... 10:7 Jesus says of himself, "I am the door of the sheep" and in John 10:11 he claims, "I am the good shepherd." Other "I am" sayings by Jesus in the gospel of John include: "I am the resurrection and the life" (John 11:25). "I am the way, the truth, and ... am the real vine" (John 15:1). "Before Abraham was, I am" (John 8:58). Space doesn't allow us to examine each of these "I am" sayings in depth, but it is obvious that in the gospel of John, Jesus identifies himself as the great I AM that Moses met in the ...
... , "We shall see him as he is" (1 John 3:2). And, in the light of him, we shall see ourselves as we are. Perhaps this is what judgment is. But we are now living in the meanwhile. That time has not yet come. The end is not yet. And I am saying to you that the first requirement for mastering the art of living until is to find out what will be at last the only important thing and make this the most important thing in your life all along the way. Now, my friend, all of this may come through to ...
... have no hesitation in saying, “I am a Christian”, noun. Because when I say that I am not boasting. I am not talking about anything I have done or achieved. When I say, “I am a Christian”, I am talking about something God has done for me in Jesus, and I am saying, “I believe in that. I trust that. I am committing my life to that. I belong to Christ and for the rest of my life I intend to grow in my relationship with him.” Do you hear it loud and clear? To be a Christian is to belong to Christ ...
... was, with 30,000 they might rely upon their own strength alone. But, with only 300, they had to rely upon God. And they discovered that God is sufficient. Do you hear the truth? “When I am weak, then I am strong.” III. Please don’t misunderstand what I am saying. I am not suggesting that we have no strengths. Of course we do. And, God expects us to use those strengths and enlarge upon them. God has no patience with those people who pray and then sit back to let God do all of the work. No, God does ...
... ’s pretty good advice, really. The centipede would soon go crazy with frustration if he should start worrying about which of his one hundred feet to pick up next and exactly where to put it down. We all live by some image of tomorrow. What’s yours? I am saying to you: No matter what the circumstances, how old you are, the condition of your fortune or health, if you are walking with the Lord of life, you can walk into tomorrow with confidence and hope, and nothing is there to be afraid of. Yes, I know ...
... it is not your money. Just in case you think I am, let me take you off the hook - then don't give any money. Though the truth is - I am not trying to get money out of you I am trying to get you in on God's blessing. I am saying this realizing that the more prosperous America becomes, the more stingy she becomes. In 1933, at the height of The Great Depression, church members gave an estimated 3.3% of their disposable income to the church. In the year 2000, members gave 1.94% of their disposable income to the ...
... hate?" The present age is knocking at our doors saying, “ What can I do with this fear?" “How can I find faith in the midst of fear?" The present age is knocking at our doors saying, “What is the reason for the hope that lies within you?" I am saying to you, “God is trusting us to answer those questions. Commitment. What a beautiful word. Commitment is not a prison. You are not locked into anything today. It is just a promise. It is a statement of certainty in a world of confusion. It is taking all ...
... the Father, "The Father and I are One." Therefore, a Jehovah's Witness does not worship God, because they do not consider Jesus Christ equal to the Father. The Mormons do not worship God, because in their system man becomes a god. Now lest you doubt the truth of what I am saying, let me put it to you this way: To worship the Father you must know the Father; to know the Father you must be one of His children; to be one of His children you must know the lord Jesus Christ. Because the Bible says in Jn. 1:12 ...
... things we’re not supposed to understand”. That’s one reason I am preaching this sermon. Periodically I need to wrestle with those things that make me uncomfortable so that I can grow. So, this sermon is for me. I am saying some things that I need to hear. And, if you like, I’ll let you listen in to what I am saying to me. What I am pleading for is a balance to life. We must ask and answer as many questions as we can. We must never stop searching for the truth. But, once we have reached the end of ...
... handicapped in institutions in France and Toronto. Neither of these men had a low opinion of his own worth or abilities. In spite of that, and because of their relationship with God, they chose to serve the least and the lowest. (3) Do you understand what I am saying? God can use people of all kinds of persuasions and personality types, but God can best use a person who has a healthy sense of his or her own self-worth--who understands that he or she is a creation of God, and, therefore, responsible to ...
... comes through cooperation with the God of grace who has many avenues of approach, and the name for that cooperation is one or more of the spiritual disciplines which are grounded in Scripture and church tradition across the ages. Spiritual disciples are places I am saying a deliberate Yes to God. Of themselves they do not make anything happen; in fact, each contains its own temptation to pride and self-deception. They only work when God works through them. Two stories come to mind, the first from the Jewish ...
... in her book The Feminine Mystique. Women, Friedan explained, need to view themselves as people, not just extensions of their husbands or children. They need to be productive and creative, to develop a sense of self-respect about who they are. “Some people think I am saying: Women of the world unite! You have nothing to lose but your men,” said Friedan. “It isn’t true. You have nothing to lose but your vacuum cleaner,” she continued. (6) You may or may not agree with Betty Friedan. And things are ...
... of consequences to help us grow up, to help us mature not only as physical beings, but as emotional and spiritual beings. Whatever the reason, you can be sure God’s motive was love, the same love that motivates the good parent. Now, please do not misunderstand what I am saying. If you have an accident, even if you were at fault, that is not a punishment sent by God. God doesn’t reach down and punish us for our sins, just like He doesn’t reach down and pluck our car out of the air to save us. Please ...
... come, because we were preparing to take our son to college this weekend. She said, "I am sorry you can't come, perhaps we could have dinner with you and your wife sometime." Quite frankly, years ago I would have said, "Yeah, right." Now, I am saying, "Yeah right!" because, that is what fishing buddies do. II. We Must Invest Ourselves In Building Friendships Andrew went immediately to his family. Philip went immediately to a friend. "Philip found Nathanael and said to him, 'We have found Him of whom Moses in ...
... . (Which I do not, by the way...) that’s totally different. If I say that I believe that John Jones is a good man, I mean simply that I have the impression that he is a good man. On the other hand, if I say, I believe in John Jones, I am saying that I know his character well enough that I trust him and am willing to commit myself to him. (Idea from THE APOSTLES CREED by Gardiner M. Day, New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1963 p. 21) Similarly, when I say, I believe in God... I am not saying that I ...
... is some wisdom in doing that. I will admit that. There is even a biblical precedent, where Paul says, "I am a Jew to the Jews, and a Greek to the Greeks." What he means is, I will try to speak in a way so that people will understand what I am saying. That is all right. But the danger is to turn to the world for the content of the message, not just the technique, but the message itself, and let that be shaped by what the world wants to hear. That is what Paul is talking about to Timothy. He says ...
... coming to him. After we have heard his gospel, we realize that we are alienated from him and we come with all our heart. On the day that Jesus spoke about being "the bread of life," there were many people in the crowd who had never felt his touch. What I am saying is that coming to Jesus is a desire of our hearts. We think of him more often, we study his word to learn how he thinks and to know what we can do to please him. We come to him desiring to be more like him. We pray to him ...
... no hope. Here in this life, we can always say, "We'll get you next time" or "There is always tomorrow" or "Wait ‘til next year." In hell, there is no next time, there is no tomorrow, there is no next year; it is eternal. Understand – this is not what I am saying about hell, this is what Jesus said. Here is the choice. If there is no hell and what I said to you about hell is not true, then Jesus Christ was neither a great teacher nor a good man. Forget about even being the Son of God, because He lied ...
... found in the word "get". The opposite of getting is giving. You see every time I give to somebody else, give a tithe of my income, every time I give an offering, every time I give to someone in need I am breaking the grip of covetousness in my life. I am saying to that particular dollar bill, "I can get along without this. Somebody else needs it more than I do and I don't have to have it." I read an incredible story about a congressman who took his son to McDonalds. The son wanted some French fries, so he ...
... hurts somebody or not. There was a man who went to see his doctor one time and the doctor examined him and said, "Sir, you are deathly sick." He said, "I'd like a second opinion." The doctor said, "Alright, you are ugly too!" The bottom line of what I am saying is this - if you respect the dignity of other people, then you realize that people deserve to be dealt with honestly and that is really what people want. In a poll a few years ago by U.S. News and World Report, people were asked this question: "What ...
... other than marriage that we begin to discover the communion, the transparency, the openness, the knowledge of another person, that gives us an image of what it will be like to be totally open before God. I hope you singles get the point of what I am saying here. While marriage has its own special place in God’s economy, it is certainly not the only place where God speaks to and involves himself in life and experience. It is in any relationship of openness, commitment, and transparency where God speaks and ...
... spirit of meekness, you're just wasting your time. You see, medicine is only good for you if you take it, and this Book is only useful if you hear it and heed it. Now there are some of you here at this very moment; you're listening to what I am saying, but you are not really hearing me. Well, this Book will do you no good. But there are many of you who come in here, hearing the Word, but you will leave here without heeding the Word. It won't do you any good either. That's why he goes ...
... is take marred clay and remake it into something beautiful and that is what I am going to do now." That tells me that no clay is so marred that the hands of God cannot detect it, affect it, correct it and direct it to become something absolutely beautiful. What I am saying is with God there is always "A New Hope" just around the corner. I don't care how dark your life has become. It is never too late to begin again. It is never too late to start over. You can always start over with God as long as you ...
... look at this one, "I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. (John 10:11, NASB) This claim of Jesus to be "the good shepherd" is the fourth of the "I am" sayings that we find in John's Gospel. I have no doubt that if we were to take a vote on which was the most popular of the "I am" sayings it would be this one. Some of you may not know this, but the Bible often compares people to sheep and it often describes God as a shepherd. Perhaps, the most well known verse in the ...
... the theory of evolution. Get this down. The debate is not between fact and faith. The debate is not between science and religion. The debate is between their science and our science. The debate is between their faith and our faith. This is not what I am saying. This is what they are saying. Dr. L. Harrison Matthews, a noted evolutionist, who wrote the introduction to the 1971 edition of Darwin's famous book, Origin of the Species said, "The fact of evolution is the backbone of biology and biology is thus in ...