Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 401 to 425 of 1182 results

1 Corinthians 9:1-27

Sermon

David E. Leininger

"Beatin' balls and beatin' balls." That title comes from our fair city's attention to golf this week with the presence of the PGA Tour here for the Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic. (It will always be the GGO to me though.) "Beatin' balls and beatin' balls." Whoever happens to win this afternoon will undoubtedly offer a phrase like that to anyone looking for advice about how to win at golf. Get out on the practice tee and spend hour upon hour upon ...

402. When All You've Ever Wanted Isn't Enough

Ecc 2:1-26

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... gain the whole world and leave a rich widow?" The Teacher had everything - Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous - all he could have ever wanted, but it was not enough. Meaningless, meaningless, life is meaningless. Is It? Is life worth living? One of the classics of world literature, the dramatic poem Faust, focuses on the question of life's meaning, it's enduring significance and satisfaction.(3) If you recall the story you remember that Dr. Faust, the hero, is a middle-aged scholar and scientist who has just ...

403. A Gospel for Losers

Jonah 3:1-10

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... everybody happy. There is always more to be done than ever gets done. This whole thing about being called to the ministry must be a horrible mistake. LOSER! Ever feel that way about what YOU do? Loser stories are all over the pages of history. The classic is that of Roy Riggles, a name that lives forever in sports infamy. On New Year's Day, 1929, Georgia Tech played UCLA in the Rose Bowl. In that game, Roy Riggles recovered a fumble for California. Somehow, he became confused and started running...65 yards ...

404. Hang in There!

Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... that I said something else. How about, "I didn't say..." (but I thought it). Or "I didn't say you..." I said Charlie was, and so on. Yes, conveying tone of voice is a problem. Perhaps we are getting closer to an answer. One more classic explanation to the puzzle of this text comes from Elton Trueblood in his book, The Humor of Christ.(4) He writes, "there is more widespread recognition of this encounter as humorous than of any other particular part of the gospel record. Thoughtful readers are more likely to ...

405. A Story Worth Sharing

Mark 8:27-30

Sermon

David E. Leininger

WATCH YOUR MOUTH! What a lesson. There is a classic story about a minister who comes to church one snowy Sunday morning to find that only one lady has been able to make it to worship. As it happens, the text and sermon for the day came from this third chapter of James and focused on the damage done by ...

406. "A Friend Indeed"

Mark 10:17-31

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... their own boats and fishing gear and purchase motors so that they can fish for themselves.(4) Just to name a few. That is happening because Presbyterians give. We have no choice. Faithfulness demands it. You who are old enough no doubt remember that classic Jack Benny skit that has a robber approaching the tightwad comedian and demanding at gunpoint, "Your money or your life." After a frozen pause, the mugger says, "Well?" Benny responds, "I'm thinking, I'm thinking." We know. We know. "A friend in need ...

407. Homecoming

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... loads up the loot, heads for greener pastures, squanders all he has, and ends up in a pig sty, not the place for a nice Jewish boy who is not allowed the pleasures of pork. He comes to his senses, realizes what an idiot he is, and maps out his classic confession: "Father, I've sinned against God, I've sinned against you; I don't deserve to be called your son. Take me on as a hired hand." Sounds a little contrived, like the kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar (or, in this case, the bank vault ...

408. About Kissing

2 Corinthians 13:11-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... , the offended woman made a particularly offensive gesture at her, and the fight was on. This was in church, mind you! People have always become upset with other people in church. Generations of high school students have been assigned to read Jonathan Edwards' classic sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." But Jonathan Edwards himself was a pastor in the hands of an angry congregation. He was finally pushed out after years of contention. No wonder church leaders in Utah were upset when their state ...

409. Mary's Song

Micah 5:1-4

Sermon

King Duncan

... lift up those who have fallen. Notice, first of all Mary's faith. Notice secondly her devotion to the Kingdom of God. NOTICE, FINALLY, HER UTTER CONFIDENCE THAT THE CHILD SHE CARRIES IS THE ANSWER TO HUMANITY'S NEED. In Edward Bellamy's nineteenth century classic, LOOKING BACKWARDS, the hero, Jeremy West, goes to sleep in 1887 and wakes up abruptly in the year 2000. He find himself in an advanced, high-tech society. But the most remarkable thing about this society isn't its technology, but its humanity; it ...

410. Broken Hydrants

Jeremiah 17:19-27

Sermon

King Duncan

... FAITH RARELY COMES TO SOLITARY CHRISTIANS. FAITH IS SOMETHING WE CATCH FROM OTHERS AND THAT WE SHARE WITH OTHERS. And without that sharing we cannot continue to thrive ” regardless of how vivid our experience of faith might be. Dale Evans Rogers, wife of Roy Rogers, is a classic example of the power of such sharing. At one point in her life Dale Evans was drowning in self-pity. "I had a `right' to feel self-pity," she says. Within the space of a year she lost her child Robin; her father died; and she came ...

411. Messies Anonymous

Philippians 3:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... it? Many of us are part of that number who have settled for the easy road, the broad gate. A researcher for a publishing company was interviewing a number of people to determine what kind of books they liked to read. The Bible, Shakespeare, and the classics were high on nearly everyone's list. In return for their cooperation, the researcher offered each person a choice of a free book from a list of titles published by the company. The most popular choice of this supposedly high-minded group was "Murder of a ...

412. My Younger Brother Gets Away With Everything

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

King Duncan

... no idea what caused his brother to leave home like he did, and he has no idea of the sincerity of his brother's repentance. He is in no place to pass judgement. And you and I know there are many elder brothers in this world. Remember Ann Richard's classic description of George Bush? "He was born on third base and thought he hit a triple." It may have been a bit unfair to describe President Bush like that, but it is certainly true of many of us. Not everybody had the kind of parents we had, not everybody had ...

413. Moving Toward Sainthood

Isaiah 26:1-21

Sermon

King Duncan

... many of us . . . regardless of our ages or power or wealth, can be saints for her child to meet." (7) Wow! He's right. Maybe that is the purpose for those last decades of life ” to be saints for some child to meet. It's like that classic story that Tony Campolo tells about a drunk who was miraculously converted at a Bowery mission. Prior to his conversion, Joe had gained the reputation of being a hopeless, dirty wino for whom there was no hope, only a miserable existence in the ghetto. But following his ...

414. Living With The Aches And Alleluias

Mark 13:32-37

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... life may be touched by strife and sorrow, you can have peace because Christ is your living hope. He is infinitely stronger than anything you are facing. With God's strength flowing through you, you can live to fight another day. There is a theme song from a classic Broadway play that says it all, "You gotta have heart You gotta have heart." This is the power you need to get your gears churning and working. You need the courage and the comfort that flows from the heart of God. This is the promise of Advent ...

415. Good News For Tough Times

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... we know enough about the darkness." (4) However, God in Christ does not run away from the darkness. God sets up residence right smack in the middle of the darkness. If you have light, then you are not scared or worried about the darkness. Bret Harte, in his classic short story "The Luck of Roaring Camp," tells of the birth of a baby on the American frontier a baby that made a radical change in a rough-and-tumble mining camp. The only woman in the camp, Cherokee Sal, a disreputable woman at best, died in ...

416. Blood Sprinkled On A Modern Altar

Exodus 24:3-8, Mark 14:12-16, 22-26, Hebrews 9:11-15

Sermon

King Duncan

... a stable of white-haired mothers, distraught wives and cherubic children available to represent the family of the accused. He once pointed out his own wife and child, who happened to be in the courtroom, as his client’s prospective widow and orphan. (3) Howe was the classic unethical attorney. Jesus is our advocate, our attorney, says the writer of I John. If anybody needs a good lawyer when standing before a holy God, it is you and I. But we don’t need a tricky lawyer. What we need is a lawyer who is ...

417. Long Range Planning

Ephesians 1:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... , THE ONLY BOOK (New York: Ballantine Books, 1994), pp. 70-71. 2. "Discovering God Through Stories," by Gretchen Passantino, CORNERSTONE, Vol. 24, issue 107, p. 20. 3. Bernice Kanner, ARE YOU NORMAL? (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995), p. 43. 4. CLASSIC ZIGGYS by Tom Wilson. Contributed by Dr. John Bardsley. 5. Henry Alford Porter, TOWARD THE SUN RISING, (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1947), p. 49. Cited in J. B. Fowler, Jr., ILLUSTRATING GREAT WORDS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1991 ...

418. The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread

John 6:25-59

Sermon

King Duncan

... sour milk or stale bread. Christ's bread is time-sensitive as well. Scholars tell us that when Jesus told us to pray in the Lord's Prayer for DAILY bread he used a word that is unique in all Greek literature. The word is not found in classical Greek, and no where else in New Testament Greek does it appear. Some people thought St. Matthew made up the word when he wrote his version of the Gospel . . . that is, until 1947, when they unearthed the Dead Sea Scrolls. Among all the shards of pottery, and scraps ...

419. The God Of Peace

Philippians 4:2-9

Sermon

King Duncan

... on earth didn't I say one hundred dollars?" She wasn't as contented as she thought she would be. Christmas is a time, for some people, in which the consciousness of discontent is at its peak. Some of you are familiar with John Bunyan's classic allegory, PILGRIM'S PROGRESS. There is a character in PILGRIM'S PROGRESS called Little Faith. On his way to the celestial city, Little Faith is attacked and robbed by three rogues, Faint Heart, Mistrust, and Guilt. When he recovers, he finds that while they took all ...

420. The Other Side Of Christmas

Luke 2:21-40

Sermon

King Duncan

... Mary when he spoke these words. What could he mean? "A sword will pierce through your own soul also." We know, don't we? Holman Hunt had a beautiful picture in the Guggenheim Museum in New York City called 'The Shadow of Death.' It is the only known work of classical art of Jesus laboring as an adult in the carpenter's shop. His father is absent so we presume he had died. In this painting, a day of work has ended and Jesus had just risen from his bench and stretches in relaxation. The shadow of his body and ...

421. His Nature Is Light

John 1:1-18

Sermon

King Duncan

... comic books. These particular comics were created by Carl Barks. From the early 1940s until his retirement in 1966, Barks produced some 400 comics about Donald Duck, his stingy billionaire Uncle Scrooge, and three frenetic nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie. In one classic series, the rich uncle's billions nearly have driven him crazy. Everybody is asking him for money, and Scrooge is gulping nerve medicine by the bottle. In an attempt to save his sanity, Scrooge parachutes with Donald and the nephews into a ...

422. Excited By Our Faith

John 1:35-42

Sermon

King Duncan

... are to be "superconductors" passing on His love, His joy, His peace with no resistance or loss. There was a large church in the downtown of a large city, a beautiful structure. It had 4 stories. It was neoGothic with flying buttresses, a classic large church building. It had a very dignified, educated pastor and a wonderful choir of professional quality. The church practiced what one pastor described as a sort of "osmosis evangelism." They expected Christ to sort of "ooze" out of their fellowship into the ...

423. The Real Tragedy Of The Tv Evangelists

Mark 6:7-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... children playing doctor. Now they worry if they're playing evangelist." It has been 60 years since Sinclair Lewis wrote his fiery indictment of the traveling evangelist. His spiritual predecessor of Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart was named Elmer Gantry. In this classic portrayal of the yearning of the spirit in battle with the weakness of the flesh, the flesh wins. Lewis saw in a clear and unforgiving way, the potential for abuse that the role of the modern evangelist entails. Fortunately, most people don ...

424. The Placebo Effect

John 1:1-18

Sermon

King Duncan

... it time to move beyond the placebos and meet the Person--the only Person who can truly heal you and make you whole? His Lordship, His Leadership, His Love can be yours. Why settle for anything less? 1. TIME, March 24, 1975 2. A.C. Dixon, "A Growing Faith," in CLASSIC SERMONS ON FAITH AND DOUBT, Warren W. Wiersbe, ed. (Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 1985).

425. Waiting On God

Mark 13:32-37

Sermon

King Duncan

... humility to accept. Since humility is not one of our strengths, we work ourselves into a frenzy over things that only time can remedy. We could all learn from Winnie the Pooh. Benjamin Hoff has an interesting analysis of Milne's classic story for children. Compared to his friends, Pooh remains unfrazzled, down to earth, calm, and above all, patient. Owl constantly pontificates, showing off his wisdom, but never solves problems or makes things work. Rabbit is an impetuous activist, always calculating and ...

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