Author: Pastor John
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Let’s Clear Our Eyes
At this time of year we hear people say words of gratitude. We have thanksgiving services. We gather together for the thanksgiving meal. Yet, being truly thankful can be a struggle. There are many obstacles to thankfulness. It’s interesting to me that in the Bible it is the struggling who seem to have a good…
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Giving Thanks and Other Essentials
Thanksgiving is an essential. The problem is, we don’t think of it as an essential. We think it’s important. We think it’s nice. Too often though, we act as if gratitude is an add-on rather than an essential. Consider this sobering comment from God’s man, Paul: For even though they knew God, they did not…
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At Calvary – Episode 86 – More than in Name Only
“Follow me as I follow Christ.” This is an encouragement that God’s man, Paul, gave to the young church leader Timothy. Paul wasn’t just asking Timothy to follow his example. He was also encouraging him to compare Paul’s example to the example of Jesus. Likewise, it is one thing for us to claim the name,…
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Doing Good Stuff in Secret
Why do you do things? Do you do things just because it’s the loving thing to do? Can we really honestly say that is our only motivation? To be honest I kind of wonder if it is. I wonder that not because I think we’re all horrible people who have horrible motives. I wonder that…
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At Calvary – Episode 85 – Justified Before God?
Talk is cheap. That is a well used observation, isn’t it? It is the observation that it is easy to say things that sound good or loving. It is easy to sound committed to a cause. It is much more difficult to actually be committed. Did you know that God thinks that our talk is…
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The Example of God
Rain. When you are a kid, it is something to have fun in. You play in it, you dance around, and you get completely covered in mud. Even though you’re covered in mud, it’s all good. As we get older, rain becomes something else to us. It becomes an inconvenience. In fact, we can come…
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At Calvary – Episode 84 – Becoming People Who Can’t Be Trusted
We’re better than lost people, aren’t we? Such is the attitude of self-righteousness and hypocrisy that we so often critiqued by the apostle Paul and our Lord Jesus. They didn’t just say that we shouldn’t think like that. They said that thinking such thoughts condemns us! We learn why this week during our time in…
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Humility – Why Seek It?
I hate just listing a group of verses, but I think that this time it’s necessary. Why? I believe I need to list them because we struggle with actually believing what God has said. Sure, we nod our head and say, “Amen!” However, when it comes to doing this… I just don’t think we really understand…
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At Calvary – Episode 83 – Becoming People Who Can’t Be Trusted
We talk about sin as a wrong thing we do. Have we ever thought about what repeated sin does to our thinking? As we finish Romans chapter 1 this week, Pastors Jeff, Ed, and John share how humanity’s repeated choosing of selfishness and our consistent rejection of God’s way of thinking has made our own…
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Consider the Cost of the Life You are Living
We have been talking a lot about living for Christ on Sunday mornings. Sometimes I think that as we emphasize living for Christ we can come under the false impression that such living is easy and has no cost to us. So, we are surprised when God asks something of us that has unexpected cost.…
Pastor John D Jakes 