Sermons at First Christian Church, Arlington, Texas

SErmon, May 11, 2008

Mon, 12 May 2008 09:12:00 +0000

Sermon on Philippians 2:1-4; 4:2-13

Sermon, May 4, 2008

Wed, 07 May 2008 08:35:00 +0000

Sermon 5 on Philippians. Key texts: Philippians 2:19-30; 4:14-23

Sermon, April 27, 2008

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 10:44:00 +0000

Sermon entitled: "Christ's Passion; Our Participation" Philippians 1:27-30; 3:1-14 Here's the newsletter article referenced in the sermon Many of us grew up in a religious tradition that focused on “getting saved.” Getting saved meant making a public decision to follow Jesus Christ usually followed by baptism. Over the years, I have become convinced that the Christian life isn’t as much about “getting saved” as it is “following after.” The Bible uses different words for that way of life. This past Sunday, we looked at one—following the example of Christ. Another way of describing this way of life is “bearing the cross” of Christ. The death of Jesus Christ is for Paul as for the rest of the writers of the New Testament, a model for how we are to respond to life. This is a challenge for Christians to embrace as we generally think of Christ’s death as something he did for us. Living life according to the cross means many things: embracing sinners rather than judging them, humble obedience, trusting in God to redeem on the other side of the grave. For Paul, we share in Christ’s suffering in the following ways: • Martyrdom/Persecution/Suffering abuse for doing what is right Philippians 1:29-30; 1 Peter 2:20-25—As we saw on Sunday, whenever Christians have been persecuted for their faith, the martyrs who gave their life have been viewed as experiencing the greatest similarity with Christ. Celebration of the martyrs is not without its problems. Among them, Christians can sometimes work themselves to death trying to measure up to the heroes of the faith. That’s not healthy. When I think of martyrs today, I think of young people who choose to follow Christ on college campuses and in public schools where being Christian can get you excluded from certain social circles. It’s not death but it is a sacrifice. • Living a life of righteousness (putting to death the old self)—Romans 6:1-14. Bearing Christ’s cross can also be seen as a putting to death a sinful past. • Sacraments--Communion 10:16-17; Baptism: Romans 6:1-5. Both Baptism and Communion symbolically re-present the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Participating in the sacraments is a way of participating in Christ’s passion. • Loving service to one another--2 Corinthians 1:3-7; John 4:7-12. Whenever we love another person and give of ourselves, we are giving a part of our life. Greater love has no one than this than to lay down his life for his friends. Literally dying, is not the only way to lay down one’s life. Laying down our life for friends happens every time we burn our fingers making a covered dish for someone else’s family; prick our fingers making dolls for Cook’s Children Medical; smash our finger with the hammer making a household repair for someone else. Bearing our cross for Christ can take many forms. May you find your form today and follow after Christ.

Sermon April 20, 2008

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 12:17:00 +0000

The sermon title is, "Christ's Example; Our Imitation." It deals primarily with Philippians 2:5-11. 5 Let the same mind be in you that wasa in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, 7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, 8 he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. The opening and closing music is from Bill Cushman. http://ghostnotes.blogspot.com/

Sermon April 6, 2008

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 11:01:00 +0000

Second Sermon in the Sermon series from Philippians. Texts: Philippians 1:9-11; 4:2-9

Sermon for March 30

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 13:04:00 +0000

First sermon in a sermon series on Philippians

Sermon for March 23

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 11:09:00 +0000

Easter Sunday's sermon from Matthew 28:1-10

Sermon from March 9, 2008

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 19:59:00 +0000

Scripture Reading fro the Sermon from John 11 " Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was." (John 11:1-6, NRSV) "Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”" (John 11:14-15, NRSV) " Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”" (John 11:38-44, NRSV) [1] [1] The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989.

Sermon for March 2-- John 9:1-12, 35-41

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 19:30:00 +0000

This sermon was preached on March 2, 2008. It deals with the healing of the man born Blind in John 9. Intro and exit music is provided by Bill Cushman: http://ghostnotes.blogspot.com/2005/02/introduction_110876894548637991.html

Sermon February 24, 2008

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 09:30:00 +0000

This sermon was delivered on Sunday, February 24, 2008. The text for the sermon was John 4:5-15 however reference is made to parts of the entire chapter 4.