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Showing 426 to 450 of 4977 results

426. Greed or the Gospel?

Acts 8:9-13, 18-24

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... plane had gone down?" The President replied, “You, Pierre, would have been on all the front pages, but in very small print." Actor Ben Stein used to write a gossip column about the rich and famous entitled Monday Night at Morton's. Then in December 2003 he quit. In his final column, this is what he said, “Real stars are not riding around in the backs of limousines, or getting trained in yoga, or eating raw fruit while they have Vietnamese girls do their nails. A real star, the kind who haunts my memory ...

427. and Forgiveness Come Easy When You’re Filled with The Spirit

John 20:19-23

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... in Dessau, Germany on our gospel lesson for today. He noted that only God himself has the power to forgive sins. That's good news, the Reformer claimed, because now we can be certain of our forgiveness. You can be certain of God's forgiveness, even if you are not quite sure that the one who says you're forgiven really meant it, because God gave it.7 Get the point? When somebody says he or she forgave you, believe it! It's not theirs to give. The words of forgiveness are God's, even if the human speaker had ...

428. Putting the Genie Back in the Bottle…

Genesis 2:15-17, Genesis 3:1-7

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

... Part of the beauty of the stories of my children come, not because of the acts themselves, but because they were utterly clueless that these things — done by an adult — would have been quite unacceptable. Can you imagine what it would be like to be pure and innocent? It reminds me of the first time I traveled to another country. I was, quite literally, a babe in the woods. I had no idea about the realities of the culture, and only the barest grasp of the language. I was, for all intents and purposes, an ...

429. God’s Doing

Philippians 1:21-30

Sermon

Larry Lange

... Don was still exhausted from badgering Badger Builders and Badger Home Health Care and still angry about not being able to ski or scuba and loiter on the beaches in Aruba. And, he was deeply ashamed that he kept wishing it were all over for both of them. Don was quite sure God didn't want anything at all to do with an evil character like himself. It was nice to be forgiven every Sunday, but what good did it do when such a monster still lurked in his heart? One Saturday night, Donna told him that they had to ...

430. How Is John Quincy Adams?

2 Tim. 4:6-8; 2 Cor. 4:7-9

Illustration

Brett Blair

... friend asked him "How is John Quincy Adams today?" The former president replied graciously, "Thank you, John Quincy Adams is well, sir, quite well, I thank you. But the house in which he lives at present is becoming dilapidated. It is tottering upon the foundations ... almost uninhabitable, and I think John Quincy Adams will have to move out of it soon; but he himself is quite well, sir, quite well." That is the attitude we need to cultivate so that when the call home comes we may say with Paul: "I have fought ...

431. Living for Christ in Daily Life

Matthew 10:1-42

Illustration

James Kegel

... children were about to enter college and his life seemed fine. Then he quit his job. Chan didn't have another job to go to and it took him a long time to find another one. When he was asked why he quit he simply said it was because of his Christian faith. His direct ... and hound some employees they wanted fired. The goal was to make life so miserable for these workers that they would quit the organization and then the company would not have to pay unemployment. Chan refused. As a Christian, he refused to do ...

432. God’s Most Troubling Promise

Romans 8:28

Sermon

King Duncan

... the doctor’s office. The loss of a job or the breakup of a family. Some of the challenges we encounter can be handled quite easily; others, though, threaten to crush us. And then we come to this verse, Romans 8:28, “And we know that in all things ... . We live in a lawful universe. Most of the time, those laws work to our benefit. But every once in a while those laws can be quite cruel. One thing they cannot do, however, is separate us from God’s love. If we love God as God loves us, God has promised us ...

433. Time’s A-Wasting

Mark 1:14-20

Sermon

Robert J. Elder

... see with sudden and crystal clarity that we have had it wrong, that what we thought was priority number 1 was really only number two, or maybe even number five or number fifty. Have you ever had your life re-prioritized like that, suddenly, irreversibly, quite apart from any control you might have previously thought you had over events? I have a vision about that sort of urgency in scripture, especially in the readings for today. Sometimes we may tend to think of Jesus as one who sauntered around offering ...

434. The Missing Piece

Titus 2:11-14

Sermon

Scott Suskovic

... servant. To live, you must die. What greater twist, what greater turn to the gospel to have the King of kings and Lord of lords born in a barn? But when I tried to fill that hole with this piece, the lines didn't quite line up. The colors didn't quite blend. It was close. But not quite. Sometimes when you are working on a jigsaw puzzle, you need to step back, get a different perspective, turn the piece ever so slightly and then try it again. No room in the inn. Can you imagine that night? It's eighty miles ...

435. How Big of a Risk Would You Take?

Matthew 25:14-30

Sermon

King Duncan

... kind of return. We need to find out who his financial advisor was. So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. But the man who had received one bag, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money . . . in the ground! This was quite a common practice, by the way, in that part of the world for people who did not trust banks. Remember the man in another of Jesus’ parables who is digging in a field and finds a treasure buried there. This may well have been some person’s life savings that ...

436. Breaking Loose

Romans 8:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... she had only known, she could have been free to be who she was created to be. (4) That is sad. But it doesn’t just happen to golden retrievers. It happens to Homo Sapiens as well. How many painful experiences can a person have before they just quit trying? How many rejections? How many failures? Many people today without jobs are learning how cruel the world can be to you if you don’t have the right connections, don’t have an income, don’t have a way of making your mortgage payment or providing for ...

437. Be a Night Light

James 1:1-18

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... is much darkness and much noise and much distraction upon the earth. Only a few who are quiet and humble and wise hear His Voice. But watch, for in a moment you will see something truly wonderful." The Earth went on turning and circling round the sun, and then quite suddenly, in the upper half of the globe, there appeared a light, tiny but so bright in its intensity that both the angels hid their eyes. "I think I can guess," said the little angel in a low voice. "That was the Visit, wasn't it?" "Yes, that ...

438. The Truth about Warren Buffet's Secretary

Mark 12:41-44

Sermon

King Duncan

... gave more than her wealthy boss, that the man who rode around in an expensive automobile gave less than the widow who was sending her son through college on a pension. (1) Now, in the words of an old joke, some of you are thinking, “Oh, no, he’s quit preaching and gone to meddling.” But that’s what today’s text requires of me. Jesus and his disciples were in the temple courts where Jesus was teaching. They were in an area near the treasury. Scholars tells us that the Temple complex was made up of ...

439. Obedience: Our Gift to Jesus

Hebrews 10:5-10

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... told Matthew he was going to have to spank him. He brought him into the study, put him over his knee, and spanked him quite soundly. While he did not want to hurt his son, he did want to teach him a significant lesson. After this session he sat down ... stepped out of the room and closed the door behind him. He himself began to cry and to do so in a manner that was quite obvious to his son behind the door. After a few minutes he regained his composure, went to the bathroom, washed his face, and then returned ...

440. At Points of Dispair

1 Kings 19:1-4 (5-7) 8-15a

Sermon

Stephen P. McCutchan

... tilting against windmills. We want to say with Elijah, I have tried to be faithful but it isn't doing any good. I want to retire to Arizona and play in the sun. I want to quit working in the church and let someone else do it. I'm frustrated with church conflict, so I'm going to quit going to worship. Then, if you are lucky, like Elijah, you feel a tap on your shoulder. You can imagine Elijah saying, "Go away, don't you see I'm trying to sleep? I don't care if I ever wake up ...

441. When God Calls

Jeremiah 1:4-10

Sermon

Chrysanne Timm

... his mouth for him. The prevenient nature of God's grace is one of the things that makes God's grace so amazing. Then I said, "Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy." - Jeremiah 1:6 God also is quite persistent when it comes to calling Jeremiah to ministry. When God calls Jeremiah, there is none of the "Here I am, Lord; send me!" enthusiasm that Isaiah expresses in response to his call. In fact, Jeremiah's response mirrors those of the great prophet/leader Moses and the prophet ...

442. When We Are Tempted

Luke 4:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... lost. Temptation is one inescapable fact of life upon this earth. And it is no joking matter. Peter Gomes, popular author and one-time pastor at Harvard’s Memorial Church, once stated that “temptation is the single greatest source of human anxiety.” That is quite a dramatic statement. He further stated that in the thousands of people with whom he had counseled over the years of his ministry, he had found the problem of temptation to be at the heart of their personal anxiety. (3) Think about it for a ...

443. The Lamb

Revelation 7:9-17

Sermon

Argile Smith

... the birth of the church, but his brother, John, lived much longer. Some scholars speculate that he may have been around ninety years old or so when he died. He had a long life all right, but no one would say that he had an easy life. Quite the contrary, he had a tough life. He had the privilege of spending many of his years doing hard labor on the island of Patmos, apparently because he worshiped Jesus Christ instead of Caesar. Fortunately for us, that’s when the Lord showed him what the future would ...

444. Distracted by Disappointment

Luke 24:13-35

Sermon

King Duncan

... to see in this city?” asked Barth. “Yes,” he said, “I’d love to meet the famous theologian Karl Barth. Do you know him?” Barth replied, “Well as a matter of fact, I do. I give him a shave every morning.” The tourist got off the streetcar quite delighted. He went back to his hotel saying to himself, “I met Karl Barth’s barber today.” (1) That amuses me. That tourist was in the presence of the very person he most wanted to meet, but even with the most obvious clue, he never realized that ...

445. Lost Baggage: Empty Your Suitcase

Matthew 18:10-14

Sermon

James Merritt

... a problem who is neither a part of the problem, nor can be a solution to the problem you just made that person a part of the problem. The first thing you have got to do is admit there is an issue. Quit pretending that you are not upset, quit pretending you are not bitter, quit pretending that you are not carrying a grudge and admit someone has hurt you and it needs to be dealt with. II. Properly Access The Situation Jesus uses a word that tells us why confrontation not only, at times, is necessary, but ...

446. Supernatural: Taken By Storm

Mark 4:35-41

Sermon

James Merritt

... or the US Navy today with all of its power could have sunk that boat. How do I know that? Because if the boat had not made it to the other side Jesus would have been a liar. I can tell you this, the sun will quit shining, the moon will quit glowing, the stars will quit twinkling, the wind will stop blowing, and the waves will stop crashing before Jesus ever fails to keep one promise. There is no way they could drown, because they were with Jesus and He couldn’t drown. I know you are thinking, “He was a ...

447. The Knot: Tied

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Sermon

James Merritt

... other person is talking and love doesn’t ignore the other person when the other person is trying to talk. Any of those things, quite simply, dishonors other people and it is rude. How does your love measure up and how is it working out for you? “It is not ... the disaster, his son was found. Lee was personally there to carry him out..[2] That dad didn’t give up and that dad didn’t quit. Why? His love for his son was real. The same kind of love that father had for his son is the same kind of love that ...

448. She Had Great Faith

Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon

King Duncan

... away? It doesn’t matter their sex or their ethnicity or even their religion. He never turns anyone away. Maybe he was being silent for dramatic effect, because what happens next is certainly a watershed moment in his ministry. When he breaks his silence, he says something quite disturbing to anyone who is not Jewish. “I was sent,” he said, “only to the lost sheep of Israel.” Is this truly how Jesus viewed his ministry not as the world’s Savior, but only as a Messiah for the Jews? Or is he saying ...

449. I'm Listening

1 Samuel 3:1--4:1

Sermon

King Duncan

... hears a voice calling to him. Samuel assumed the voice belonged to Eli. You can imagine that Eli, being almost blind, would call on Samuel quite often to get things for him and assist him as he grew older and weaker. So Samuel ran to Eli and said, “Here I ... a voice calling to him. Samuel assumed the voice belonged to Eli. You can imagine that Eli, being almost blind, would call on Samuel quite often to get things for him and assist him as he grew older and weaker. So Samuel ran to Eli and said, “Here I ...

450. The God of Second Chances

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

King Duncan

... countrymen who had fled there. (2) God had called Jeremiah to “tell it like it is” to a people who had disregarded God’s law. They rejected his teachings and they suffered for it. And he suffered as well because of their rejection. So it is quite refreshing to come to today’s reading from Jeremiah. No fireworks. No scolding of the people of Israel. Jeremiah changes his tone altogether. This passage was written during Israel’s exile. It was a dark time in Israel’s history. It’s been said that ...

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