Sermon Central
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The Church At This Point Has A Few Options At Its ...
Contributed by Michael Mccartney on Jan 25, 2009 (message contributor)
The church at this point has a few options at its disposal to confront this injustice (Idea here pulled from Jim Cymbala’s book “Fresh Power “ pg. 88,89).
a. They could start a demonstration – they could march on Washington and protest because there are 5,000plus in the church at this point in time. They could say “We are a voting block Herod and you better take notice and give us what we demand!”
b. They could storm Herod’s palace and slay him with the sword like he did James.
i. Eye for an eye!
c. They could condemn James for not having enough faith because he was martyred.
i. Put the blame of James!
d. They could have started confessing positively and started saying “This is all going to go away. Everything is fine James is not really dead. Peter is not going to be killed after Passover is over. All is well!”
e. They could have started a radical Newspaper to address the issues and inform the public of what’s going on.
i. “Herod kills innocent man of God!” headline reads.
f. They could have remembered all the past spiritual victories and rehashed them. They could just live in the past and remember the way we where.
i. They could live in denial and wish for a return of the past!
g. They could have turned tail and run.
h. They could have quit and given up on God because things were getting tough.
i. They could have said, “God is dead!”
i. But they did none of the above- Instead they called a prayer meeting and started praying earnestly to God for a miracle.
i. Jim Cymbala states, “Too many times when we are under stress or opposition, we hold strategy sessions, we ‘claim the promises’ in rote sort of way instead of praying them biblically. But God said we could ‘receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need.’ Where? At ‘the throne of grace’ (Hebrews 4:16).
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