Christ Redeemer Church >> Sunday Sermons

REFLECTION QUOTES

“Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.”

~William Bruce Cameron, American professor of Sociology

“Never forget that only dead fish swim with the stream.”

~Malcolm Muggeridge (1903-1990), English journalist

“…there is always a danger that we will make it appear externally that we believe in God when internally we don’t. We say with our mouths that we believe in him, but we live with our lives like he never existed. That is the ever-present danger confronting religion. That’s a dangerous type of atheism.”

~Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)

“In situations of high stress, fear or distrust, the hormone…cortisol floods the brain. Executive functions that help us with advanced thought processes like strategy, trust building, and compassion shut down. And the amygdala, our instinctive brain, takes over. The body makes a chemical choice about how best to protect itself — in this case from the shame and loss of power associated with being wrong — and as a result is unable to regulate its emotions or handle the gaps between expectations and reality. So we default to one of four responses: fight (keep arguing the point), flight (revert to, and hide behind, group consensus), freeze (disengage from the argument by shutting up) or appease (make nice with your adversary by simply agreeing with him).”

~Judith Glaser in “Hooked on Being Right” in Harvard Business Review

“People do not believe lies because they have to, but because they want to.”

~Malcolm Muggeridge (1903-1990), English journalist

“Love cures people – both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it.”

~Karl A. Menninger (1893-1990), famed American Psychiatrist

“I suffer fools gladly, for I have always been on good terms with myself.”

~Christopher Morley (1890-1957),
American journalist, novelist, poet, and editor

SERMON PASSAGE

1 Peter 1:22-2:5 (NASB)

22 Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart, 23 for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For,

“All flesh is like grass,
And all its glory like the flower of

grass.
The grass withers,
And the flower falls off,
25 But the word of the Lord endures forever.”

And this is the word which was preached to you.

Chapter 2

1 Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, 2 like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, 3 if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.

4 And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, 5 you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Romans 12:1-5 (NASB)

1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

3 For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. 4 For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

Ephesians 4:1-3 (NASB)

1Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, 3 being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

1 John 4:10-11 (NASB)

10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

REFLECTION QUOTES

“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence and character—that is the goal of true education.”

~Martin Luther King Jr.(1929-1968)


“The deepest craving of human nature is the need to be appreciated.”

~William James (1842-1910), American philosopher

“…a ruthless, sleepless, unsmiling concentration upon self …is the mark of Hell.”

~C.S. Lewis (1898-1963)

“Immediately upon the Fall [of Adam] the mind of man shrunk…into a little point,…closely shut up within itself to the exclusion of others. God was forsaken and fellow creatures forsaken, and man retired within himself and became wholly governed by narrow, selfish principles. Self-love became an absolute master of his soul…”

~Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) in Charity and Its Fruits

“It’s not surprising that communication between human beings is so difficult, considering that so much of what each of us feels most deeply can’t help but seem the merest trivia to almost everyone else.”

~Alden Nowlan (1933-1983), Canadian poet, novelist, and playwright

“We take our bearings, daily, from others. To be sane is, to a great extent, to be sociable.”

~John Updike (1932-2009), American novelist

“One does not fall in love; one grows into love, and love grows in him.”

“Love cures people – both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it.”

~Karl A. Menninger (1893-1990), famed American Psychiatrist

“You have to be willing to look bad in order to get good.”

~Jack Canfield (1944-present), American motivational speaker and author

SERMON PASSAGE

1 Peter 1:22-2:5 (NASB)

22 Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart, 23 for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For,

“All flesh is like grass,
And all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
And the flower falls off,
25 But the word of the Lord endures forever.”

And this is the word which was preached to you.

Chapter 2

1 Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander, 2 like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, 3 if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.

4 And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, 5 you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

REFLECTION QUOTES

“There is but one only living and true God, who is infinite in being and perfection, a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts, or passions, immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, most wise, most holy, most free, most absolute, working all things according to the counsel of his own immutable and most righteous will, for his own glory, most loving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; the rewarder of them that diligently seek him; and withal most just and terrible in his judgments; hating all sin; and who will by no means clear the guilty.”

~Westminster Confession of Faith, 2.1


“Little Johnny says, ‘Hey, Dad, you can’t make President Kennedy alive. But God can, can’t He? Cause he can do everything!’ And we think: ‘Isn’t little Johnny cute?’”

~Henri J.M. Nouwen (1932-1996), Intimacy

“As it would be cruel to an Amazonian tribesman to fly him to London, put him down without explanation in Trafalgar Square and leave him, as one who knew nothing of English or England, to fend for himself, so we are cruel to ourselves if we try to live in this world without knowing about the God whose world it is and who runs it. The world becomes a strangeness, mad, painful place, and life in it a disappointing and unpleasant business, for those who do not know about God. Disregard the study of God, and you sentence yourself to stumble and blunder through life blindfolded, as it were, with no sense of direction and no understanding of what surrounds you.”

~J.I. Packer (1926-present), Knowing God

SERMON PASSAGE

Psalm 113 (ESV)

1Praise the Lord!
Praise, O servants of the Lord,
praise the name of the Lord!

2 Blessed be the name of the Lord
from this time forth and forevermore!
3 From the rising of the sun to its setting,
the name of the Lord is to be praised!

4 The Lord is high above all nations,
and his glory above the heavens!
5 Who is like the Lord our God,
who is seated on high,
6 who looks far down
on the heavens and the earth?
7 He raises the poor from the dust
and lifts the needy from the ash heap,
8 to make them sit with princes,
with the princes of his people.
9 He gives the barren woman a home,
making her the joyous mother of children.
Praise the Lord!

REFLECTION QUOTES

“I had motives for not wanting the world to have meaning…and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption…For myself, as no doubt, for most of my contemporaries, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation. The liberation we desired was…liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom.”

~Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World (1894-1963)


“Despite the frequent claim that we are living in a secular age defined by the death of God, many citizens in rich Western democracies have merely switched one notion of God for another — abandoning their singular, omnipotent (Christian or Judaic or whatever) deity reigning over all humankind and replacing it with a weak but all-pervasive idea of spirituality tied to a personal ethic of authenticity and a liturgy of inwardness….At the heart of the ethic of authenticity is a profound selfishness and callous disregard of others.”

~Simon Critchley and Jamieson Webster in The NY Times, June 29, 2013

“We are all serving a life sentence in the dungeon of the self.”

~Cyril Connolly (1903-1974), English author and literary critic



“Voyager upon life’s sea,
To yourself be true,
And, whate’er your lot may be,
Paddle your own canoe.” ~Exact authorship is disputed

“Those who are contemptuous of everyone are more than anyone terrified of contempt.”

~Logan Pearsall Smith (1865-1946), American-born essayist and critic

“A man who loves you the most is the man who tells you the most truth about yourself.”

~ Robert Murray M’Cheyne (1813-1843) Scottish clergyman

SERMON PASSAGE

Psalm 36 (NASB)

1 Transgression speaks to the ungodly within his heart;
There is no fear of God before his eyes.
2 For it flatters him in his own eyes
Concerning the discovery of his iniquity and the hatred of it.
3 The words of his mouth are wickedness and deceit;
He has ceased to be wise and to do good.
4 He plans wickedness upon his bed;
He sets himself on a path that is not good;
He does not despise evil.

5 Your lovingkindness, O Lord, extends to the heavens,
Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
6 Your righteousness is like the mountains of God;
Your judgments are like a great deep.
O Lord, You preserve man and beast.
7 How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God!
And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings.
8 They drink their fill of the abundance of Your house;
And You give them to drink of the river of Your delights.
9 For with You is the fountain of life;
In Your light we see light.



10 O continue Your lovingkindness to those who know You,
And Your righteousness to the upright in heart.
11 Let not the foot of pride come upon me,
And let not the hand of the wicked drive me away.
12 There the doers of iniquity have fallen;
They have been thrust down and cannot rise.

REFLECTION QUOTES

“I had motives for not wanting the world to have meaning…and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption…For myself, as no doubt, for most of my contemporaries, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation. The liberation we desired was…liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom.”

~Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World (1894-1963)


“Despite the frequent claim that we are living in a secular age defined by the death of God, many citizens in rich Western democracies have merely switched one notion of God for another — abandoning their singular, omnipotent (Christian or Judaic or whatever) deity reigning over all humankind and replacing it with a weak but all-pervasive idea of spirituality tied to a personal ethic of authenticity and a liturgy of inwardness….At the heart of the ethic of authenticity is a profound selfishness and callous disregard of others.”

~Simon Critchley and Jamieson Webster in The NY Times, June 29, 2013

“We are all serving a life sentence in the dungeon of the self.”

~Cyril Connolly (1903-1974), English author and literary critic

“Voyager upon life’s sea,
To yourself be true,
And, whate’er your lot may be,
Paddle your own canoe.” ~Exact authorship is disputed

“Those who are contemptuous of everyone are more than anyone terrified of contempt.”

~Logan Pearsall Smith (1865-1946), American-born essayist and critic

“A man who loves you the most is the man who tells you the most truth about yourself.”

~ Robert Murray M’Cheyne (1813-1843) Scottish clergyman

SERMON PASSAGE

Psalm 36 (NASB)

1 Transgression speaks to the ungodly within his heart;
There is no fear of God before his eyes.
2 For it flatters him in his own eyes
Concerning the discovery of his iniquity and the hatred of it.
3 The words of his mouth are wickedness and deceit;
He has ceased to be wise and to do good.
4 He plans wickedness upon his bed;
He sets himself on a path that is not good;
He does not despise evil.

5 Your lovingkindness, O Lord, extends to the heavens,
Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
6 Your righteousness is like the mountains of God;
Your judgments are like a great deep.
O Lord, You preserve man and beast.
7 How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God!
And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings.
8 They drink their fill of the abundance of Your house;
And You give them to drink of the river of Your delights.
9 For with You is the fountain of life;
In Your light we see light.

10 O continue Your lovingkindness to those who know You,
And Your righteousness to the upright in heart.
11 Let not the foot of pride come upon me,
And let not the hand of the wicked drive me away.
12 There the doers of iniquity have fallen;
They have been thrust down and cannot rise.

REFLECTION QUOTES

“To even get near humility, even for a moment, is like a drink of cold water to a man in a desert. Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble man he will be what most people call ‘humble’ nowadays: he will not be a sort of greasy, smarmy person, who is always telling you that, of course, he is nobody. Probably all you will think about him is that he seemed a cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him. If you do dislike him it will be because you feel a little envious of anyone who seems to enjoy life so easily. He will not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking about himself at all.”

~C.S. Lewis (1898-1963)


“It is the honor of Christ to save the greatest of sinners, when they come to him, as it is the honor of a physician that he cures the most desperate diseases or wounds. Therefore, no doubt, Christ will be willing to save the greatest sinners, if they come to him; for he will not be backward to glorify himself, and to commend the value and virtue of his own blood. Seeing he hath so laid out himself to redeem sinners, he will not be unwilling to show that he is able to redeem to the uttermost.”

~Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758)

“The will of God means death to our own will, and resurrection only when we have died to all our own plans.”

~Sinclair Ferguson (1948-present), Scottish theologian

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

~Romans 12:1-2

“Guidance, like all God’s acts of blessing under the covenant of grace, is a sovereign act. Not merely does God will to guide us in the sense of showing us his way, that we may tread it; he wills also to guide us in the more fundamental sense of ensuring that, whatever happens, whatever mistakes we may make, we shall come safely home. Slippings and strayings there will be, no doubt, but the everlasting arms are beneath us; we shall be caught, rescued, restored. This is God’s promise; this is how good he is.”

~J.I. Packer (1926-present), Knowing God

“And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.”

~1 John 2:17

SERMON PASSAGE

Psalm 25 (ESV)

1 To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.
2 O my God, in you I trust;
let me not be put to shame;
let not my enemies exult over me.
3 Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame;
they shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.

4 Make me to know your ways, O Lord;
teach me your paths.
5 Lead me in your truth and teach me,
for you are the God of my salvation;
for you I wait all the day long.

6 Remember your mercy, O Lord, and your steadfast love,
for they have been from of old.
7 Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions;
according to your steadfast love remember me,
for the sake of your goodness, O Lord!

8 Good and upright is the Lord;
therefore he instructs sinners in the way.
9 He leads the humble in what is right,
and teaches the humble his way.
10 All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness,
for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.

11 For your name’s sake, O Lord,
pardon my guilt, for it is great.
12 Who is the man who fears the Lord?
Him will he instruct in the way that he should choose.
13 His soul shall abide in well-being,
and his offspring shall inherit the land.
14 The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him,
and he makes known to them his covenant.
15 My eyes are ever toward the Lord,
for he will pluck my feet out of the net.

16 Turn to me and be gracious to me,
for I am lonely and afflicted.
17 The troubles of my heart are enlarged;
bring me out of my distresses.
18 Consider my affliction and my trouble,
and forgive all my sins.

19 Consider how many are my foes,
and with what violent hatred they hate me.
20 Oh, guard my soul, and deliver me!
Let me not be put to shame, for I take refuge in you.
21 May integrity and uprightness preserve me,
for I wait for you.

22 Redeem Israel, O God,
out of all his troubles.

REFLECTION QUOTES

“Hope in reality is the worst of all evils because it prolongs the torments of man.”

~Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)


“Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”

~Jesus of Nazareth, Gospel of Luke 7:22-23

“Let it be said to one when set in some affliction, ‘There is a great man who can set you free;’ he smiles, he rejoices, he is lifted up. But if it is said to him, ‘God frees you!’ he is chilled, so to speak, by despair. The aid of the mortal is promised, and you rejoice; the aid of the Immortal is promised, and you are sad? It is promised you to be freed by one who need also to be freed, and you are pleased at such help; you are promised the great Liberator, who needs no one to free him, and you despair, as though it were but a dream. Woe to such thoughts, they wander far; truly there is sad and great depth to them.”

~Augustine, theologian and Bishop of Hippo (354-430 AD)

“O, how wretched Is that poor man that hangs on princes’ favours!
There is, betwixt that smile we would aspire to,
That sweet aspect of princes, and their ruin,
More pangs and fears than wars or women have:
And when he falls, he falls like Lucifer,
Never to hope again.”

~ Cardinal Wolsey in Henry VIII, by William Shakespeare

SERMON PASSAGE

Psalm 146 (ESV)

1Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord, O my soul!
2 I will praise the Lord as long as I live;
I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

3 Put not your trust in princes,
in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.
4 When his breath departs, he returns to the earth;
on that very day his plans perish.

5 Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord his God,
6 who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them,
who keeps faith forever;
7 who executes justice for the oppressed,
who gives food to the hungry.

The Lord sets the prisoners free;
8 the Lord opens the eyes of the blind.
The Lord lifts up those who are bowed down;
the Lord loves the righteous.
9 The Lord watches over the sojourners;
he upholds the widow and the fatherless,
but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

10 The Lord will reign forever,
your God, O Zion, to all generations.
Praise the Lord!

REFLECTION QUOTES

“When I kept silence. When through neglect I failed to confess, or through despair dared not do so, my bones, those solid pillars of my frame, the stronger portions of my bodily constitution, waxed old, began to decay with weakness, for my grief was so intense as to sap my health and destroy my vital energy. What a killing thing is sin! It is a pestilent disease! A fire in the bones! While we smother our sin it rages within, and like a gathering wound swells horribly and torments terribly.”

~Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892) on Psalm 32, The Treasury of David

“And thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Not only was the sin itself pardoned, but the iniquity of it; the virus of its guilt was put away, and that at once, so soon as the acknowledgment was made. God’s pardons are deep and thorough: the knife of mercy cuts at the roots of the ill weed of sin.”

~Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892) on Psalm 32,The Treasury of David>

“The more eminently that any one excels in holiness, the farther he feels himself from perfect righteousness, and the more clearly he perceives that he can trust in nothing but the mercy of God alone.”

~John Calvin (1509-1564) on Psalm 32, Commentary on Psalms

“When they have begun to devote themselves to God, he accepts the upright disposition of their hearts equally as if it were pure and perfect; for faith not only reconciles a man to God, but also sanctifies whatever is imperfect in him, so that by the free grace of God, he becomes righteous who could never have obtained so great a blessing by any merit of his own.”

~John Calvin (1509-1564) on Psalm 32, Commentary on Psalms

“Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works:

‘Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven,
and whose sins are covered;
blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.’”

~Romans 4:4–8 (ESV)

SERMON PASSAGE

Psalm 32 (ESV)

1Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered.
2 Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity,
and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

3 For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;
my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah

5 I acknowledged my sin to you,
and I did not cover my iniquity;
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”
and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.Selah

6 Therefore let everyone who is godly
offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found;
surely in the rush of great waters,
they shall not reach him.
7 You are a hiding place for me;
you preserve me from trouble;
you surround me with shouts of deliverance. Selah

8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
9 Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding,
which must be curbed with bit and bridle,
or it will not stay near you.

10 Many are the sorrows of the wicked,
but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord.
11 Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous,
and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!

REFLECTION QUOTES

“Men fight for liberty and win it with hard knocks. Their children, brought up easy, let it slip away again, poor fools. And their grand-children are once more slaves.”

~D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930)


“To educate a man is to unfit him to be a slave.”

~Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), famed American social reformer

“It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once.”

~David Hume (1711-1776), famed Scottish philosopher

“Among a people generally corrupt, liberty cannot long exist.”

~Edmund Burke (1729-1797), political theorist and philosopher

“What is not good for the swarm is not good for the bee.”

~Marcus Aurelius (121-180), Roman Emperor

“In the end, more than freedom, they wanted security. They wanted a comfortable life, and they lost it all – security, comfort, and freedom. When the [ancient] Athenians finally wanted not to give to society but for society to give to them, when the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again.”

~Edward Gibbon (1737-1794), English historian

“And people who do not know the Lord ask why in the world we waste our lives as missionaries. They forget that they too are expending their lives…and when the bubble has burst they will have nothing of eternal significance to show for the years they have wasted.”

~Nate Saint (1923-1956), American-born missionary
who was killed while trying to bring the gospel
to the Waodani people of Ecuador

SERMON PASSAGE


Psalm 78:1-8, 65-72 (NASB)

1Listen, O my people, to my instruction;
Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter dark sayings of old,
3 Which we have heard and known,
And our fathers have told us.
4 We will not conceal them from their children,
But tell to the generation to come the praises of the Lord,
And His strength and His wondrous works that He has done.

5 For He established a testimony in Jacob
And appointed a law in Israel,
Which He commanded our fathers
That they should teach them to their children,
6 That the generation to come might know, even the children yet to be born,
That they may arise and tell them to their children,
7 That they should put their confidence in God
And not forget the works of God,
But keep His commandments,
8 And not be like their fathers,
A stubborn and rebellious generation,
A generation that did not prepare its heart
And whose spirit was not faithful to God.

65 Then the Lord awoke as if from sleep,
Like a warrior overcome by wine.
66 He drove His adversaries backward;
He put on them an everlasting reproach.
67 He also rejected the tent of Joseph,
And did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,
68 But chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion which He loved.
69 And He built His sanctuary like the heights,
Like the earth which He has founded forever.
70 He also chose David His servant
And took him from the sheepfolds;
71 From the care of the ewes with suckling lambs He brought him
To shepherd Jacob His people,
And Israel His inheritance.
72 So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart,
And guided them with his skillful hands.

REFLECTION QUOTES

“Liberty is all very well, but men cannot live without masters. There is always a master.”

~D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930) Studies in Classic American Literature

“To educate a man is to unfit him to be a slave.”

~Frederick Douglass (1818-1895), famed American social reformer

“It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once.”

~David Hume (1711-1776), famed Scottish philosopher

“Among a people generally corrupt, liberty cannot long exist.”

~Edmund Burke (1729-1797), political theorist and philosopher

“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled…Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

~John Adams (1735-1826), Founding Father and second President on the United States

“In the end, more than freedom, they wanted security. They wanted a comfortable life, and they lost it all—security, comfort, and freedom. When the [ancient] Athenians finally wanted not to give to society but for society to give to them, when the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again.”

~Edward Gibbon (1737-1794), English historian

“It seems that genuine Christianity can survive anything but comfort, privilege and ease.”

~Anonymous

“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”

~2 Corinthians 3:17 (NASB)

SERMON PASSAGE


Psalm 119:97-112 (NASB)

97 O how I love Your law!
It is my meditation all the day.
98 Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, For they are ever mine.
99 I have more insight than all my teachers,
For Your testimonies are my meditation.
100 I understand more than the aged,
Because I have observed Your precepts.
101 I have restrained my feet from every evil way, That I may keep Your word.
102 I have not turned aside from Your ordinances,
For You Yourself have taught me.
103 How sweet are Your words to my taste!
Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
104 From Your precepts I get understanding;
Therefore I hate every false way.

105 Your word is a lamp to my feet
And a light to my path.
106 I have sworn and I will confirm it,
That I will keep Your righteous ordinances.
107 I am exceedingly afflicted;
Revive me, O Lord, according to Your word.
108 O accept the freewill offerings of my mouth, O Lord, And teach me Your ordinances.
109 My life is continually in my hand,
Yet I do not forget Your law.
110 The wicked have laid a snare for me,
Yet I have not gone astray from Your precepts.
111 I have inherited Your testimonies forever,
For they are the joy of my heart.
112 I have inclined my heart to perform Your statutes
Forever, even to the end.

Jeremiah 31:31-34 (NASB)

31 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. 33 “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the Lord, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more