January 1, 2017

A Cross-Centered Life

Ron Lutz ~ 1 Corinthians 1:18-25

Sermon Quotes:

1 Corinthians 1:18-25
18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.” 20 Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

“We draw people to Christ not by loudly discrediting what they believe, by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it.”
-Madeleine L’Engle

I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.
-Mahatma Gandhi

One might even become a Christian if there were few if any Christians around.
-Walker Percy

“It is hardly complimentary to God that we should choose him as an alternative to hell. Yet even this he accepts… If God were proud, he would hardly have us on such terms. But he is not proud. He stoops to conquer. He would have us even though we have shown that we prefer everything else to him, and come to him because there is nothing better now to be had.”
-C S Lewis

23 Thus says the Lord: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, 24 but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.”
-Jeremiah 9:23-24

God, I thank you that I am not like other men…
-Luke 18:11

Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight.
-Romans 12:16

“We must be convinced that Love has to be a person to us before it can become a verb. The one who is Love incarnate—Jesus—doesn’t love us only when we’re at our best. He also loves us when we are at our worst.”
-Scott Sauls

Forgiveness flounders because I exclude the enemy from the community of humans even as I exclude myself from the community of sinners.
-Miroslav Volf