of eternal life turns upon how we answer the question
no one wants to ponder: -- Do I deserve to go to
hell?
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