QUOTES FOR REFLECTION

English Reformer William Tyndale wrote “that if our desire is to please God, pouring water, washing dishes, cobbling shoes, and preaching the Word ‘is all one.’”

“If all that a believer does grows out of faith and is done for the glory of God, then all dualistic distinctions are demolished.”

~Os Guinness in his book The Call

“The greatest competitor of devotion to Jesus is service for Him.... The one aim of the call of God is the satisfaction of God, not a call to do something for Him.”

~Oswald Chambers (1874-1917), Scottish minister and writer

“The astonishing paradox of Christ’s teaching and of Christian experience is this: if we lose ourselves in following Christ, we actually find ourselves. True self-denial is self-discovery. To live for ourselves is insanity and suicide; to live for God and for [others] is wisdom and life indeed. We do not begin to find ourselves until we have become willing to lose ourselves in the service of Christ and of our fellows.”

~John R.W. Stott (1921-2011), pastor and theologian in Basic Christianity

“We become what we love and who we love shapes what we become.”

~St. Clare of Assisi (1194-1253), one of the first followers of St. Francis of Assisi

SERMON PASSAGES

Ephesians 2

1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

1 Corinthians 7

17 Only let each person lead the life that the lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him. This is my rule in all the churches.

Colossians 3

17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the father through Him….

22 Slaves, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.
23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. 25 For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality.

Philippians 1

21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 if I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell.