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baptist church
baptist church
Topic: Temptation
At Open Icon Baptist Church, we value great preaching — preaching that engages deeply, humbly and honestly with Jesus, the Bible, and the pain and joy of living in the real world. And since going permanently online, we have been able to welcome great preachers from all over the world without having to wait for them to visit our shores. Click here to meet the inspirational preachers depicted in the gallery above, none of whom have preached for us!
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1 February, 2015
Jesus calls us to model a pattern of love and generous inclusion, and to avoid the demonic temptations of exclusion and pride.
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17 February, 2013
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Evil, Generosity, Hospitality, Salvation, Temptation
God saves us by changing our hearts, but one of the great temptations for the church is to try to turn that back into a system of exclusion and control.
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13 March, 2011
Temptations can hook us away from where we want to be, following Jesus, but perhaps we need them in order to discover who we are in relation to them.
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21 February, 2010
Demonic temptations do not usually look demonic, but are usually a subtle undermining of our sense of who we are that cause us to grasp for quick fixes.
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10 February, 2008
Jesus full humanity meant that temptation was real for him, as it is for us. Temptation is not in itself bad, but indicates to us that we have a gift of choice.
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5 March, 2006
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Grace, Jesus, Lent, Temptation, Violence
Scripture: 1 & 2 Peter, Genesis, Mark
Violence must be a constant temptation for God, but in absolute love, God has vowed never to resort to it.
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15 January, 2006
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Faithfulness, Forgiveness, Identity, Jesus, Politics, Repentance, Temptation
Scripture: 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 Corinthians, John, Psalms
In the encounter with Jesus, our self-delusion and our scapegoating are painfully exposed, but with the possibility of forgiveness and freedom.
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17 July, 2005
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Church, Discernment, Grace, judgement, Mercy, Temptation
Scripture: Matthew
The Church will always contain more than its fair share of maliciousness, pettiness and nastiness, but the temptation to try to weed it out is a temptation to abandon the way of Christ and make things worse.
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27 February, 2005
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Evil, Fullness of Life, Love, Spiritual Disciplines, Suffering, Temptation
Our struggles against evil, temptation and suffering are all framed by the security of God’s unshakable love and resolve to bring us safely to fullness of life.
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4 July, 2004
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Crucifixion, Culture, Jesus, Spiritual Warfare, Temptation
Scripture: Galatians
The world will try to domesticate the gospel and get it to reinforce the world’s status quo and moral codes, but as people identified with Christ on the cross, we live the radical (and offensive) life of the new creation.
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5 March, 1995
Preacher: Nathan Nettleton
Topic: Discipleship, Love, Suffering, Temptation, Vocation
Jesus calls us to follow his lead in rejecting easy comfortable paths and choosing the tough road of costly active love.