Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: disciple, evangelist, the 12, the twelve, son of Zebedee, fisherman, incarnation, word became flesh, I Am sayings, apostle, sons of thunder, eternal life, darkness and light, eyewitness

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1326. Being Christ by Affirming and Forgiving

Mark 1:40-45

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Malcom Uggeridge closed his biography of Mother Theresa of Calcutta with this word: “It will be for posterity to decide whether she is a saint. I only say of her that in a dark time she is a burning and shining light; in a cruel time, a living embodiment of Christ’s Gospel of love; in a godless time, the Word dwelling among us, full of grace and truth” (Something Beautiful for God, p. 146). I assume Muggeridge is using the word saint in a specialized way. For me there is no question left for posterity. ...

1327. Our Common Life in Christ

Philippians 2:1-11

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

It glows with light and power today as we turn to verses 1 through 4 of the second chapter of this Philippian letter. “If then our common life in Christ yields any thing to stir the heart, any loving consolation, any sharing of the Spirit, any warmth of affection or compassion, fill up my cup of happiness by thinking and feeling alike with the same love for one another, the same turn of mind, and a common care must be no room for rivalry and personal vanity among you, but you must humbly reckon others ...

1328. Where Do We Grow from Here?

Ephesians 4:1-16

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

There are some writers and some speakers who pack every sentence to the brim. If you miss a sentence you miss something significant. Others of us would like to think that true, but it really isn’t. You can miss a sentence here and there, unfortunately, maybe a number of sentences - and still not be poor for what you didn’t get. Samuel Miller is one of those people who packs every sentence to the brim, and you need to get every word. Listen to him. “A man’s birth is not ended with the first gasp of his ...

1329. The Reluctant Prophet

Exodus 3:1-22

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Chapter three and half of Chapter four of Exodus is the story of the burning bush. This episode is central to the Exodus story, but we can get too preoccupied with the burning bush. Some would even want to debate the kind of bush it was. But that misses the point. As someone has well said: “When God decides to make His appearance to man, any old bush will do.” We are staying with the story of the burning bush again today as we continue our preaching journey through Exodus. In my last sermon I talked about ...

1330. A Glimpse of God

Exodus 33:19-23

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

What would you feel like if you had an appointment with God at 9 A.M. tomorrow? Would you be able to eat for the rest of the day? How much sleep do you think you’d get tonight? You’ve got an appointment with God at 9 A.M. in the morning. He has given you instructions as to where to meet him and what to bring with you. That was the case with Moses. “Come up in the morning to Mount Sinai,” God said, “and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain.” Moses was to bring with tables of stones like ...

1331. Just When We Think We're Safest, There's a Sunset Touch

Mark 6:30-44

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Today we’re beginning a series of sermons on coping - coping as a Christian. To cope is to “contend or struggle successfully.” Now I had some hesitancy about the use of the word cope in the title of this series. A lot of people are talking about coping. Being who I am, a Christian minister seeking to proclaim the word of God, I was not interested just in a series of self-help, psychological messages. So I thought for awhile that I would talk about conquering as Christians. Paul said we Christians are to be ...

1332. Opening and Closing Doors

Matthew 6:25-34

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Many years ago, Dr. James Fisher, a practicing psychiatrist, wrote a very entertaining little book entitled A FEW BUTTONS MISSING . It was a light treatment of some of his experiences in psychiatric practice. However, near the end of the book, Dr. Fisher became very serious. This is what he said. “What was needed, I felt sure, was some new and enlightened recipe for living a sane and satisfying life — a recipe compounded from all the accumulated scientific knowledge acquired through study and research. I ...

1333. A Curse for Our Redemption

Galatians 3:1-14

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us.” (verse 13) This is one of the most diff cult verses in the New Testament. How do we translate it in order for it to make sense to us today? There’s a marvelously funny story about translation that comes out of Texas. There was a certain Mexican bank robber by the name of Jorge Rodriguez, who operated along the Texas border around the turn of the century. He was so successful in his forays into Texas, that the Texas rangers put a ...

1334. The Gospel Through the Person

Galatians 4:8-20

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Here is one of Paul’s most tender passages. Yet, there is in it a harshness to it. Paul is firm in his confrontation, and calls a spade a spade. Listen to him again in verse 16: “Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?” But despite that tough confrontation, Paul pulls back the curtain of his own inner soul, revealing his anguish and pain, his personal limitations, his feelings of failure, his overwhelming sense of appreciation. Can’t you just feel the deep emotion and tenderness in ...

1335. The Harvest of the Spirit, Part 2

Galatians 5:16-26

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

George Bernard Shaw once wrote: “I am by nature and destiny a preacher, but I have no Bible, no creed. The preacher must preach the way of life...Oh, if I could only find it!” Paul had found it — and he preached it. He called it “life in Christ”. As Christians we are the recipients of the Holy Spirit. A new kind of t kind of action is now possible — but not automatic. Let me say that again. As Christians who are the recipients of the Holy Spirit, a new kind of action, a new kind of life is now possible, ...

1336. Fish or Cut Bait

Mark 1:14-20

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

You may have heard the story about the fisherman who had a fantastic reputation for his ability to catch fish. Everyday he would go out in his boat and bring back an incredibly large number of fish, and his reputation spread far and wide. One day a stranger came to the camp and wanted to go fishing with him. The fisherman said, “Come back to tomorrow morning at 4:30, and we’ll go. The stranger was back the next morning, and two men got into the boat. The stranger was puzzled at what he saw. All the ...

1337. A Parable in a Miracle

Mark 1:40-45

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

For most of the ten years I was with The Upper Room, we lived in Mt. Juliet. Mt. Juliet is a small rural town about 20 miles east of Nashville, which was fast becoming a densely developed suburb. When we moved there from California, I was looking for space. I’d lived ten feet from my neighbors too long. I wanted at least the “country feeling.” Mt. Juliet had it. At least two “famous” people lived in Mt. Juliet. Charlie Daniels of country music fame, who is the best fiddler and whose band continues to be a ...

1338. Audacious Faith

Mark 2:1-12

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Some of you have seen the play, “Big River”, now playing in New York. This setting of Mark Twain’s Huck Finn is well done. The music is exceptional. For days after I saw it, I found myself blurting out, “Arkansas, Arkansas, O how I love Arkansas.” I would find myself humming the tune and trying to remember the words of that haunting piece. In one scene, two river rogues who have commandeered Huck and his barge, schemed to put together a sort of vaudeville act for river towns. To arouse curiosity, crowd and ...

1339. Planted for a Purpose

Luke 13:1-9

Sermon

John M. Braaten

A hole is blown open in the cargo area of a 747 jumbo jet, and nine people are sucked out and killed instantly. It is natural to ask, "Why?" A tornado rips through a small community in Kansas destroying buildings and businesses which took a lifetime to establish and we grieve with them. Those are just a couple of the more spectacular of a whole series of tragic and painful events which occur daily, which trouble our hearts and create questions in our minds. Our text this morning tells of some people who ...

1340. Small Beginnings, Great Endings

Luke 17:5-10

Sermon

Richard Hasler

On the day Abraham Lincoln was born his older cousin Dennis Hanks went over to see the newborn baby. Later he commented: “Folks often ask me if Abe was a good-looking baby. Well, he looked just like any other baby — like a red cherry pulp squeezed dry, and he didn’t improve none as he growed older.”[1] That may be a typical cousin’s reaction, but admittedly, Lincoln never was photogenic and he probably would not have made it in this age of television with all its glitz and style. Nonetheless, it is the ...

1341. Out On A Sycamore Limb

Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

Richard Hasler

Why do children love this story so much? Tom Wright offered one explanation: “Sunday schools love Zacchaeus. At least they love to act out his story and sing about him. The little man who climbs up a tree to see Jesus provides one of the most vivid short stories in the Bible. Children can identify with Zacchaeus; they often find themselves at the back of a crowd and can’t see what’s going on. Many adults too, can identify with, they like to get closer to Jesus, but find it embarrassing to do so, and ...

1342. Investment Choices

Matthew 25:14-30

Sermon

Steve Molin

I started reading crime novels about fifteen years ago. Like any pastor, so much of what I read relates to theology or ministry that I needed to find some genre of reading that would take me away from what I do twelve hours a day; something to capture my imagination. I started with John Grisham and read everything he has written. Then I moved on to Swedish author Henning Mankell and read all of his stuff. More recently, I have been reading the murder mysteries of Lee Childs. There is nothing like a good “ ...

1343. Did Jesus Say What I Think He Said?

Mark 7:24-37 · James 2:1-9 · Isaiah 35:5-6 · Psalm 146

Sermon

Thomas C. Willadsen

This morning’s gospel lesson may be the most troubling passage in the gospels because Jesus said a lot of provocative things to the religious authorities. The crowds were delighted with the clever ways he always seemed to best them in battles of wits. This morning’s gospel passage is different — very different. Jesus and his disciples needed a break. Just before today’s passage begins, Jesus had a controversy with some Pharisees. It appears that the Pharisees had traveled from Jerusalem to Gennesaret ...

1344. The Power of Weakness

Mark 8:27-38 · Psalm 19

Sermon

Thomas C. Willadsen

Our lessons this morning feels like an archery target. The psalm starts with the long view, the perspective of the psalmist marveling at the beauty of creation. “The heavens are telling the glory of God,” it begins, but that translation doesn’t quite capture the essence of what is to be expressed Psalm 19:1 (NRSV). It more closely means, “The heavens are continually telling the glory of God.” It’s always happening, without ceasing. All we have to do is look up, notice the beauty of the stars, feel the ...

1345. Repetition, Repetition, Repetition

Mark 9:30-37 · Proverbs 31:10-31 · Psalm 1

Sermon

Thomas C. Willadsen

They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them; they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. He took the twelve aside again and began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death; then they will hand him over to the Gentiles; they will mock him, and spit upon him, and flog him, and kill him; and after three days he ...

1346. It’s Lonely At The Top

Mark 9:38-50 · Esther 7:1-10; 9:20-22 · Psalm 124 · Numbers 11:4-29

Sermon

Thomas C. Willadsen

Our Old Testament lessons this morning show us two leaders who were terrified. Esther, Queen of the Babylonians, wife of King Ahasuerus, had just thrown a second feast for the king and his right- hand man, Haman. She had invited the two men to a feast the night before, but could not find the courage to ask the king to spare her people. It’s a long story. Esther was a Jew who was living in exile in Babylon. Her Uncle Mordecai was a prominent official in the palace. Haman, however, was a more powerful ...

1347. Bread for the Journey

Mark 12:28-34

Sermon

Thomas C. Willadsen

I spent a lot of my adolescence on church mission trips. We called them work camps back then. Every time the church van was about to leave the parking lot, just after the driver had turned the ignition key someone would ask, “How long ‘til we get there?” Now, when I’m behind the wheel I give the same answer, that was given to me’ “Over a few hills, around a few bends, we’re practically there.” I can repeat this answer more times than the asker repeats the question. I can be very patient. Back in the day, ...

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