Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 4701 to 4725 of 5000 results

4701. Tradition!

Luke 20:27-38

Illustration

Johnny Dean

A new husband watched curiously as his bride prepared to place a ham in the oven. Before putting it in to cook, she took a knife and carefully trimmed off both ends of the ham. The husband asked, "Why did you do that? I'm not an expert at cooking hams, but I don't think I ever saw anyone cut off both ends of the ham before cooking it." The wife answered, "You know, I don't really know. I never cooked a ham before, but that's the way my mother always did it." Her curiosity aroused, she telephoned her mother ...

4702. Tradition Must Leave Room for Revelation

Luke 20:27-38; 2 Thessalonians 2:15

Illustration

Johnny Dean

The apostle Paul, in his letter of encouragement to the struggling young church at Thessalonica, wrote, "Stand firm and hold fast to the traditions we taught you, either by word of mouth or by our letters" (2 Thessalonians 2:15). Tradition is important. But tradition has to leave room for revelation, because the Spirit blows where it wills, right? That has always been a problem in the church, from day one to this day. We don't seem to want to leave any room for revelation when we're talking about tradition ...

4703. The Completely Accurate, but Totally Absurd Answers

Luke 20:27-38

Illustration

King Duncan

In the children's classic, THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH, Milo, Tock and Humbug are traveling to the Lands Beyond. They are greeted by the twelve-faced Dodecahedron who is a specialist in problems. "I'm not very good at problems," admits Milo. "What a shame," sighs the Dodecahedron. "They're so very useful. Why, did you know that if a beaver two feet long with a tail a foot and a half long can build a dam twelve feet high and six feet wide in two days? All you would need to build Boulder Dam is a beaver sixty- ...

4704. We’re Not Paradise People

Luke 20:27-38

Illustration

King Duncan

Humorist Garrison Keillor in his delightful descriptions of the people in his fictional hometown of Lake Wobegon tells how difficult it will be for some of us to deal with that kind of perfection. He writes, "My people aren't paradise people. We've lived in Minnesota all our lives and it took a lot out of us. My people aren't sure if we'll even like paradise: not sure that perfection is all it's cracked up to be. My people will arrive in heaven and stand just inside the gate, shuffling around. `It's a lot ...

4705. Fear of Dying

Lk 20:27-38

Illustration

King Duncan

Warren Buffett, a financial investment genius and the second-richest man in America, has his doubts about life beyond the grave, and it worries him. Buffett admits, "There is one thing I am scared of. I am afraid to die." His biographer Roger Lowenstein, writes: "Warren's exploits were always based on numbers, which he trusted above all else. In contrast, he did not subscribe to his family's religion. Even at a young age, he was too mathematical, and too logical, to make the leap of faith. He adopted his ...

4706. The Idea of Resurrection

Luke 20:27-38

Illustration

Scott Hoezee

The Sadducees thought the idea of resurrection to be silly. Maybe they had been influenced by Greek thinking, maybe they felt you could not build a good case for it based on the Scriptures. But they thought it silly and had come to the conclusion that Jesus believed in it. Since Jesus was a prominent teacher, they thought it would be fun and instructive to publicly humiliate him and so concocted their over-the-top scenario that exploited the old Israelite practice of levirate marriage to wonder what a ...

4707. The Road Stops Here

Luke 20:27-38

Illustration

King Duncan

Pastor Edward Markquart of Seattle tells about a poem titled, "The Midnight of March 31st." It's a story about a drunken truck driver. Markquart imagines this driver trucking across Eastern Washington. Finally he comes . . . in his mind . . . to the end of the highway . . . [The highway] seems to stop at the top of a hill that he can't see over . . . it is impossible for him to imagine that the road goes on. And so he pulls off the highway and into a tavern and shouts to everyone: "People, the road stops ...

4708. Looking Ahead to the Transition

Luke 20:27-38

Illustration

King Duncan

Author King Duncan tells about a young man he met in the small town of Maryville, TN. Duncan had just finished speaking to a group on the healing power of humor. This young man came up to him to tell him about the death of his brother. There were three brothers in their family. The family was quite involved in this small community and so, as youngsters, these three brothers were forced to accompany their parents to the funeral home for the receiving of friends whenever someone in the community died. As the ...

4709. Is the Mule for Sale?

Luke 21:16-19; Mark 13:1-8

Illustration

Once upon a time there was a woman married to an annoying man. He would complain about everything. One day he went to the creek with his mule. He complained so much that the mule got annoyed and kicked him to death. At the funeral, when all the men walked by the wife she shook her head yes and every time the women walked by she shook her head no. The minister asked "Why are you shaking your head yes for men and no for women?" Her response was, "The men would say how sorry they felt for me and I was saying ...

4710. Reading the Signs

Luke 21:5-19

Illustration

In his award winning book, The Education of Little Tree, writer Forest Carter writes of life with his Cherokee grandparents. He tells of sitting with his grandfather watching the morning sun rise over a mountain one winter morning. "... we watched the mountain while we ate. The sun hit the top like an explosion, sending showers of glitter and sparkle into the air. The sparkling of the icy trees hurt the eyes to look, and it moved down the mountain like a wave as the sun backed the night shadow down and ...

4711. With a Good Ship

Luke 21:5-19

Illustration

King Duncan

Dr. Norman Vincent Peale once told of encountering a hurricane while on a cruise in the Atlantic. After the captain managed to sail around the danger, he and Dr. Peale were visiting with one another. The captain said he had always lived by a simple philosophy...namely that if the sea is smooth, it will get rough; and if it is rough, it will get smooth. He added something worth remembering: "But with a good ship," the Captain said, "you can always ride it out." Our ship is our faith in Christ. With a good ...

4712. Three Sure Things

Luke 21:18-19

Illustration

Richard J. Fairchild

A man named John Wilson writes about his father‑in‑law who was a lifelong Bible teacher. However, his father-in-law found his faith troubled in his final years. A degenerative nerve disease confined him to bed, impeding him from most of the activities that gave him pleasure. Meanwhile, his thirty-nine‑year‑old daughter was battling a severe form of diabetes. Financial pressures mounted. During the most severe crisis, his father-in-law composed a Christmas letter and mailed it to others in the family. Many ...

4713. The Power of Words

Luke 23:33-43

Illustration

Mark Trotter

Claude Brown, who wrote Manchild in the Promised Land, in an article said that people under forty in our society have never lived in an America where movie language was not liberally laced with obscenities. He said that profanity is rapidly replacing English as the language of the American people. Then he said, "Most people don't know it, but profanity is the language of violence." People say, words can't hurt you. They can hurt you. Words can dehumanize. That's why in war the enemy is always described in ...

4714. Scratching God’s Hand

Luke 23:26-43

Illustration

King Duncan

Fred Craddock tells about a family that was taking a lovely Sunday afternoon drive, when suddenly the children began shouting, "Stop the car! There's a kitten by the road!" The father kept on driving, but his children wouldn't quiet down. He tried to reason with them. The kitten was probably someone's pet. It might have a disease. The family already had too many pets. It did no good. The children insisted that a loving father would stop the car for a stray cat. So finally the father drove back to the spot ...

4715. Fallen and Trapped

Luke 23:26-43

Illustration

Brett Blair

In October 1987, one year old Jessica McClure of Midland, Texas fell down an abandoned well. She was found on a ledge 22 feet below the surface. There she was, crying for her mother, in the cold darkness of this well. Her plight captured the attention of the entire nation. The people of the town gathered to rescue her. Hour after hour for two and a half days they worked. Federal Express flew down a special drill bit to aid in the rescue. You may remember the hour that she was rescued. It was on a Friday ...

4716. Erasing All Incriminating Evidence

Luke 23:33-43

Illustration

King Duncan

Evangelist Tony Campolo says that in his teenage years he was terrified by a visiting pastor's depiction of Judgment Day. This pastor claimed that one day God would show us a movie of every single sinful thought, word, or action we ever committed. And he ended his lurid description with the announcement, "And your mother will be there!" But Tony claims that Judgment Day will more closely mirror what happened during the trials over the Watergate scandal. The prosecutor brought in a tape of a conversation ...

4717. Some Not So Bright Thieves

Lk 23:33-43

Illustration

King Duncan

Not everybody who takes up a life of crime is all that smart. Sometimes movies or television glorify criminals. They make them appear sophisticated, even cool. Most criminals do not fall in that category. Like the guy who walked into a little corner store in England with a shotgun and demanded all the cash from the cash drawer. After the cashier put the cash in a bag, the robber saw a bottle of scotch that he wanted behind the counter on the shelf. He told the cashier to put it in the bag as well, but the ...

4718. The Call to Confession

Luke 23:33-43

Illustration

King Duncan

My goal today isn't to make you feel guilty. Some pastors do that. They flog their congregations with guilt and then present the Gospel as a form of catharsis. It's like the story of a Roman Catholic priest who had been at his church for years and was beloved by his parishioners except for what most of them considered one failing. He was a great believer in the sacrament of confession, and he never passed up an opportunity to remind his flock of that fact. No matter what Sunday it was, Christmas, Easter or ...

4719. I Shall Not Rush

Matt. 24:36-44; Luke 2:1-20; Psalm 23

Illustration

Kathryn Spink

Here is a version of the 23rd Psalm that ought to be mandatory reading each day of Advent, and a unison reading each Advent Sunday. The lord is my pace setter . . .I shall not rush He makes me stop for quiet intervals He provides me with images of stillness which restore my serenity He leads me in the way of efficiency through calmness of mind and his guidance is peace Even though I have a great many things to accomplish each day, I will not fret, for his presence is here His timelessness, his all ...

God asks no man whether he will accept life. That is not the choice. You must take it. The only choice is how.

Henry Ward Beecher

4721. High Risk

Matthew 24:36-44

Illustration

Johnny Dean

I remember seeing a cartoon depicting a church that had been built in close proximity to an active volcano. In the picture are the church, its sign ("The Church Next to the Active Volcano"), and two men standing in front of the church, one of whom is wearing a clergy shirt and appears to be speaking to the other man. The caption reads, "Of course, there is a high degree of risk being located here, but it lends a great sense of urgency to my preaching!"

While everyone else is chasing the puck, I go where the puck is going to be.

Wayne Gretsky

We have learned to soar through the air like birds, to swim through the seas like fish, to soar through space like comets. Now it is high time we learned to walk the earth as the children of our God.

William Sloane Coffin

4724. Keeping Hope Alive

Matthew 24:36-44

Illustration

At the university there was a piano teacher that was simply and affectionately known as "Herman." One night at a university concert, a distinguished piano player suddenly became ill while performing an extremely difficult piece. No sooner had the artist retired from the stage when Herman rose from his seat in the audience, walked on stage, sat down at the piano and with great mastery completed the performance. Later that evening, at a party, one of the students asked Herman how he was able to perform such ...

4725. Living beyond Apprehension

Matthew 24:36-44

Illustration

Staff

C.S. Lewis wrote with deep humor and insight about his faith in God in Christ. Lewis understood the gospel of Jesus to be Good News, not a fearful encounter with God as judge, but a meeting with a God full of agape love. Lewis remembered a moment of anxiety felt by his wife, Joy. "Long ago before we were married, [Joy] was haunted all one morning as she went about her work with the obscure sense of God (so to speak) 'at her elbow,' demanding her attention. And of course, not being a perfected saint, she ...

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Antonyms: deficient, imperfect

Showing 4701 to 4725 of 5000 results

4701. Tradition!

Luke 20:27-38

Illustration

Johnny Dean

4702. Tradition Must Leave Room for Revelation

Luke 20:27-38; 2 Thessalonians 2:15

Illustration

Johnny Dean

4703. The Completely Accurate, but Totally Absurd Answers

Luke 20:27-38

Illustration

King Duncan

4704. We’re Not Paradise People

Luke 20:27-38

Illustration

King Duncan

4705. Fear of Dying

Lk 20:27-38

Illustration

King Duncan

4706. The Idea of Resurrection

Luke 20:27-38

Illustration

Scott Hoezee

4707. The Road Stops Here

Luke 20:27-38

Illustration

King Duncan

4708. Looking Ahead to the Transition

Luke 20:27-38

Illustration

King Duncan

4709. Is the Mule for Sale?

Luke 21:16-19; Mark 13:1-8

Illustration

4710. Reading the Signs

Luke 21:5-19

Illustration

4711. With a Good Ship

Luke 21:5-19

Illustration

King Duncan

4712. Three Sure Things

Luke 21:18-19

Illustration

Richard J. Fairchild

4713. The Power of Words

Luke 23:33-43

Illustration

Mark Trotter

4714. Scratching God’s Hand

Luke 23:26-43

Illustration

King Duncan

4715. Fallen and Trapped

Luke 23:26-43

Illustration

Brett Blair

4716. Erasing All Incriminating Evidence

Luke 23:33-43

Illustration

King Duncan

4717. Some Not So Bright Thieves

Lk 23:33-43

Illustration

King Duncan

4718. The Call to Confession

Luke 23:33-43

Illustration

King Duncan

4719. I Shall Not Rush

Matt. 24:36-44; Luke 2:1-20; Psalm 23

Illustration

Kathryn Spink

God asks no man whether he will accept life. That is not the choice. You must take it. The only choice is how.

Henry Ward Beecher

4721. High Risk

Matthew 24:36-44

Illustration

Johnny Dean

While everyone else is chasing the puck, I go where the puck is going to be.

Wayne Gretsky

We have learned to soar through the air like birds, to swim through the seas like fish, to soar through space like comets. Now it is high time we learned to walk the earth as the children of our God.

William Sloane Coffin

4724. Keeping Hope Alive

Matthew 24:36-44

Illustration

4725. Living beyond Apprehension

Matthew 24:36-44

Illustration

Staff

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