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Showing 4451 to 4475 of 4914 results

4451. Lent 4

Joshua 5:9-12, Psalm 32:1-11, Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32, 2 Corinthians 5:16-21

Bulletin Aid

Julia Ross Strope

Call To Worship Leader: It’s Sunday again! We’re here in this sanctuary together! God, the Great Mystery is here, in and around us. People: We revel in the signs of spring, knowing that God is still creating! We delight in this place of beauty and in the company of friends. Leader: This day, like all days, is holy. People: We praise God for freedoms, for pardon, and for hope that tomorrow is in God’s hands and that we are being guided through time to eternity with Divinity. Leader: The scriptures say that ...

4452. Someone Bigger than Phil

Hebrews 4:14-5:10

Sermon

King Duncan

Several years ago, Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks did a comedy skit called the “2013 Year Old Man.” In the skit, Reiner interviews Brooks, who is the old gentleman. At one point, Reiner asks the old man, “Did you always believe in the Lord?” Brooks replied: “No. We had a guy in our village named Phil, and for a time we worshiped him.” Reiner was surprised: “You worshiped a guy named Phil? Why?” Brooks replied: “Because he was big, and mean, and he could break you in two with his bare hands!” Reiner asked: “Did ...

4453. The Great Sacrifice of Love

Luke 9:18-27, 1 Corinthians 15:1-11

Sermon

Richard Gribble

In the fifteenth century, a rural village in Germany was home to a family with eighteen children. The family was poor, but despite the difficulty of making ends meet, two brothers in the family still held a dream, namely to pursue their talent as artists. With the financial situation bleak the two boys came up with their own solution to the problem. They agreed to toss a coin with the loser going to the local mines to work so he could support the other while he attended art school. When the first was ...

4454. Christ: The Victor over Death

1 Corinthians 15:51-58

Sermon

Richard Gribble

In many ways, Nicholas Green was an ordinary seven-year-old boy, but he became a source of life for seven people and a beacon of inspiration for the world. Nicholas was born on New Year's Eve 1986, a new bundle of joy to greet the New Year. Along with his baby sister, Eleanor, and his parents, he enjoyed life and all the fun associated with being a child. With the help of his mother, Maggie, he read all seven books of C. S. Lewis' epic The Chronicles of Narnia. He loved to role play and considered himself ...

4455. Worthy of Your Call

2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12

Sermon

Scott Suskovic

Worthy of your call. That is Paul's prayer for the Thessalonians; that they would be worthy of God's call (1:11). It is one thing to have low expectations, something that would take little effort to achieve. But in chapter 1 of 2 Thessalonians, we have a sense that God has larger aspirations for these young Christians — and so does Paul. You have a sense that through all the persecution and affliction that they have suffered (1:4), Paul envisions a God-sized dream for them. What are your God-sized dreams? ...

4456. Prayer-Conditioning Your Life

Luke 2:29-32

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Today is a national day of prayer. Okay, not “officially.” Not sanctioned by any denomination or government decree. But there will still be more prayers hurtled heavenward today than on any other given Sunday. Yes, it is Superbowl Sunday — and there are prayers going up for that favorite team by player, family members, coaches, investment brokers, and, of course, fans, all over this country. And, like the pizza-hawker “Papa John’s,” who promised a free pizza to anyone who correctly calls the “head or tails ...

4457. Wake Up Call

Romans 13:8-14

Sermon

Timothy J. Smith

Advent always seems out of place with everything else that is going on around us. While people are rushing toward Christmas in a shopping frenzy our observance is markedly different. Sometimes we get so lost in the sentiment and traditions of Christmas that we have difficulty connecting with the themes of Advent. Advent is about waiting expectantly while longing for God to act. However, we must admit that we grow impatient and demand immediate satisfaction. The first Sunday of Advent finds us not dreaming ...

4458. Be Shrewd

Luke 16:1-15

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Have you heard of the carnival barker who kept yelling “Alive! Alive! Here! Here! Did you ever see a two-headed baby? Come in! Come in!” The gaff is that they don’t have a two-headed baby inside the tent. They only asked if you ever saw one. This is the kind of shrewdness being celebrated in today’s Scripture reading. Carlos Fuentes (1928-2012), the Mexican novelist and playwright whom some called “the soul of Mexico,” gave a long interview about his writing shortly after he turned 50 and began to ...

4459. He's Back

John 20:19-23

Sermon

David O. Bales

Most Christians know about the Holy Spirit’s power granted one morning in Jerusalem seven weeks after Jesus’ resurrection. It occurred on the Jewish Festival of Passover recorded in Acts 2. Many Christians don’t know what John 20 reports. This text is about Jesus’ giving the Holy Spirit before the exciting spiritual event at the Passover Festival. Seven weeks before Pentecost we’re with Jesus late on the day of his resurrection. Jesus’ resurrection has announced that he’s back for good. His students ...

4460. The Story of Christmas

John 1:1-18

Sermon

King Duncan

The story of Christmas begins, not with the manger of Bethlehem, but many thousands, perhaps millions of years before, in the mind and heart of God. “I’m lonely,” James Weldon Johnson has God say in his play, God’s Trombones. “I think I’ll make me a world.” That’s exactly what God did. God made a world . . . a beautiful garden world with birds singing and flowers blooming, mountain streams flowing and mighty oceans glistening under a bright golden sun. In the midst of that garden, God placed a man and a ...

4461. Suffered under (Saint) Pontius Pilate

John 18:28-40

Sermon

David O. Bales

Christians Sunday by Sunday announce our collective memory of Pontius Pilate: “Suffered under Pontius Pilate.” By repeating this creed regularly, we agree with church tradition and we don’t wonder further about Pilate. We certainly have no sympathy for him. Pilate’s Jewish contemporaries had nothing good to say about him. Christians, especially on Good Friday, don’t let anyone forget our opinion of him. However, some early church traditions decided that Pilate was a believer and two churches still, ...

4462. Syncing with the Spirit

Matthew 24:36-51

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

It is officially “count-down” time. The moment the red cranberry sauce is wiped off our chins and cleaned off the tablecloth, Black Friday starts. And on Black Friday comes the count-down of the diminishing days until Christmas. That tick-tock of passing time is supposed to induce us into a buying panic and jump-start our frenzied consumerism. It pretty much works. But the church has its own “countdown to Christmas.” It is called “The Season of Advent.” Instead of being a time of consumer manic panic, ...

4463. Family Re:Union - Inverting the Pyramid

Deuteronomy 6:1-25

Sermon

James Merritt

There is an old saying that you if you keep telling a lie long enough that people begin to believe it is the truth. You may have heard of an interesting television show called “Myth Busters.” They do some of the most interesting and sometimes stupid stuff just to prove that certain myths are untrue. I came across some very popular myths, some in which I used to believe, but they simply are not true. Myth #1: Elephants are the only mammals that can’t jump. It is true that elephants can’t jump, but neither ...

4464. How Does Your Garden Grow?

Matthew 13:31-35

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

By the end of July the bounty of a backyard summer garden finally starts to really produce. The earlier, “lighter” crops — peas, lettuces, baby carrots — give way to the rich ripe produce of high summer. Tomatoes, cucumbers, cherries, blueberries, raspberries, corn on the cob, string beans, radishes, spinach — all the stuff that makes for great “sides” at every summer barbecue. Backyard farmers revel in their “crops” because every vegetable is grown with TLC. Yet with the cost of plants, containers, ...

4465. Ignite: Fire and Water

Acts 10:23b-48

Sermon

James Merritt

You have fired up the grill, got some big juicy steaks on there, you are just about ready to take them off, some grease from the fat falls on those hot coals, flames spit up and catches your finger on fire. Sitting right next to the grill is a glass of ice cold water that you have been drinking on a hot summer day. So, finger on fire, glass of ice-cold water – what do you do with your finger? Exactly! You would immerse it into that water! Normally, water extinguishes fire, but in this case baptismal water ...

4466. The Runner

Romans 9:30--10:21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Your most beloved things are not always your most perfect things. And your most beloved relationships are not always your most perfect relationships. Remember your “blankie?” Come on now, you all had one. And it was in perfect shape, right? It was the rattiest, most stained, most beat up thing anyone has ever seen. But the condition it was in mattered not a wit at nap time, or bedtime, or cry time. Or what about that stuffed animal? Come on, now. You all had one. And it was in perfect shape, right? No ...

4467. Seventy-Seven

Matthew 18:21-35

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Most adults recognize it is their “job” to teach children right from wrong, good from bad, safe from scary, yes from no. But there are some lessons that children are better at teaching us. Think about celebrations like birthdays (especially Christmas), and Easter, and any other special days that have the possibility of “presents” attached. Kids LOVE them, anticipate and adore them. Children love and accept presents with unabashed enthusiasm. Receiving a gift is “all good.” For adults it is a bit more ...

4468. An Announcement in Song

Psalm 98:1-9

Sermon

King Duncan

In preparation for this message, I reflected on things I would miss as the Christmas season nears its close. One thing I will not miss, of course, is the crass materialism the desperate urge to buy just the right gift. It’s hard on both the soul and the wallet. I heard about a man who received his Visa bill from last Christmas. There was a note attached: “This bill is now 1 year old!” He sent it back with a note: “Happy Birthday, Bill!” Some families will spend the greater part of this year paying off last ...

4469. Humvee Holiness and Humble Holiness

Matthew 23:1-39

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Halloween is the ultimate holiday of “pretending.” On Halloween we dress up and “pretend” to be someone or something other than ourselves. On Halloween we “pretend” to believe that the people jumping out at us and scaring us in the “haunted houses” we paid $25 to get into are monsters and zombies. On Halloween we happily “pretend” that the scariest stuff in life are those things that “go bump in the night.” On Halloween we revel in “pretend” bumps instead of bumping into the terrifying realities of evil ...

4470. Still Surprised After Christmas

Luke 2:21-40

Sermon

David J. Kalas

The Christmas story is so familiar to us and to our people that we may no longer see it clearly. Specifically, I wonder if we can fathom how full of surprises was that event — and the days preceding it — for Joseph and Mary. Between the two Christmas accounts (both Matthew and Luke offer versions of the story), we see both Joseph and Mary having angelic visitations and communications. Likewise, the shepherds outside of Bethlehem and Zechariah in the temple were visited by angels. Assuming such appearances ...

4471. Traveling Tables

1 Corinthians 6:12-20

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

On average, you and I gained six pounds between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. That is just the “average.” Some of us gained a lot more. No wonder the past few weeks every other commercial on TV or banner-ad online is about some kind of weight loss program. We are a nation collectively cringing about our six weeks of binging and feasting. I bring you good tidings of great joy: don’t feel guilty about it. Here’s an “indulgence” for your indulging. Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s we have more face to face ...

4472. The Condemning Heart

John 3:1-21

Sermon

King Duncan

A young woman posted some soul searching thoughts on Facebook recently. Her post was in response to another Facebook post about a teenage boy in Jamaica who was beaten by his classmates. The reason he was beaten is because his father visited his son’s school and informed the boy’s peers that his son is gay. The young man’s father had already informed this young man that he was not welcome back at home because he could not tolerate his sexuality. The father said the boy should be dead but because he is his ...

4473. Is the Doctor in Today?

Mark 5:21-43

Sermon

King Duncan

Our lesson for today is about two people who came to Jesus for help with a medical problem. Nothing surprising about that. Even today, we are dependent on doctors for help with our medical problems. Maybe that’s why it’s so much fun to tell jokes at the expense of the medical profession. Says one comedian: “My doctor told me he’d have me on my feet within two weeks. He was right. I had to sell my car to pay his bill.” “My left arm hurt me,” said a senior citizen, “and so did my right foot, my neck and my ...

4474. God's Adopted Children

Ephesians 1:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

Welcome on this first Sunday of a New Year. Some of you have probably been working on your New Year’s resolutions. On the other hand, it’s been three days. Some of you have probably already given up on your New Year’s resolutions. One poor guy I heard about tried praying about his resolutions. He got down beside his bed one night, closed his eyes and offered this earnest prayer: “Lord, in 2016, my prayer for the New Year is a fat bank account and a thin body. Please don’t mix these up like you did last ...

4475. Saul in Damascus and Jerusalem

Acts 9:19b-31

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

Here we see how seriously Paul took his new vocation as a man “saved to serve.” But the pattern for the Twelve had been first to be with Jesus then to be sent out (Mark 3:14), and Paul soon found the need to be alone for a while with the Lord (cf. Mark 6:31). His own writings add a number of details to Luke’s narrative at this point. 9:19b–22 As the bearer of the Sanhedrin’s commission, Paul would have been expected to preach in the synagogues of Damascus, and so he did, using them as he would the ...

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