Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 4151 to 4175 of 4936 results

4151. "If I But Touch..."

Mark 5:21-43

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Happy ending. Two wonderful healing stories, one sandwiched in the middle of the other. First, we hear about the little girl, Jairus' daughter. Word had spread that this itinerant rabbi from Nazareth who reportedly had incredible healing powers had arrived in town. Enter Jairus, one of the high muckety-mucks in the local synagogue who happens to be the father of a VERY sick child. Ordinarily, we would not expect Jairus to have anything to do with Jesus, period - after all, the leaders of other synagogues ...

4152. Friends

John 15:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

A moving truck loaded with furniture was parked in front of a Southern California home. A husband and wife were sweeping out the open garage when a woman from a house across the street approached with an apple pie. "Welcome to the neighborhood," she said. "I baked it myself and I want you to have it." "Really, we can't," the husband replied. "Of course you can," she ran on. "When I moved in two years ago no one welcomed me, and I want you to feel at home." She thrust the pie into the husband's hands. "Uh, ...

4153. Where Is Your Home?

2 Corinthians 5:6-10

Sermon

King Duncan

Children say the most outrageous things. Laurie and her husband, Ralph, have a little ritual they go through with their kids when one of their pet goldfish dies. The whole family gathers in the bathroom and around the commode. Little Anthony, the 3-year-old, holds the "deceased" while his sister says a little prayer. Then Anthony drops the fish in the bowl and Lexy, the 5-year-old, flushes it to heaven. One day, during one of these rituals, Lexy asked her dad if "Wito," her Grandpa who passed away a few ...

4154. In Praise Of Goofing Off

Mark 6:30-44

Sermon

King Duncan

Have you ever noticed that different people have different attitudes about work? I heard about a congregation who had the same pastor for many years. He resigned and they hired a new young pastor with new ideas about church leadership. The first suggestion he made to the church's ruling body was that they hire a part-time person to look after the church lawn. "I'll have you know, parson," said one of the members indignantly, that our former pastor always took care of the church's lawn himself." "I'm aware ...

4155. We Know Where You Came From

John 6:41-51

Sermon

King Duncan

Have you ever noticed that it is very difficult to escape your reputation? Once people have an image of you in their minds, it is very difficult to change their perception. Back in the 1940s, a highly popular advertising jingle for Chiquita Bananas ended with the line: "Bananas like the climate of the very, very tropical equator, so you should never put bananas in the refrigerator. No. No. No. No." We're told that the only reason the word REFRIGERATOR was mentioned in the jingle was that it rhymed with ...

4156. When Are You Coming?

Isaiah 63:1-6

Sermon

King Duncan

The year was 1981. The eyes of the world were focused on Frascati, Italy. A six-year-old boy had fallen into a deep well. A shaft was dug to free him, but he fell deeper. A midget was lowered two hundred feet into the shaft. He also failed to free the boy. A reporter told of the plaintive cry of the boy to his mother, relayed through a microphone lowered into the well. "Mamma, mamma," he kept repeating, "When are you coming?" The plaintive cry of Isaiah is much like that. He cries out to God, "O, that you ...

4157. God's Time

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

King Duncan

Have you ever thought about the meaning of time? Philosophers refer to chronological time. That is time as measured by the ticking of a clock. It is calendar time. It is time as measured by the earth rotating on its axis, time as measured by the earth's journey around the sun. But what if the earth were destroyed. What if the sun was no more. Would time cease to exist? Philosophers also talk about subjective time. To a child waiting for Christmas, time moves so slowly. To his parents, Christmas may come ...

4158. News From The Vineyard

John 15:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

Some of you may know the story of Dawson Trotman, founder of the Navigators, an organization originally begun with the goal of reaching men serving in the Navy. Trotman began to meet with a Navy man named Les Spencer, teaching him basic truths from the Bible. After a while, Spencer brought a friend from the ship to Trotman and said, "Dawson, I want you to teach him all you have taught me." Trotman refused. He said, "I am not going to teach him; you are going to teach him. If you cannot teach him what I ...

4159. From Coping To Conquering

2 Corinthians 4:1-18

Sermon

King Duncan

How do you know its going to be a bad day? One cynic says its when you call suicide prevention and they put you on hold...when your horn gets stuck behind a Hell's Angels motorcycle gang...when you see a 60 MINUTES news team waiting in your office...when you hit a hole-in-one in golf, and you're playing alone. A cowboy out west was in a heap of trouble. A wild bull was after him. Head down and nostrils snorting, the bull charged toward him. The cowboy dove into a convenient recess in the ground. As soon as ...

4160. Soli Deo Gloria

Mark 12:28-34

Sermon

Mark McGilvey Livonia

"SDG" -- Soli Deo Gloria, "to God alone be the glory." On each manuscript he completed, Johann Sebastian Bach wrote these three letters. When we imprint those three letters on everything we do, we are living as God would have us live. Soli Deo Gloriato -- God alone be the glory. A teacher of the law asked our Lord, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: `Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart ...

4161. A New Kind Of Faith

John 20:19-31

Sermon

King Duncan

Reverend Rick Lemburg, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Casa Grande, Arizona describes himself as "a Presbyterian by earthquake." He explains that his grandmother, a Baptist, moved the family from Iowa to California many years ago. A Presbyterian pastor visited her and invited her to come to the Presbyterian church. "I'm a Baptist," his grandmother said, "and it will take an act of God to get me to change." While they were chatting, an earthquake shook the home. Being from Iowa, she wasn't sure ...

4162. The Conversion Of A Scoundrel

Genesis 28:10-22

Sermon

King Duncan

After important negotiations with business leaders in his high-rise office building, John D. Rockefeller used to say goodbye to his visitors at the elevator. While the visitors filed into the elevator, an innocent looking man would slip in and ride with them to the ground floor. He would follow the group out the door and then cross the street. A few minutes later, the innocent looking man would go back to Rockefeller’s office to deliver a detailed report of what the unsuspecting visitors talked about ...

4163. Diamonds Falling From Your Lips

Matthew 23:1-39

Sermon

King Duncan

According to an old legend, there once lived a widow who had two daughters. The older daughter was so proud and disagreeable that no one liked to be around her. The younger daughter was just the opposite. She was cheerful and helpful and everyone liked her. One day the younger, pleasant daughter was at a fountain drawing water, when an old woman asked her for a drink. She readily gave the woman a drink. "You are truly kind and helpful, dear," the woman told the young girl, "so I have a gift to bestow on ...

4164. The Real Leap Of Faith

Mark 5:21-43

Sermon

King Duncan

Newspaper Columnist Mike Royko tells about a practical joke that was played on a man in Madison, Wisconsin. This man and three friends were enjoying a fishing trip at a secluded lake. They fished all day, had a few beers and played some poker. Every night they went to bed at about 10:00 and got up before dawn for more fishing. One of them, who we'll call Joe, was the first to his bunk one night. He was exhausted, and was snoring within a few minutes. Then one of his friends had an idea. He got Joe's ...

4165. Living With Pizzazz

Luke 16:1-15

Sermon

King Duncan

What a story! This is the strangest story Jesus ever told! At least it's the strangest one we have in the Bible! There are some other rather strange stories that appear in collections like the Gospel of Thomas. But they didn't make it into the Bible! Think about it! If we're reading this thing correctly, Jesus is telling us to imitate a crook! A downright scoundrel! He cheats on his employer. He lies to his business associates. And yet, says Jesus, here's somebody from whom we need to learn! How could he ...

4166. Building A Life

1 Peter 2:4-12

Sermon

King Duncan

In a park on the beautiful island of Bermuda there is a rock hanging on a rope with a large sign beside it. The sign reads: “Weather Station . . . Check the Rock . . . If it's wet, it's raining . . . If it's moving, it's windy . . . If you can't see it, it's foggy . . . If the rock is gone, it's a hurricane." Today we check the Rock . . . or better yet, to use the language of our text from I Peter, the Stone--the Cornerstone on which our lives are built. We read, “As you come to him, the living Stone-- ...

4167. It's A Terrible Thing To Be Rejected

Matthew 21:33-46

Sermon

King Duncan

One of the characteristics of many Eastern cultures is a deep sensitive people are to other people's feelings. For example, one publication, the Financial Times, carried this rejection notice, written to a writer by the overly polite editor of a Chinese economic journal: "We have read your manuscript with boundless delight. If we were to publish your paper," says the editor, "it would be impossible for us to publish any work of lower standard. And as it is unthinkable that in the next thousand years we ...

4168. The Grateful Samaritan

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

King Duncan

Everyone knows about the Good Samaritan. He is one of the best-known characters in history. We know he belonged to a despised people--Samaritans--people who did not keep the laws in the prescribed way and who had intermarried with foreigners. We know he was the surprise hero in Jesus' parable that bears his name. We know he was a generous and compassionate man who paid an innkeeper out of his own pocket for the upkeep of a stranger who had been stripped, robbed, beaten and left for dead beside the road to ...

4169. Temptation Island

Genesis 3:1-24

Sermon

King Duncan

Dr. David Jeremiah tells about a suburban neighborhood in which several residents were extremely upset at the reckless and fast driving that was occurring in their quiet subdivision. They organized a petition drive and demanded that the police patrol the area with greater frequency and penalize drivers who ignored the speed limits. The police obliged and immediately ticketed five drivers who ignored the speed limits. All of them were fuming at the fines they received. It seems, however, that all five of ...

4170. Believing Isn’t Easy

Hebrews 11:1-40

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

A fellow was on an airplane flight home one afternoon. He sat in the non-smoking section, as he always did. This day he was seated on the aisle of the plane. After the plane had taken off the man across from him took out one of those little short cigars that look like compressed leather. He lit up and started puffing noxious black smoke into the air. The first man leaned across the aisle and said, “I’m sorry, sir, but this is the non-smoking section. You can’t smoke here.” The smoker just ignored him, and ...

4171. Let the Son Shine In

John 1:1-18

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

I make no apology for the pun in the title of this sermon, for the author of the Fourth gospel delights in just such puns. Many of the words which he uses have double meanings, meanings which can only be understood fully against the background in which the words were originally spoken. That is what makes this Gospel so exciting. There are hidden depths of meaning which can be found beneath the surface John says specifically that Jesus spoke the words during the Jewish “Feast of Tabernacles” (7:2) in ...

4172. Who Counted the Fish?

John 21:1-14, John 21:15-25

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

The 20th chapter of the Fourth Gospel ends with the words, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:30-31) That sounds like the end of the story, doesn’t it? But then, chapter 21 comes along, and it is almost as if the whole thing starts all over again. Scholars have long been puzzled ...

4173. What Is Your Response toe the Resurrection?

Mark 16:1-20

Sermon

Eric Ritz

Were you as surprised as I was to see that Mark concludes his marvelous Gospel with these words, "and they said nothing to anyone--for they were afraid?" We know from personal experience that fear is not always a negative response, but to end a Gospel in this way almost seems out of place. However, it is not God''s response to the Resurrection that Mark is being honest about; it is the human response. The Resurrection was God''s response to human folly, but the human response to God was that of fear. As we ...

4174. The Power of Remembrance (Part III)

Philippians 1:1-11

Sermon

Eric Ritz

All Saints'' Day Message A few years ago, Dr. Fred Craddock went back to the little town in Tennessee where he grew up. His brother was ill, so he wanted to visit him. Late one Sunday afternoon, Craddock decided to drop by the small Disciples Church where he had worshipped as a child. He went in, saw a friend, and they walked around together. Dr. Craddock noticed the church had installed some new stained glass windows in the Sanctuary. He examined them carefully; they were beautiful. But he did not ...

4175. Christianity and Conflict: Dual Citizenship (Part VII)

Philippians 1:1-11

Sermon

Eric Ritz

I open with two powerful stories today demonstrating conflict. "Two main roads swept out of Jericho--one north, the other south. At the moment, Jesus was standing at the outskirts of the town. From St. Mark''s simple record, we gather that some big emotion seemed to grip and possess him...He looked this way and He looked that. His soul was plainly in a great torment. "Which of these two ways would he take?... "One road, sloping gently to the north, recalled to Jesus many gracious memories of his distant ...

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