Bear One Another’s Burdens
Introduction For most of my career, I have worked around very large machinery. A centrifugal compressor package may weigh seventy, a hundred, a hundred and twenty tons. Before it can be installed, somebody has to figure out how to get it off the truck and onto its foundation without dropping it or damaging it with the lifting straps. So we put lifting lugs on the package. They may not be the most impressive part of the machine. Nobody buys a compressor because the lifting lugs are attractive. Once the equipment is installed, they may never be used again. On one…
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Serve One Another
I. Free to Serve We are working our way through seven “one another” commands. We began with “love one another,” because love is the command behind all the others, and then we looked at “accept one another” – love at the front door. Still ahead of us are bearing one another’s burdens, encouraging one another, forgiving one another, and praying for one another. Today is “serve one another” – love holding a towel. I have a story about that, although it is not one where I come out looking particularly good. One of my closest friends, Sean, once asked me…
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Accept One Another
Romans 15:7 · “One Another” Series, Lesson 2 The Command I. Love Comes to the Front Door Let me begin by telling a story. Many years ago, when I was still in college, I attended my first church retreat; it was in the Hill Country of Texas. And… I wore shorts. I didn’t know there was an unwritten rule against wearing shorts. Everyone wore long pants. I didn’t even notice I was the only one in shorts. Nobody explained it beforehand, and nobody took me aside when I arrived. People simply avoided me. They didn’t talk to me; they kept…
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Love One Another
I. Introduction Most organizations want to be recognized. Companies spend millions of dollars to create logos so you can recognize them. Here’s a quick quiz — how many of these company logos can you name? Answers: Row 1: Marriott, Shell, Nike, Popeyes, Pepsi, Atari, Union 76, ToyotaRow 2: Prudential, AT&T, Chevrolet, Adobe, John Deere, McDonald’s, Continental Airlines (now United’s globe), HondaRow 3: Facebook, Chevron, Motorola, Mercedes-Benz, American Airlines, Mazda, Hilton, Taco BellRow 4: Volkswagen, General Mills, Guinness, Anheuser-Busch, Audi, Microsoft, DreamWorks, Apple Sports teams have uniforms. Schools have mascots. Families have resemblances — you look at a child and say,…
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I AM The True Vine
I. Introduction Diane is a wonderful gardener. Our backyard is an oasis – flowers grow everywhere. She tends the roses and the hibiscus, which she calls her “biscuits,” and she prunes them faithfully. And sometimes, she’ll cut an especially beautiful flower and put it in a vase in the kitchen. And here’s the thing about that kitchen flower – it’s already dead. It was dead the moment it was cut. The water in the vase just slows down the news. Now, I don’t have a green thumb, but I don’t think the kitchen flower dies because of me. No…
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