Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 426 to 450 of 1182 results

1 Corinthians 2:9

Sermon

King Duncan

... friend, “do you dread crossing the river of death?” The old bishop smiled weakly and said with conviction, “My father owns the land on both sides of the river. Why should I be afraid?” I cannot think about Heaven without thinking of Mark Twain’s classic remark. Twain said that the only reason he wanted to go to Heaven was because of the climate. Most of his friends, he said, would be in the other place. Twain was somewhat of a cynic. I much prefer a beautiful and heartwarming affirmation of the ...

427. Marriage: Agony Or Ecstasy

Matthew 5:31-32

Sermon

King Duncan

In a newspaper cartoon recently a woman with folded arms and a superior expression on her face says to her husband, "A good husband needs to be strong, caring and sensitive. You have all but three of those qualities." Then there is that classic story of the woman who hired a medium to bring back the spirit of her dead husband. When he appeared in a ghostly form, she asked, "Honey, is it really better up there?" Without hesitation he answered, "Oh, yes, it is much better. But I'm not up there!" Some ...

428. Welcome To The Mountain. Now Go Home

Exodus 24:1-18

Sermon

King Duncan

... they possess the real thing. They think they know what it is to follow Jesus. It might be better if they had never ascended the mountain if they have substituted a momentary experience for a lifetime of discipleship. The mountaintop is not enough. There is a classic story about Dr. Albert Einstein. Einstein received many requests for help. The most unusual came from a distraught mother. She wrote: Dear Mr. Einstein: My son thinks he is Jesus. I write to ask if you will talk to him. For no one else will he ...

429. Wrestling With God

Genesis 32:22-32

Sermon

King Duncan

... grasping his brother Esau's ankle seeking to be the first born because the first born received a greater portion of the inheritance. That is how he got his name, "Jacob," which means one who strives. You know the story. Jacob was caught in a classic scene of conflict between his parents, Isaac and Rebekah. Isaac was not the towering figure in the Scriptures that his father had been. He was a very mediocre man. Probably he did not command the respect of Rebekah, his wife. The tension between them manifested ...

430. Who Is He?

Matthew 16:13-20

Sermon

King Duncan

... cross. The cross is our sign that we have been set free from the dominion of sin. We can walk in dignity as children of the Father not because of anything that we have done but because of what Christ has done in our behalf. In John Bunyan's classic work, Pilgrim's Progrss, Christian has been making his way to the Celestial City with a huge load strapped to his back. The load is exhausting, crushing, almost devastating. It is the weight of his own sins. He carries that weight until he comes to the foot of ...

431. I Don't Have Time For A Banquet

Matthew 22:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... THE MANAGEMENT OF TIME SAY THERE IS ONLY ONE WAY TO DEAL WITH SUCH PRESSURES AND THAT IS TO ESTABLISH SOME PRIORITIES. Otherwise the important things in life are crowded out by the urgent things. It was said of Brother Lawrence, author of the medieval classic, THE PRACTICE OF THE PRESENCE OF GOD, that although he never hurried and never worked quickly, he did twice as much work as anyone else because he always did exactly what needed to be done. Victor Frankl, another spiritual giant, has written: "Unless a ...

432. Save The Tokens For Uncle Sam

Matthew 22:15-22

Sermon

King Duncan

... siding with Jewish sentiment? He did neither. "Whose likeness and inscription is this on the coin?" he asked. "Caesar's," they answered. "Render, then," he said, "to Caesar the things that are Caesar's and render unto God the things that are God's." A classic answer. An irrefutable answer. I want to use Jesus' answer to stimulate our thinking on a very important question: WHAT ARE THOSE THINGS THAT BELONG TO GOD? We know what belongs to Caesara portion of every dollar we earn. What is there that belongs to ...

433. Designer Religion

Matthew 23:1-39

Sermon

King Duncan

... only wish that leaders of all the nations of the world could have such a level-headed approach to their responsibilities. Pride can be a deadly emotion. Of course, it is not the sole possession of those at the top of society. During the classical period of Greek mythology, a terrible thing happened in one of their temples. One night the statue of Zeus was mysteriously smashed and desecrated. A tremendous uproar arose among the inhabitants of the country. They feared the vengeance of the gods. A town crier ...

434. In Praise Of Doers

Matthew 25:14-30

Sermon

King Duncan

... House, which sold $33 million worth of books last year. He's succeeded with a lot of hard work and a commitment to get Bibles into the homes of America. Earl began a new career when most are preparing for retirement. He wasn't ready to buy into that classic American line, "I've done my time, I owe myself some easy livin'." And he's going strong nearly thirty years later. (1) I believe Jesus loves the Earl Fitz' of this world. That is the lesson of the parable of the talents. The man with five talents used ...

435. The Day God Repented

Jonah 3:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... and she replied, "I ain't been doing nothing and I am goin' to quit that too." (4) Repentance might mean getting rid of some bad habits. Certainly it would be in our best interest to do so. It is interesting that John Mahaffey, who won the Bob Hope Desert Classic in January, 1984, decided three years earlier to get rid of some of his bad habits in order to be a better golfer. He says that he quit drinking, smoking, and carousing and at thirty-five years of age began to feel better than he did at twenty-five ...

436. True Love

John 3:1-21

Sermon

King Duncan

... God so loved the world. But there's more. GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON... To love as God loves is to give wonderfully, extravagantly, without holding anything back. Who can ever forget that cynical hero of the classic motion picture, CASABLANCA, played by Humphrey Bogart, named Rick? Rick is suspicious and self-protecting. He has learned to survive by looking out only for himself. He is a stranger to tender feelings and generous gestures. When a desperate man is arrested by the ...

437. Rise Above It

Hebrews 4:14-5:10

Sermon

King Duncan

... , she managed to do it while bed-ridden herself. Pasteur was semi-paralyzed, but still attacked others' diseases. American historian, Francis Parkman, suffered so terribly that he could work no more than five minutes at a time. Yet he managed to turn out twenty classic volumes of history. These men and women broke their trial. Others let it break them." (6) Pain is inevitable in life. Some pain is essential. Some pain can even be beneficial. Here's the good news for the day, however. WHETHER OUR PAIN IS ...

438. Blessed Are The Believers

John 20:24-31

Sermon

King Duncan

... Kramer with Dick Schaap, DISTANT REPLAY, (New York: G.P.Putnams Sons, 1985). 2. Milo O. Frank, HOW TO GET YOUR POINT ACROSS IN 30 SECONDS OR LESS, (New York: Pocket Books, 1986). 3. Pope John Paul II, SIGN OF CONTRADICTION, (New York: The SeaburyPress, 1979). 4. Warren W. Wiersbe, CLASSIC SERMONS ON SUFFERING, (Michigan: Kregel Publications, 1984).

439. The Joyful Mystery of the Trinity

Romans 5:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... wasted power in the world is the Holy Spirit in the lives of the people of God!" Gordon was right. It is the Spirit that empowers us. But it is also the Spirit that gives us help and comfort in our hour of need. In Victor Hugo's great classic Les Miserables, there is a dramatic moment when a little girl named Cosettean orphan girl-is struggling alone in the darkness under a crushing burden. Jean Valjeana man who has served 19 years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his sister's hungry children ...

440. You Are Not Yourself!

Colossians 3:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... ourselves with all our warts, our blemishes, our failures. That is not how God sees us. Because we ask Him for forgiveness, He blots out all out past failures. Then He sees us as we can yet be-without the curse of our many imperfections. Do you remember the classic fairy tale RAPUNZEL? It is the story of a young girl, imprisoned in a tower with an old witch. The young girl is in fact very beautiful, but the old witch insistently tells her that she is ugly. This was the witch’s way of keeping the girl in ...

441. Lost In America

Luke 15:8-10, Luke 15:1-7

Sermon

King Duncan

... thing we need to see. There are millions of people who are hurting, who are almost beyond hope, for they have no hope, who are wandering frightened and alone like a little lost lamb in a terrible wilderness. Playwright Arthur Miller years ago gave us a classic portrait of what it means to be lost. The play was DEATH OF A SALESMAN. The tragic central character was Willie Loman, the man who searched all his life but "never knew who he was." We see his family being poisoned by Willie’s inclination toward ...

442. Persistence In Prayer

Luke 18:1-8

Sermon

King Duncan

... position and his sight as well. His body was tortured with illness, and many of his friends forsook him. There were many nights and days when he cried aloud to God for mercy. However, it was during this time that he produced his immortal classic Paradise Lost--which was must reading for students of the English language for over 300 years. The equally influential writer John Bunyan would have prayed for deliverance from prison, but it was during that confinement that he produced Pilgrim’s Progress--a work ...

443. Why Jesus Likes Sinners

Luke 18:9-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... he's nothing." One of the chief reasons that the medieval church put pride at the top of the list of the Seven Deadly Sins is that pride causes us to look down on others. Particularly is this a temptation for deeply devout people. In Frank Laubach's classic, Channels of Spiritual Power, he says one of the problems people have as they seek to follow Christ is that, "The closer they draw to God, the more clearly they see the weaknesses of human nature. And the great temptation of one who is trying to be a ...

444. Thankful For The Right Things

Colossians 1:11-20

Sermon

King Duncan

(A Dynamic Preaching Classic Sermon) If each of us were to make a list of all the things for which we are thankful, each list would be unique—and many would be quite extensive. However, most of us are mature enough in our faith to recognize that Thanksgiving can be a most dangerous holiday. ...

445. Whatever Became of Sin?

Romans 6:23

Sermon

Lowell D. Streiker

... incompetence, dishonesty, and inferiority: I will tolerate your incompetence, dishonesty, and inferiority in hopes that you will tolerate mine. Dodging Responsibility Sin is dodging responsibility. "Why did you disobey my instructions?" God asked Adam in the Garden of Eden. Adam's response, a classic of shifting the blame, was: "The women you gave me ” she told me to." I learned a long time ago that I would never know for sure whether what I believed was true or false. So I would have to decide for myself ...

446. A Long Line Of Love

Ruth 1:1-22

Sermon

King Duncan

... her!" (2) That's love, isn't it? It's not, "I love you for what you can do for me." Or "I'll love you as long as it is convenient." No. It's, "I'll love you no matter what. I'll always be there." In the classic Russian novel CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, a young student murders two people for their money. He rationalizes his crime by telling himself, first, that Napoleon killed thousands and became a hero; second, that his victims were unimportant people; and third, that he would use the money to further his career ...

447. Flies On The Ceiling Of The Sistine Chapel

Luke 9:28-36

Sermon

King Duncan

... Mount of Transfiguration was no ordinary mountaintop experience. It was not simply a matter of Peter, James and John being moved by the beauty of creation as we sometimes are on a church retreat. Oh, we cherish such experiences to be sure. In the German classic, FAUST, the writer Goethe describes a pact that Dr. Faust makes with the devil. The pact allows Faust to satisfy his every human want and desire except one. Never, never under any circumstances, is he ever to stop and say to the passing moment, "Wait ...

448. I Am Doing A New Thing

Isaiah 43:14-28

Sermon

King Duncan

... and pipes were plugged with two feet of soot and leaves. The blockage was causing odorless, poisonous carbon monoxide fumes generated from burning natural gas to back up into the house. For the past two years Book, who lives alone, has been sick with classic flu-like symptoms, including chills, nausea, shakes and headaches. These are also the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning. He would black out and couldn't remember doing such things as visiting a friend. "I'd come to when I got in the fresh air ...

449. Freedom's Year

Galatians 3:26--4:7

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... something exact about it all, something controlled and safe. And the freedom of Christianity terrified these folks. It gave them a sense of being lost, like standing at the edge of Niagara Falls with no fences and railings. Dostoyevsky put it so powerfully in his classic novel The Brothers Karamazov. He pictures a scene in which Jesus returns to earth. It's the 15th century, and Jesus comes to Spain. Spain is ruled by the church. Spain is held in the sway of the Inquisition, the greatest heresy hunt of all ...

450. A New Vantage Point

Colossians 3:1-17

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... . (vs. 12) Put off the old man, the man of little perspectives and selfish motives. And put on the new man, the self that knows that Christ rules this world, the self that is transformed by his love. When Henry David Thoreau wrote his classic wilderness book, WALDEN (1854), he told of a powerful custom among the Mucclasse Indians. Once a year they had a village-cleanup called a "busk." First, they would make new clothes for themselves, and new furniture, and pots and pans, and all the other necessities ...

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