Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 451 to 475 of 1182 results

Jeremiah 28:1-17

Sermon

Dr. B. Bruce Humphrey

... please the crowd. And we give God a chance to give us His answer. We give Him the chance to act in ways that bring real solutions, real healing, and real hope. 1. Stephen E. Ambrose, CRAZY HORSE AND CUSTER, 1975, pp. 266, 267. 2. Sir Thomas More, UTOPIA (Penguin Classics, 1965), p. 75. 3. Arthur Gordon, A TOUCH OF WONDER (Guideposts, 1974), pp. 211-213. 4. Charles Ludwig, GEORGE FREDERICK HANDEL (Mott Media, 1987), p. 148.

452. More Than Meets The Eye

Luke 17:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... need for the tasks at hand. And so do we. Our task is to choose the ways we can use our faith. What task could you handle this week knowing that you possess enough faith to do the seemingly impossible? Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick, in his classic devotional book The Meaning of Faith, wrote: "Religious faith is a positive achievement, and whoever does not deliberately choose it, loses it." He illustrated this truth with the story of a man who rowed down the Niagara River. As he was rowing, the man debated with ...

453. Setting The Record Straight

Luke 20:27-40

Sermon

King Duncan

... seven brothers. "In the resurrection," they asked Jesus, "whose wife will the woman be?" Obviously, the Sadducees hadn't asked this question for edification. They didn't even believe in a resurrection! Their purpose was to trip Jesus up. 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 ...

454. Visioning Or Vanishing?

Proverbs 29:1-27

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... church. We must now FOCUS on the vision God is calling us to claim, rather than complaining about the lack of one for the past twenty years. Anybody can curse the darkness, but people of faith light candles to defy the darkness. Charles Dickens, in his classic book A TALE OF TWO CITIES, perhaps describes best the paradox that the Church is facing when he wrote, "It was the BEST of times, it was the WORST of times." I deeply encourage us to CLAIM THE VISION, in order that we keep our perspectives balanced ...

455. Learning From A Little Child

Isaiah 35:1-10

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... toy she had brought. Through tears the child cried, "Mommy, I want you!" That is our greatest need, too, isn't it? We want God. We want to know that God lives and that God cares and that God is with us. Immanuel! Mark Connelly in his classic play, GREEN PASTURES, has the angel Gabriel walk on the stage with his horn under his arm, and approach the Lord who is in deep thought. God is troubled about what is happening among his people on earth. God is troubled ” because he has sent prophets and messengers ...

456. Pax Augusta, Pax Christi

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... the name of Christ, to change his ways, to shut up, to give up his cause. He laid the letter on the table in front of him. And he poured over it in prayer all that night. And in the morning, he wrote back a letter which has become a classic in the Christian church. It's called, LETTER FROM A BIRMINGHAM JAIL. And in it King says, "You want me to be quiet, and in that way to bring you peace. But, in the Bible, peace is not the absence of warfare. Peace is, instead, the presence of justice!" Peace ...

457. Fear Of Flying

Matthew 10:1-42

Sermon

King Duncan

... Everyone. Did you realize that? You're not alone in your fears. Everyone's afraid of something. Some people have fears that are almost pathological. It has been more than 35 years since Janet Leigh saw herself on the screen in Alfred Hitchcock's classic horror film Psycho. After viewing the famous shower scene, in which she was repeatedly stabbed, Leigh was seized with an overwhelming and lasting terror. "I stopped taking showers, and even now I take only baths," she says. In fact, when the actress stays in ...

458. Focusing On The Possibilities

Matthew 14:13-21

Sermon

King Duncan

... on exam day. He admitted that he had. The professor explained that the exam had only consisted of the eight problems on the exam paper, which he had solved perfectly. The two problems on the board had been put up there for fun. They were classic mathematic problems that no mathematician had ever been able to solve. Even Einstein had been unable to crack them. The professor had explained at the beginning of class that these two problems had so far been unsolvable, but the students were welcome to play around ...

459. When You Need Help

Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon

King Duncan

... into the district of Tyre and Sidon. Jesus did this from time to time as you know. He took his disciples off to a place where they could be apart from the crowd. Maybe he was tired - like all of us get tired from time to time. Classical guitar maestro Andres Segovia is adored by his public, especially by the British. They do not let him go easily after a performance. Following two exhausting encores one night in London, Segovia, then 92, was forced to concede: "I would love to go on playing," he said ...

460. Rejected

Matthew 21:33-46

Sermon

King Duncan

... of 1960, people have private cars, "gaz cabs" he called them, of 20 to 30 horsepower a prediction Verne offered a quarter century before the advent of the automobile. He also forecast the telephone, fax and computer. He foresaw a world in which classical culture gave way to a bleak society dominated by finance and industrial technology. Art treasures of the Louvre gathered dust while people flocked instead to "electric concerts." Jules Verne was one of the world's great visionaries, but still he knew what ...

461. Pardon Me, But Do You Know God?

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

King Duncan

... any hope or will. Corrie sat down next to the woman, and asked her about herself. The woman revealed that she had taught music at the Dresden Conservatory, a proud and beautiful city now decimated by the war. Fortunately, Corrie knew and loved much classical music, and she was able to converse knowledgeably with the former professor. A local minister had granted Corrie access to his piano, but it had been ravaged by bombings too. It was woefully worn down and out of tune, but still Corrie took the woman ...

462. The Parable Of The Kindly Innkeeper

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

King Duncan

... crimson sunset." (5) KINDNESS AND DECENCY ARE POSSIBLE IN OUR WORLD. That is a truth of which we need to be reminded. IN FACT, THEY ARE ESSENTIAL INGREDIENTS IN WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A FOLLOWER OF JESUS. Why is this so? Consider. There was a classic experiment performed years ago. An unsuspecting person was walking by an alley when from the darkness someone yelled for help a woman who said she was being raped. Nearby were two other people who were part of the experiment. As instructed, they ignored the woman ...

463. An Unlikely Witness

John 20:1-9

Sermon

King Duncan

... known. The remaining unborn twin is saddened, convinced that a great catastrophe has befallen his companion. Outside the womb, however, the parents are rejoicing. For what the remaining brother, left behind, has just witnessed is not death but birth. This, Wolpe reminds us, is a classic view of the life beyond the grave--a birth into a world that we on Earth can only try to imagine. (5) The Easter message is that we have an older brother who HAS traveled beyond the tomb, down the birth canal of eternity and ...

464. The Patron Saint Of All Who Are The Last To Know

John 20:24-31

Sermon

King Duncan

One of the great movie lines is found in the Paul Newman classic, Cool Hand Luke. Newman plays a prisoner in a southern work camp who never quits trying to escape. Each time he is recaptured the prison warden greets him with that famous line, "Son, what we have here, is a failure to communicate." It Is a Failure to Communicate which Is ...

465. Fishing Stories

John 21:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... wait for the boat; he jumps into the water and swims to meet Christ. This is it! From this time forward, there would be no turning back for these disciples. No longer would they be fishermen--but now they would be fishers of men. There is a classic story that comes out of humorist Robert Benchley's college days. For one of Benchley's final examinations, he was to write an essay on fish hatcheries. He hadn't cracked a book all semester. Undaunted, he started his final something like this: "Much wordage has ...

466. Where Is Your Heart?

Luke 12:22-34

Sermon

King Duncan

It's a classic children's story told time and time again. A little boy is asked by his kindergarten teacher where his heart is. He points to the seat of his pants. "Why do you say that is where your heart is?" asks the kindergarten teacher. "Because," said the little boy, "My grandmother ...

467. Singing The Song Of Christmas

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

King Duncan

... we want a voice to sing out God's praise. Our Christmas music is intended to do more than stir up warm feelings. It is our offering of praise to God for the gift of the Christ child. It's like a young man named Don Halpern, who plays a classical guitar beautifully. Don grew up in a Jewish home, but later felt a stirring in his life to a new and different song. One day he made an appointment to see a pastor at a nearby Christian church. The pastor was surprised that Don wanted to talk about Christianity and ...

468. A Birthday Celebration

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

King Duncan

... ($12,000) from Hammacher Schlemmer? Or maybe life-like, large-scale sculptures of an African elephant, rhino or reticulated giraffe ($350 to $575) from The Nature Co? There are all kinds of odd gifts out there. Back in 1891, Robert Louis Stevenson, author of such classics as DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE and KIDNAPPED, gave a rather odd gift to the daughter of a friend of his. This friend, Henry Ide, once joked that Christmas was not the happiest day of the year in his household. His fourteen-year-old daughter ...

469. Who Is Your Hero?

Matthew 17:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... ." Finally one of them came forward. "Excuse me," she said to Olivia Newton-John's friend, "Isn't your name Faye? Weren't you in my class in grade school?" It has been said that people today worship celebrities, but have few heroes. A professor of classics at a major eastern university was teaching his students about the heroes of Greek legend. He tried without success to elicit their concept of a hero. Finally he resorted to asking if anyone could name a hero. Only one student, a girl, raised her hand. She ...

470. The Secret Of A Great New Year

Luke 3:1-20, Matthew 4:12-17

Sermon

King Duncan

It's a classic Peanuts cartoon. Charlie Brown says to Lucy, “Someone has said that we should live each day as if it were the last day of our life." "Aaugh!" cries Lucy. "This is the last day! This is it!" She dashes away screaming, “I only have 24 hours left! Help me! Help ...

471. Surprise!

Luke 4:14-30

Sermon

King Duncan

... in life. Even in Jesus' last moments, when he was dying in agony on the cross, he offered the hope of eternal salvation to the thief dying beside him. This was Jesus' first act in life and his last act before death--the giving of hope. In the ancient classic, titled Inferno, by Dante, the author imagines that the entrance to Hell is marked by a sign, “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here." (3) Dante can't be far off the mark. Where God is, there is hope; where God is absent, there is no hope. That was ...

472. Like Everest Without Oxygen And Wimbledon Without A Racquet

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

Frank Lyman

... is mine" is the second philosophy, the philosophy of the priest and the Levite. But there is a third philosophy--a philosophy exemplified by the Samaritan. Here's something we need to see before we get into his philosophy. Jesus told this story in the classic form of "Three." This is a teaching story, and his listeners knew that if the first two examples were negative, they could expect the third example to be positive. The priest and Levite are the negative examples, the people now await the hero of the ...

473. A Great Love Story Gone Awry

Genesis 24:1-67

Sermon

King Duncan

Comedians have a field day with the subject of marriage. The jokes probably number in the thousands. Rita Rudner used this classic: “My mother buried three husbands.” Then she adds, “And two of them were just napping.” One woman said to a friend: “I’m in trouble. I broke my husband’s favorite golf club.” “What did he say?” her friend asked. The first woman smiled and replied, “He said, ‘What hit ...

474. Barking Pigs and Determined Disciples

Matthew 14:22-36

Sermon

King Duncan

... never done before." (6) Or as Marv Levy, the former coach of the Buffalo Bills football team once said, "You have to take some chances. If Michelangelo wanted to play it safe, he would have painted the FLOOR of the Sistine Chapel.” There is a character in the classic work Don Quixote named Sancho Panza. Sancho Panza hangs in fear from the ledge of a window all night long, too frighted to let go. When morning dawns he discovers his toes are only an inch off the ground. It's amusing to think of Simon Peter ...

475. It Could Happen To You!

Luke 24:36-49

Sermon

Siegfried S. Johnson

... can't believe God would be so giving. They "disbelieve for joy." In the movie I've been referring to this morning, when Yvonne finally accepted Charley's message, she said, "Why? You don't have to give me this gift. Why are you doing this?" Charley's reply is classic. "Because a promise is a promise." When we accept God's great gift, we might ask a question similar to Yvonne's. "God, why are you doing this? I am so unworthy of such a gift." I like to think God's answer is something like, "Because I have ...

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