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  THE CONSTANT CRY OF THE ROD
  by Thomas Brooks
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Summary: The rod of affliction is a call to spiritual life, urging us to
be dead to worldly things and alive to a living Jesus.

Topics: "Affliction", "Detachment from Worldly Comforts"
Scripture References: Psalm 62:10, Ecclesiastes 1:2, Matthew 6:19-21, Romans 12:2, 2 Corinthians 4:18, Philippians 3:8, Colossians 3:2, Hebrews 13:5, James 4:4, 1 John 2:15-17

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DESCRIPTION
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Thomas Brooks emphasizes that the rod of affliction serves as a powerful
teacher, urging believers to detach their affections from worldly
comforts and to recognize their ultimate emptiness and vanity. He
explains that true contentment and fulfillment can only be found in a
living relationship with Jesus, as worldly pleasures and honors are
fleeting and unreliable. The sermon calls for a deep spiritual
mortification of desires that distract from a focus on Christ.

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CONTENT
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One lesson that you are to learn by the rod of affliction,

is to get more weaned and more mortified affections to

all worldly comforts, contentments, and enjoyments.

A man never comes to experience so much of . . .

the emptiness,

the nothingness,

the uselessness,

the vanity,

the mutability,

the impotency,

the insufficiency,

the uncertainty

of all worldly comforts and enjoyments--as when he falls

under the rod of affliction. The constant cry of the rod

is, "Be dead to the profits, pleasures, honors, and applauses

of the world! Be dead to everything below a living Jesus!"

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Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/thomas-brooks/the-constant-cry-of-the-rod/
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