Sermon Central
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Studies In Luke
Contributed by Glenn Pease on Mar 26, 2021 (message contributor)
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1. Let's Play Angels
Contributed on Mar 26, 2021
The angels played a major role in the Christmas story. They announced the birth of Christ to both Mary and Joseph, and helped them work out the complexities of the virgin birth. Angels announced His birth to the shepherds and sang the first Christmas song--Glory to God in The Highest.
The secular world has fallen in love with angels. Angels have become so popular in our culture that any book or movie on angels becomes an instant success. Two of the popular TV programs are about angels. Touched By An Angel, features an Irish angel who goes about helping people out of life's ...read more
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2. The Virgin Birth
Contributed on Mar 26, 2021
When one accepts the Lordship of Jesus there can be no problem in accepting His miraculous birth. Once you accept that Jesus is the Son of God it is no problem accepting the way He came into human flesh.
For many years the great battlefield of the Bible critics was the subject of the resurrection of Christ. They felt that if they could demolish this truth and prove it to be only a myth, the whole structure of Christianity would crumble. But the resurrection was in impregnable, and they could not ...read more
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3. 3. Pre-Christmas Song
Contributed on Mar 26, 2021
Pre-Christmas singing should characterize us as believers. Even those who cannot carry a tune can enjoy music, for love always produces some kind of song.
At an evening of musical entertainment one of the guests was not impressed with the woman who was singing. He leaned over to the man next to him and said, "What an awful voice. I wonder who she is?" "She is my wife," was the stiff reply." "Oh, I'm sorry," he ...read more
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4. The Beautiful Benedictus
Contributed on Mar 26, 2021
The beauty of the benedictus lies in its eloquent description of the salvation of the Messiah. Inverse 78 the tender mercy of God is behind the beautiful dawning of the new day.
One morning the 5-year-old son of a doctor overheard his father tell his mother "I don't know when I will be home. I have been called out on a maternity case." A few minutes after his father left the doorbell rang, and the little lad went to the door. "Is the doctor in," ...read more
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5. The Mind Of The Master
Contributed on Mar 26, 2021
Jesus was self educated, and was an intellectual of His day. He knew His nations past history well through His study of the Old Testament.
A teacher began his Sunday School class by starting a discussion. He said he was reading in the Bible about a living dog and a dead lion, and he asked the class which they would rather be? There was a pause, and then Jack spoke up and said, "I'd rather be the living dog. It's better ...read more
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6. The Significance Of The Small
Contributed on Mar 26, 2021
To an infinite God everything is small, and He seems to favor the small even from the human perspective. The small is the foundation for both His physical creation and His spiritual kingdom.
God loves to get His will done in this world by means of little things, little places, and little people. You and I are conditioned to look for big things like New York, London, or Paris, but God with His infinite sense of humor often has His eye on hick towns like Bethlehem or Bridges Creek, ...read more
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7. Star Searc
Contributed on Mar 26, 2021
If we expect the coming year to be a good one, then we have to be committed to be searchers. Only searchers find the best. All of the lost and hidden stuff in the world is found by searchers.
On Columbus Day 1992 American scientist launched the greatest search in history. NASA called it Search For Extra Terrestrial Intelligence, or SETI for short. Frank White in his book The Seti Factor tells us this project using radio scopes and newly developed computer technology was designed to ...read more
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8. Triumph Over Temptation
Contributed on Mar 26, 2021
Jesus was tempted in all points like as we are, and not just in the 3 areas of which we have record here. The last verse of this record makes it clear that when it was done it was far from over. Satan just withdrew to lick his wounds and prepare for another assault at an opportune time.
Plato had a friend named Trachilus who had a very close call and almost lost his life in a storm at sea. The ship actually sank and he was thrown into the sea, but he managed to get to shore. When he reached his home he ordered his servants to wall up the two windows in his chamber ...read more
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9. Labor And Leisure
Contributed on Mar 26, 2021
Jesus went about doing good, but He also stopped and got rest so He could feel good Himself. That is balance living, and that is why the workaholic is out of God's will.
Charlemagne founded great schools of learning even though he could not read nor write. Eliza Peters, an English woman, could also not read or write, but when she died she left her money to buy books for a medical school so that others could advance their learning. You do not have to know how to do ...read more
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10. Digging Deep
Contributed on Mar 26, 2021
If you dig deep to lay your foundation, you are wise. If you are satisfied to be shallow, you are foolish, and what you build will never hold up in the flood.
Dr. Victor Heiser, author of the one time best seller An American Doctor's Odyssey, was 16 years old when the tragic Johnstown flood struck in 1889. He was out in the barn getting a horse when he heard a dreadful roar. When he ran to the door he saw his father up at the house ...read more
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11. The Dilemma Of Doubt
Contributed on Mar 26, 2021
If we care to avoid being tossed about by every wind of doctrine, we must be doubters who question, test, and evaluate, and be discerning as to what is of God and what is not. Doubt becomes a partner with faith in helping us discern the will of God.
It is a pain to struggle with doubt, but there is a great debate as to whether this is a helpful or harmful type of suffering. In Camelot, King Arthur says to Lancelot that he is satisfied he did the right thing in starting the round table. Lancelot replies, "Your majesty, did you ever doubt ...read more
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12. Focus On Feet
Contributed on Mar 26, 2021
Jesus used his feet for the glory of God, and the good of man. He not only had love expressed to Him by means of His feet, but He expressed His love for His disciples by washing their feet.
Centuries ago the Danes decided to invade Scotland. They very cleverly moved their great army in the night so they could creep up on the Scottish forces and take them by surprise. In order to make this advance as noiseless as possible they came barefooted. As they neared the sleeping Scots, ...read more
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13. Make Kindness Thrive
Contributed on Mar 26, 2021
A Christian is to be one who is daily creating chain reactions of kindness. Lucy Larcom said, "If the world seems cold to you, kindle fires to warm it." That was the practical goal Jesus was aiming at with this story of the Good Samaritan.
Back in 1991 Glamor Magazine had an editorial about a woman who drove up to the toll booth of the Bay Bridge in San Francisco and said, "I'm paying for myself and for the 6 cars behind me." One after another the next 6 drivers came up to the booth with dollars in hand only to be ...read more
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14. The Struggle With Stress
Contributed on Mar 26, 2021
The fact that some stress is inevitable does not justify preventable stress. Paul said in Rom. 12:18, "If possible, so far as it depends upon you, live peaceably with all." The implication is clear: A peace maker can prevent a lot of stress in life if they really work at it.
Gipsy Smith was one of the great evangelists in England in the last half of the 19th century. He had the largest congregation in England outside of London. They met in a building that once housed the Imperial Circus. One Sunday night the pre-service prayer group was meeting in a side room used ...read more
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15. The Little Flock
Contributed on Mar 26, 2021
God's plans are always big, but His means for getting His big plans achieved are always small.
The world is full of interesting stories about numbers. For example, why does the President get a 21 gun salute. It all began in 1776 when Francis Hopkinson, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, noticed that if you add up the numbers in 1776 they come to 21. He said to himself, ...read more
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16. Dressed For The Second Coming
Contributed on Mar 26, 2021
The Second Coming of Christ will be the greatest demonstration ever of His Lordship over all. He was despised and rejected in His first coming, but in His Second Coming He will be King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and the first true ruler of the whole world.
Paul Harvey in, For What It's Worth tells of how Ann Connolly used modern technology to foil a crime. She was in Red Food Store in Knoxsville, Tenn. When a man snatched her purse from her cart. She is a real estate broker and has a talk back beeper device in her purse. She ran to ...read more
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17. Heaven-Like Hospitality
Contributed on Mar 26, 2021
Why was Jesus so concerned that we have a love for strangers? It was because Jesus came into this world as a stranger, and he knows what it is like to be rejected. He came unto His own and His own received Him not.
Earl M. Finch became one of the most popular bachelors in Hawaii because he had the gift of hospitality. It all started in Hattiesberg, Mississippi when he saw a Japanese soldier reading the menu on the window of a drugstore. He felt the impulse to go over to the G I and say, "Are you hungry ...read more
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18. The Great Supper
Contributed on Mar 26, 2021
The story begins with a great supper prepared, and many guests are invited. It is agreed by all that this represents God's invitation to enter His kingdom.
An ancient Eastern story tells about a prince who fell in love with a very beautiful girl. All of the people rejoiced to see them united in marriage. The whole life of the prince revolved around this girl of rare beauty, but one day she sickened and died. So great was his grief that he became ill ...read more
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19. Letting Go Of Your Painful Past
Contributed on Mar 26, 2021
Every Christians is either a pleasure or a pain in the body of Christ, and the key factor that makes the difference is letting go of a painful past.
Neil Armstrong was the first man to set his foot on the moon, but long before that momentous event he was a dreamer. As early as age 2 he fell in love with airplanes, and for the rest of his life that was a focus for him. He made model planes as a child, and at age 14 he got a job at a ...read more
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20. God Is Our Friend
Contributed on Mar 26, 2021
God is our Father, but that is not enough. The message is not complete until we know too that God is our Friend.
Martin Luther spent a major portion of his life looking for a God who liked him. He was devoutly religious from his childhood, but religion was more a burden than a blessing, for his God was not his friend. He knew God hated sin and demanded perfection and so he was obsessed with trying to be ...read more
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21. A Perplexing Parable
Contributed on Mar 26, 2021
Jesus is saying to His disciples that they can learn from non-Christian dedication, even the dedication of crooks. Look at the world and learn something from their commitment to their evil goals.
Have you ever heard or read of such a unique and perfectly planned crime that you said to yourself, "That was really clever"? For example, was it not amazing that that group of men in England could steal millions of dollars without firing a shot? We have to admit it was a bad thing well ...read more
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22. Dead Men Do Talk
Contributed on Mar 26, 2021
Lazarus was not a Christian. He was saved on the basis of the Old Testament dispensation. This is the only parable Jesus told in which He gave a name to one of the characters.
On a cold December night in 1959 blazing machine guns found their victim. Roger Toughy, a former member of Al Copone's gang, was shot down in front of his sister's house in Chicago. It was only 23 days after his release from prison. He knew too much about the underworld, and they have a ...read more
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23. The Christian's Duty
Contributed on Mar 26, 2021
Verse 10 contains the only recorded instance in Scripture where our Lord used the word duty. He taught us all that is necessary to know about duty by a simple illustration and application.
In his book Merely Colossal, Arthur Mayer tells of how he hired a stunt man to be buried alive as a publicity stunt for a film he was promoting. The stunt man knew how to breathe in such a way that he could stay buried for 24 hours and not suffocate. After the papers made a big splash about a man ...read more
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24. Breaking Out Of Our Comfort Zones
Contributed on Mar 26, 2021
When Jesus said to deny yourself and take up the cross and follow Him He was saying in essence that we need to break out of our comfort zone to be useful for the kingdom of God.
It was 1847, and St. Paul, Minnesota was a town filled with ignorance and drunkenness. Liquor was sold in every store. Half the parents could not read, and so drinking was about their only form of entertainment. It was typical of frontier towns, and no one even dreamed of trying to make ...read more
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25. The Upper Class
Contributed on Mar 26, 2021
It is hard for modern American Christians to get their minds open to the mind of Christ on this issue because it goes against the grain of our culture. The New Testament, however, is loaded with teachings about being servants.
When soldiers for the 6th Massachusetts Militia were attacked, and many were wounded at the start of the Civil War, they were brought to Washington, D. C. Clara Barton had been a teacher in Massachusetts, and she recognized some of the wounded soldiers as her former students. She went to the ...read more
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26. Words Of Love
Contributed on Mar 26, 2021
No words can describe the depth to which man had fallen in killing the only perfect man whoever lived. But there are no words of cursing coming from that cross. There are no words of revenge, but unbelievably we hear words of love.
The one subject that is appropriate for every Christian holiday, and for the season of lent, and for the recognition of Washington and Lincoln, and for the Valentine season is the subject of love. It is not only the greatest of the Christian virtues, but is the most universally relevant subject ...read more
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27. A Christian Converted
Contributed on Mar 26, 2021
Can a Christian be converted? Yes, and not only can a Christian be converted, but it is often essential before he becomes an effective servant of Jesus Christ.
Can a Christian be converted? Yes, and not only can a Christian be converted, but it is often essential before he becomes an effective servant of Jesus Christ. Conversion means to turn again to the ways of the Savior from the ways of self and sin. We are only born again once, but we need to be ...read more
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28. Forgiveness Of Sin
Contributed on Mar 26, 2021
We do not understand God, or the Gospel, until we grasp the significance of forgiveness of sin. God's plan cannot be fulfilled without it, and we cannot be saved without it, nor can we live the Christian life without it.
Charlie Brown is quite certain that Lucy's offer to hold the football for him to kick will end just like the other attempts. She will pull the ball away just as she kicks, and he will end up flat on his back. She assures him that she is a changed person and that he can trust her. He accepts ...read more
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29. Guilty But Pardoned
Contributed on Mar 26, 2021
I cannot give away what I do not have, and so we must first be forgiven in order to forgive. We must believe in God's free grace of forgiveness before we can be free to forgive those who sin against us.
If God did not pardon the guilty there would be no Gospel, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Even so, we feel there is a danger in being too merciful. Abraham Lincoln was accused of this during the Civil War when he seemed willing to pardon just about anyone. He would defend ...read more
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30. Love's Response To Hate
Contributed on Mar 26, 2021
Thank God for the cross and the record we have of it, for not only is our salvation dependent upon it, but the reality of all Jesus taught is dependent upon what we see and hear at the cross.
One of the most diabolical criminals of his day, and the first big time American gangster, was also a very impressive pulpit orator. John Murrell as a youth was caught for horse stealing, and after a public whipping he was sent to prison. He declared eternal vengeance upon society for this, and ...read more