Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 3976 to 4000 of 5000 results

John 1:1-18

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... have utopian societies been attempted, only to fail every time. Is it because they have become institutions, or is it because they were populated by human beings? The latter, I fear, because after all, institutions are merely OUR creations to better organize society. Mark Twain said it best - "Man is the only animal that blushes...or needs to." But the most disheartening thought is that all this is true in spite of the fact that Christ DID come, that the child of Bethlehem WAS more than just another ...

3977. No Time for a Knapsack Faith

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

King Duncan

... : omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, everlasting. This is the God who spoke and the world was created. This is the God who guides the stars, who rules the heavens, who orders the planets in their orbits. This is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob--as well as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. This is God in His transcendent authority, Lawgiver and Judge, the God whose ways are not our ways, the God whose glory is told by the heavens. This is the God in whom all of us believe, as do most of the world’s ...

3978. Rock Solid Living

Matthew 7:24-29

Sermon

King Duncan

... don’t have to give your life in order to make your life count. Being a great parent, making a difference in the community, serving your church--there are many ways your life can have an impact. But there are many people who never leave their mark on the world. They’re here only for their own gratification. They give no thought about their responsibilities to the rest of humankind. Jesus said on one occasion, “Not every one who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who ...

3979. Rejoice

Philippians 4:2-9

Sermon

King Duncan

... , SPEAKER'S TREASURY OF POLITICAL STORIES, ANECDOTES, AND HUMOR (Englewood Cliff, NJ, Prentice Hall, 1990). 2. (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1948, p. 266). Cited in LETTING GOD BLESS YOU, (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1992). 3. Hanoch McCarty in Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, A 2ND HELPING OF CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL (Deerfield Beach, FL: Health Communications, Inc., 1995), pp. 175-176. 4. Contributed. Source unknown. 5. "Tony Bennett: Older and Wiser," by Robert Sullivan, LIFE, February 1995

3980. Mary's Song

Micah 5:1-4

Sermon

King Duncan

... Store, while making the rounds of the bargain basement, found the body of a man lying under a counter. He was thin to the point of emaciation, apparently in his middle thirties, and was shabbily dressed. His pockets were empty and there were no marks of identification upon his person. Store officials believe that he was trampled in the Christmas rush and crawled under the counter for shelter. But they are unable to account for what appears to be nail wounds in his hands. The police are investigating." After ...

3981. How To Stay Young Forever

Revelation 22:1-6

Sermon

King Duncan

... office, but he struck out at home!" (3) Many people are hitting home runs at the office and the health club and striking out at home ” looking after the outer person and neglecting the spiritual life within. Some of you may know that Samuel Clemens, or Mark Twain as we know him, was not a happy man. Particularly in his later years, he was quite crusty and cynical. Twain was married to a woman named Olivia Langdon. Olivia was a believer. Her faith was simple and she was a devout Christian. When they first ...

3982. Can People Change?

Galatians 1:11-24

Sermon

King Duncan

... he went away to Arabia and then returned to Damascus. It was three years before he went to Jerusalem to confer with Cephas (Peter) and the other Apostles. Evidently Paul needed time to assess what had taken place in his life. Change is not easy. To paraphrase Mark Twain: Habits can't be flung out the window; they have to be coaxed downstairs, a step at a time. Centuries ago in England, if a pickpocket were convicted, his right hand was cut off. If he were convicted a second time, his left hand was amputated ...

3983. Hope For Those Whom Life Has Cheated

Luke 18:1-8

Sermon

King Duncan

... pain. But sometimes life's most dreaded situations can lead us to a deeper and more profound relationship with God. Doubtless, there are some of you who have experienced that in your own life. And that brings us to our final truth: JUSTICE WILL BE DONE. Mark it down. Write it in indelible ink. Justice will be done. As sure as there is a God, the innocent shall not suffer forever. Go with me to Prague, Czechoslovakia to those last days of the Soviet empire. In the Prague demonstration that sparked the Czech ...

3984. When The Waters Begin To Rise

Genesis 9:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... pen in hand, and beginning with the blots made by the children, he would add a line here and another one there, and out of the inkblots would come pictures of angels! So when the students were given back their papers, they weren't all marked up with harsh criticisms. Rather, they were wonderfully decorated with exquisite angels! The children were delighted and pleased and encouraged. And Joseph Craik became a legend in his own time, known far and wide as the man who turned inkblots into angels! (6) I know ...

3985. Only Heroes Need Apply

Mark 8:34-38

Sermon

King Duncan

... . A few minutes later, while a crowd of 32,000 screamed and pounded each other on the back, six small, red-white-and-blue Olympians marched out for their medals, trailed only by their wounded teammate who was carried in the arms of her coach." For Mark Starr, a writer for NEWSWEEK, it was an athletic feat inscribed for the ages. It had been a closely fought match all afternoon, with the Americans surging ahead on the uneven bars, then maintaining their lead along the perilous balance beam and through their ...

3986. Connected

John 15:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... . The reason many people fail to achieve great things with their lives is that they lack a focus, they lack a driving sense of purpose. Like Willy Loman in Arthur Miller's play, they live their lives not really knowing who they are. And so they fail to make their mark in the world. If only they could be connected to One who could give them a sense of purpose, a sense of mission, a sense of their place in the world. And of course that is the Good News for the day. We CAN be connected to One who can ...

3987. Are You Successful Or Do You Just Have Money?

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... that Ron consider a career in baseball when he got out. Ron looked up Billy Martin the moment he left prison and a place was made for Ron on the Detroit Tigers roster. Many of you baseball fans will recognize the name Ron Leflore. Ron has had a baseball career marked by stunning success. (3) But that is certainly not how his life started off. He started off as a trouble maker, a ne'er-do-well, a bad apple. Who is a success; who a failure? Sometimes it is very difficult to predict. This is that day in the ...

3988. Yearning For Rejection; Thriving On Insults

2 Corinthians 12:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... . In weakness we discover vulnerability and compassion. In weakness, we discover God. 1. HOW DID THEY DIE? by Norman & Betty Donaldson (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1980), 12. 2. Ed McMahon, ED MCMAHON'S SUPERSELLING, (New York: Prentice Hall Press, 1989), p. 59. 3. Unknown 4. Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL (Deerfield Beach, FL: Health Communications).

3989. Long Range Planning

Ephesians 1:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... nothing matters because we are all going to die.'" Parker notes that he read the same book some twenty years earlier when he was a teenager, but responded differently: "Rereading Chan's words," Parker writes, ". . . I was struck by how close he was to the mark, and at the same time how far away. Because we are all going to die, he reasons, everything is meaningless and nothing matters. But the truth is: Because we are all going to die nothing is meaningless and everything matters." (2) The basic question in ...

3990. In Praise Of Goofing Off

Mark 6:30-44

Sermon

King Duncan

... , we need to note that THE SABBATH WAS CREATED FOR OUR BENEFIT. That is the truth about the Sabbath that is often ignored. The Sabbath was not created for God ” it was created for us. That is a point that Jesus made emphatically in Mark's Gospel, the second chapter. Jesus and his disciples were going through the grainfields and the disciples began plucking heads of grain. They were hungry men ” but this was the Sabbath and plucking grain was considered work. The Pharisees brought this transgression to ...

3991. The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread

John 6:25-59

Sermon

King Duncan

... are displayed. She had taken the picture years before on a Sunday Ogilvie had preached on the topic, "The Lord Never Forgets." The custodian who had arranged the letters on the sign that week had put Ogilvie's name immediately below. There were no quotation marks, so it all read as one: THE LORD NEVER FORGETS LLOYD OGILVIE. Ogilvie remarked that when he really needed to be reminded of that, a cheery note with the photograph arrived. (4) Christ never forgets any of us. His love is at the same time universal ...

3992. Good Taste Or Good Religion?

Mark 7:1-23

Sermon

King Duncan

... . We admire people with good taste, good manners, good breeding. DID YOU KNOW, THOUGH, THAT GOOD MANNERS IS NOT THE SAME AS GOOD RELIGION? There are many people who have good manners whose hearts are corrupt and cold. There are many people who have the so-called marks of good breeding, who have no regard for God or for humanity. Let me ask you, if you saw two men listening to music ” one was listening to an opera by Wagner and the other was listening to Rap music ” how would you regard them? Would you ...

3993. The Problem With Giving Up Chocolates

Mark 8:34-38

Sermon

King Duncan

... into some antisocial behavior ” say, minor shoplifting. You may come under intense pressure to conform to the group and shoplift, too. But one of your values is "Thou shalt not steal." So, do you listen to your needs or do you listen to your values? The mark of maturity is the ability to have your values outweigh your needs. Maturity has very little to do with age. I know teenagers who are more values-driven than many adults. Some of those teenagers are in this church. FOR THE CHRISTIAN, OF COURSE, THE ...

3994. The Leadership Principles Of Jesus

Hebrews 5:11-6:12

Sermon

King Duncan

... he recalls the conversation. "I said to Mahoney, ˜Dave, we're a little bit below budget now, and I think we can hold that for the rest of the year. It won't get any worse.' "Dave looked at me, smiled, and said: ˜Be on budget by the six-month mark; be on budget by the year.' "'But Dave,' I said, ˜there isn't enough time to get on by the half. I inherited this situation after all.' "Still smiling, Dave looked at me and said: ˜Do I pay you a lot of money? Do I argue with you over what ...

3995. A Time For Hope

Isaiah 2:1-5

Sermon

King Duncan

... of one who would come to "judge the earth." Members of the New Testament church, torn apart by lions in the coliseum and burned as living torches in Nero’s gardens, knew that this could not be the last word of a righteous God. So Matthew 24 and Mark 13 and the book of Revelation and a host of other New Testament writings testify that someday Christ will return to right the world’s wrongs. St. Paul writes, "For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed." Evil times are never the last word ...

3996. When Are You Coming?

Isaiah 63:1-6

Sermon

King Duncan

... diver found himself sucked through 1,650 feet of intake pipe at the Florida Power & Light's St. Lucie nuclear plant. A security officer saw and rescued him as the pipe deposited him into a canal at the plant. A plant spokesman said that the intake is marked by a warning buoy and shielded with a 70' by 70' cap that sits just above the intake. He explained that someone would have to swim underneath the cap and then head for the intake to get sucked in. The spokesman's description sounded like an explanation ...

3997. Gettin' Ready For Quittin' Time

Luke 21:5-38

Sermon

King Duncan

... at hand. He slowed the car down, headed for a shady enclave. This was it, he said, the climax had arrived. He was sure that she would feel the same excitement as himself. The car, in short, had at that carefully timed juncture, reached the 100,000 mile mark. The figures on the speedometer were turning slowly over as the car came to a halt. "Everything is back to zero," said the young man, caught up in the rapture of the moment. "Yes," said the young woman to herself, "Everything is back to zero." Christ's ...

3998. Centering On God

Luke 21:5-38

Sermon

... began to wonder and question whether he was doing any good. What was he teaching the people, he began to ask himself. One day he confided to a friend, "These people experience more joy in one day than the average American does in a year!" Today marks the first Sunday in Advent, that time of preparation for the birth of Jesus. Throughout Advent we will try to rediscover some of the joy of Christmas. Joy is an ingredient that is missing in many people's lives. A holiday shopping trip reveals that few people ...

3999. The Manger Is Empty

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... scuba diver found himself sucked through 1,650 feet of intake pipe at the Florida Power & Light's St. Lucie nuclear plant. A security officer rescued him as the pipe deposited him into a canal at the plant. A plant spokesman said that the intake is marked by a warning buoy and shielded with a 70' by 70' cap that sits just above the intake. He explained that someone would have to swim underneath the cap and then head for the intake to get sucked in. The spokesman's description sounded like an explanation ...

4000. How Shall We Prepare Ourselves For Christmas

Luke 3:1-20

Sermon

King Duncan

... in terms of being sorry for a mistake and of making a promise not to make the same mistake again. They do not understand repentance as a complete change of direction. It is not enough for us to attack our weaknesses as an isolated part of our personality. Mark David Chapman says that he feels great remorse for killing John Lennon. Chapman goes on to say, however, that the slaying doesn't make him an evil person. "You can't judge a man's life by one act. Before I became ˜the man who murdered John Lennon ...

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