Showing 251 to 275 of 4935 results

Sermon
King Duncan
It is amazing that one word could change all eternity. One word. One simple word. What was that word? We'll come to that in a moment. First we must go to Caesarea Philippi where Jesus is asking his disciples one of the most familiar questions in all the Bible, "Who do people say that the Son of man is?" I doubt that Jesus was really all that interested in what the crowd thought about him. He knew the masses of people are quite fickle and easily led astray. There was a glaring example of this not too long ...

Matthew 26:47-56
Sermon
Donald B. Strobe
At Saratoga, on a battlefield that once was covered with British and American blood, there stands a monument, 155 feet high. The monument is there to commemorate that decisive struggle in which the British made their last stand over two centuries ago. Around the base of this monument are four deep niches, and in each niche appears the name of one of the American generals who commanded there. Above the names stand giant bronze figures on horseback. In the first stands Horatio Gates; in the second, Philip ...

Children's Sermon
Wesley T. Runk
Object: Some crayons and/or scissors. Lesson: Then the Spirit led Jesus into the desert to be tempted by the Devil. Good morning, boys and girls. Today we are going to talk about a word that I am sure all of you have heard many times but you may not be sure what it means. The word is "tempted" or "temptation." How many of you have heard that word used before? (Let them answer.) How many of you know what it means? (Let them answer.) Those are very close answers. Let me see if I can help explain it a little ...

Sermon
George Johnson
What is one of the most foolish things you have ever done? Pay good money for a suit or dress that you never wore? Buy a car that turned out to be a lemon? Invest your savings based on good advice, but end up losing it all? Have an affair that you thought would be brief and secret, but turned out to bring havoc on everything? But who likes to be reminded of one's foolishness? What is one of the wisest things you have ever done? Saying "yes" to the one you married, or "no" to the one you almost married? Was ...

Acts 9:36-43
Sermon
Charley Reeb
Journalist Bob Garfield researched health articles in The Washington Post, USA Today, and The New York Times. His research showed that, according to so-called experts, 59 million Americans have heart disease 53 million suffer migraines 25 million people have osteoporosis 16 million struggle with obesity 3 million have cancer 12 million have severe disorders such as brain disease.[1] The results are that 543 million Americans are seriously ill, which is shocking in a country whose population is only 266 ...

Sermon
Clayton A. Lord
Someone once said that action speaks louder than words and that is true. When someone reaches out to help a person in need, they have done more than give a sermon. When a person spends time at the soup kitchen feeding the hungry or hammering nails on a Habitat For Humanity house, they are telling the world what they believe is important. Jesus instructed his disciples to be like salt, flavoring and preserving the world so that it would bring glory to God. He sent them out and told them to let the light of ...

257. One Handed Results
Illustration
Brett Blair
Does anyone know this name Hank Luisetti? He is considered to be one of the great innovators in the sport of basketball. In an era that featured the traditional two-handed set shot, Luisetti developed the running one-handed shot, an early version of the jump shot. When Hank came along, virtually every basketball coach in the country insisted that players shoot with two hands. Instead of two hands, Hank used a jerky, funny-looking, one-handed jump shot. His coach, looking for results rather than method, was ...

Sermon
Richard Gribble
Monday Week OneLeviticus 19:1-2, 11-18Matthew 25:31-46 Be Holy As Is God We all know that God is divine. This is how we define God. But how does one define divinity? One might say that divinity means omniscience and omnipotence. These are both proper descriptions, possibly even definitions of divinity, but how can a human relate to these things? We know so many things that are more powerful than we and so many people who are more intelligent than ourselves. Maybe we can imagine the divinity of God as all ...

Drama
Dr. Raymond Bailey
THEME: Adam and Eve speak of our origins. Not only have we all eaten of the "fruit of the tree of good and evil," but we are usually drawn to members of the opposite sex. Yet, while drawn to our opposites, we are also confused by them. They act and communicate differently. SETTING FOR THE SERMON MONOLOGUE: This was a mother's day sermon. However, it celebrates God's gift of all women. While we may like to romanticize our mothers, in actuality, they have their foibles. Here Adam is made to share the joys, ...

Sermon
Barbara Brokhoff
If you were a Miracle-Worker, and you had one final miracle to perform before dying, what would you choose as a big, never-to-be-forgotten climax? Suppose you had already done such things as calm a storm at sea, multiply five loaves and two fishes into enough food to feed 5,000 people, walked on water, opened blind eyes, caused the dumb to speak, the lame to walk, and the deaf to hear, turned water into wine, and even raised the dead - now you are about to do one more miracle before you die - what would it ...

Jeremiah 16:1--17:18
Sermon
Harry N. Huxhold
A biography of Humphrey Bogart by Sperber and Lax portrays the star of the golden era of Hollywood as a troubled man. Bogart reached stardom in Hollywood as only a limited number have. He was the leading male box office attraction. He was financially secure. He married Lauren Bacall. Yet his discomfort with what he did was obvious always to those who knew him. He worked intensely at his craft. Yet one day while on the set making a new film, he remarked, “What a way to make a living!” On one occasion a ...

Sermon
King Duncan
I don’t know about you, but one of the constants in my life is time spent with God. I depend on time spent in prayer. I lean heavily on the belief that God loves me and that God responds to my concerns. However, suppose when I went to God, I got God’s voice mail instead? Suppose I got an automated voice saying: “Thank you for calling My Father’s House. Please select one of the following four options: Press 1 for a request. Press 2 to give thanks. Press 3 to complain. For all other inquiries, press 4.” So I ...

2 Corinthians 13:11-14
Sermon
King Duncan
There is an old story about a henpecked husband who went to a psychologist. He was tired of being dominated by his wife. The psychologist told him, “You do not have to accept your wife’s bullying. You need to go home right now and let her know that you’re your own boss.” The husband decided to take the doctor’s advice. He went home and slammed the door on the way in. He confronted his wife and said, “From now on you’ll do what I say. Get my supper, then go upstairs and lay out my clothes. After I eat, I’m ...

Sermon
Brett Blair
One person armed with the Gospel of peace can change the world. Telemachus did. Who was Telemachus? He was a monk who lived in the 5th century. And his story is a story of courage. He felt God saying to him, "Go to Rome." He was in a cloistered monastery but he put his possessions in a sack and set out for Rome. When he arrived in the city, people were thronging in the streets. He asked why all the excitement and was told that this was the day that the gladiators would be fighting in the coliseum, the day ...

Luke 17:11-19
Sermon
King Duncan
Gert Behanna was fifty-three years old when she discovered God. The shock and wonder of that discovery haven't worn off after twenty years. Gert had another shock the very next Sunday when she went to church. She says, "I'd never been to church in my life and I remember how eagerly I awaited that first Sunday. I'd just had a glimpse of God Almighty - me, an alcoholic, a drug addict, rich, lonely, and miserable - already I was beginning to know what joy really was." Gert was a new Christian. She was eager ...

Sermon
George Reed
This Gospel Reading from Mark is two stories entwined together. Separately, they are powerful stories but when they are combined their force is greatly increased. Here, in one episode, we have Jesus, the healer, raising a little girl from the dead and curing a woman who has suffered for twelve years from her affliction. While these two healings are wondrous in their power it is the status of the ones who are healed that gives the story its power. It is difficult for us today to understand the social ...

Luke 15:1-7, Luke 15:8-10
Sermon
Merle G. Franke
The first time I set eyes on that grand old church building was in the cool of a January evening. Since it was in a southern state, there was no chilling cold to make me hurry back into my host's car, so the two of us casually made our way around the empty building. He was a synod president, and I was a churchwide senior staff person on an official visit to his synod. The beautiful old building was locked tighter than a drum. There were quite obviously no meetings taking place in it that evening, which my ...

Sermon
J. Howard Olds
Within my earthly temple there’s a crowd, There’s one who’s humble and one who’s proud. There’s one that’s broken-hearted for his sins, And one who unrepentant, sits and grins. From much corroding care I would be free, If I could just determine which is really me. Life is a choice. Day by day we make decisions which shape the character of our lives. The habit of good conduct is an indispensable element in the construction of a good life. So what does it mean to be a good person? What do good people have ...

Sermon
Lee Griess
Garbage truck driver, Craig Randall, brings his work home with him sometimes. There was that old-fashioned sewing machine he found. There were some books he rescued from the trash. And then there was that soft-drink cup that just happened to be worth $200,000. Neither Randall nor his fiancée really believed it until he drove his garbage truck up to the restaurant and picked up the check. Twenty-three-year-old Randall said he lifted the cup from a pile of trash while he was on his route in south Boston. He ...

1 John 3:11-24
One Volume
Gary M. Burge
3:11–17 · The party of Cain—the brother killers—includes the indifferent:Appealing again to the original teachings of Jesus, commanding his followers to love one another (John 13:34–35), the elder leverages the worst of fratricidal archetypes: Cain, the brother killer (3:12; Genesis 4). Would any in his audience relish the idea of being numbered among members of “the Cain Party”? Of course not! The threat of being labeled a brother killer becomes a negative incentive used to motivate the opposite: loving ...

1 Corinthians 12:12-31
One Volume
Gary M. Burge
Paul now illustrates the unity (12:12–13), diversity (12:14–20), and integrity (12:21–26) produced at the Spirit’s inspiration among those at Corinth who belong to the body of Christ. Though suggested by Jesus’s words on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:4) and by its use in the Greek philosophical traditions of Stoicism (with which Paul shows passing familiarity elsewhere), this figure is used casually in the Pauline Letters (1 Cor. 6:15; 10:17; 11:29), with the exception of these verses. Just as “the body is ...

Understanding Series
Robert W. Wall
1:9 In the second half of his greetings (vv. 9–20), John expands his earlier prescript (v. 4a) by relating the remarkable christophany by which the Risen Christ commissions him to write Revelation. Such a commissioning vision is not unique to John; it is the normal vehicle by which God commissioned the OT prophets, and then Paul, who received his call through a christophany while traveling on the Damascus Road (cf. Acts 9:1–9). The function of such visions is twofold: the first and more explicit function ...

Sermon
Dean Feldmeyer
Today, Pentecost Sunday, is the day upon which we traditionally celebrate the birth of the Christian church. But before we light the candles and sing, “Happy Birthday,” perhaps we should take a few moments to talk about what the church is and what it isn’t. What, exactly, is a church? How shall we define it and how shall we define its purpose? The Internal Revenue Code uses the word “church” but it doesn’t actually define what it means by that word. Certain attributes of a church have been developed by the ...

Sermon
J. Will Ormond
You are middle-aged or older if you remember when the movie Seven Brides for Seven Brothers was first released. It was an exuberant, fast-paced musical about seven brothers on the frontier of the United States who were all looking for brides. Such "commodities" were rare in their part of the world. But, of course, in the end each brother got his bride. The story in our lectionary passage for today is about one bride for seven brothers, but the end of the story is not as happy and upbeat as was the movie. ...

Sermon
James Bjorge
An angel appeared to Mary and said, "Hail, O favored one, the Lord is with you!" (Luke 1:28). Again the angel said, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God" (Luke 1:30). Chosen to give birth to God’s only begotten Son is no small thing. A human vessel to house the embryonic Messiah, conceived by the Holy Spirit, was a privilege of unmatched magnitude. And in our Christmas manger scenes with softly glowing lights, neatly arranged animals and shepherds, everything seems too cozy and ...

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