Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: Levi, disciple, evangelist, tax collector, the 12, the twelve, apostle, sermon on the mount, jewish audience, beatitudes, lord's prayer, great commission, parables, olivet discourse, mount of olives, olivet, synoptic

Showing 4776 to 4800 of 4943 results

4776. The Manger Is Empty

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

In a "Peanuts" cartoon strip, good old Charlie Brown says to Linus, "Life is just too much for me. I've been confused from the day I was born. I think the whole trouble is that we're thrown into life too fast. We're not really prepared." And Linus asks, "What did you want . . . a chance to warm up first?" The Advent season is supposed to be our chance to warm up. It's that time to prepare our hearts and homes for the birth of the Christ child. It's that time when we put all the decorations in their place, ...

4777. Love

Isaiah 7:1-25

Sermon

King Duncan

When one little fellow was told about his new baby sister, he was not impressed. At school the following day, his teacher remarked, "I hear you have a new member of your family." "Oh, yeah," he replied. "What's the matter?" his teacher asked. "Aren't you happy to have a new sister?" He answered, "Yes, I guess. But there were a lot of things we needed more." I am certain that when people hear the Christmas story for the first time, their initial reaction is that what the world needs most is not another baby ...

4778. Some Things To Get Choked Up About

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

King Duncan

Everyone has his or her own perspective about the meaning of Christmas day. Some years ago, when Lou Holtz was the head coach of the Arkansas Razorback football team, he was taking his team to play in a bowl game in Tempe, Arizona. The game was to be played on Christmas Day. He was asked how he felt about having to play a football game on Christmas instead of being at home with his family. Lou Holtz answered candidly, "Frankly, I'd rather be in Tempe. After all, once you've been to church, had Christmas ...

4779. Searching For Jesus

Luke 2:41-52

Sermon

King Duncan

One of my favorite pieces of irreverent humor concerns a sign outside a First United Methodist Church. The sermon titles for the coming Sunday were listed: 11:00 a.m. "Jesus: Walking on the Water"; 7:00 p.m. "Searching for Jesus." More to the point is a news story from sometime back. It was about a 5-year-old Texas boy who was accidentally left behind at a Nashville, Tennessee, service station. Tyler Payne got out of the family station wagon to use the rest room, then couldn't get out of the building ...

4780. His Nature Is Light

John 1:1-18

Sermon

King Duncan

We run across truth in the strangest places. Sometime back it was revealed that a major university offers a course on Donald Duck comic books. These particular comics were created by Carl Barks. From the early 1940s until his retirement in 1966, Barks produced some 400 comics about Donald Duck, his stingy billionaire Uncle Scrooge, and three frenetic nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie. In one classic series, the rich uncle's billions nearly have driven him crazy. Everybody is asking him for money, and Scrooge ...

4781. News From The Vineyard

John 15:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

Some of you may know the story of Dawson Trotman, founder of the Navigators, an organization originally begun with the goal of reaching men serving in the Navy. Trotman began to meet with a Navy man named Les Spencer, teaching him basic truths from the Bible. After a while, Spencer brought a friend from the ship to Trotman and said, "Dawson, I want you to teach him all you have taught me." Trotman refused. He said, "I am not going to teach him; you are going to teach him. If you cannot teach him what I ...

4782. Mustard Seed Faith

Mark 4:30-34

Sermon

King Duncan

Mackie Shilstone is 5'8" and weighs only 137 pounds, but he trains some of the largest professional athletes in the countryfor example, pro basketball player Ralph Sampson, St. Louis shortstop Ozzie Smith, Will Clark of the Giants, Billy Hobbley of the Harlem Globetrotters. Mackie is not content just to train athletes physically. He wants to help change their lifestyles and ways of thinking as well. "I tell my athletes that they do have control over what their attitude will be about life. Their positive ...

4783. Losing Favor Or Losing Flavor?

Mark 9:42-50

Sermon

King Duncan

Jesus said on one occasion, "Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake." I doubt that many of us are very offensive to other folks because of our religion. Indeed, it is the norm to be a "Christian" in our society today. We have gained the favor of men, but in gaining favor, have we lost our flavor? That is in our text for the day. Jesus said, "Salt is good but if salt has lost its saltness wherewith will ye season it," or if salt ...

4784. Behold The Lamb

John 1:29-42

Sermon

King Duncan

Last week we dealt with Jesus’ baptism at the hands of by John the Baptist. I read an amusing story concerning John the Baptist recently that is simply too good not to tell. It’s about a Bible scholar from this country who travels to Jerusalem every few years where he enjoys walking the streets of Jerusalem’s Old City. Once he was walking down a quiet alley when he was waved into a small shop. Within a few minutes he found himself with a glass of tea in his hand, sitting in the back room of a rug merchant’ ...

4785. The Love of a Father (Father's Day)

Matthew 10:1-42

Sermon

King Duncan

It is not easy being a father. One cynic, speaking from his own experience, noted that children go through four fascinating stages. First they call you DaDa. Then they call you Daddy. As they mature they call you Dad. Finally they call you collect. Today we salute fathers. Dads, we love you. The role of a Christian father is more important in today's world than ever before. It is a different roll than in earlier generations. In most households today Dad is called upon to play more of a nurturing role in ...

4786. Vive La Difference

Romans 12:1-8

Sermon

King Duncan

Yankee magazine ran a fascinating article recently entitled "Sensitive Specialists." It described men who make their living making extraordinary use of their natural senses. They cited the practiced eye of a diamond inspector, the sense of feel of a wool inspector, the developed ear of a cymbal tester, the sense of smell of a fresh fish inspector, and the sense of taste of a milktaster. All the men acknowledged that they had no special gift in the area of their senses. They had simply trained themselves to ...

4787. When Someone Else Gets The Honor

Matthew 20:1-16

Sermon

King Duncan

We have been dealing the past couple of weeks with some of the most basic human emotions--anger, hatred, resentment. This morning we want to deal with another--envy. A popular form of humor recently has been light bulb jokes. For example, "How many Wall Street brokers does it take to screw in a light bulb?" The answer: "One, The broker holds the light bulb and the universe revolves around him." Or, "how many Exxon officials does it take to change a light bulb. Ten. One to turn the bulb and nine to handle ...

4788. Ready For The Game Warden

Matthew 25:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

In the little book, LAUGHTER IN APPALACHIA, Fred Park of Berea, Kentucky tells a story about a man named Quill. Quill lived way back in the woods where he hunted and fished all the time. Quill didn't pay any attention to the hunting seasons or laws or anything, and he knew the woods better than the game warden. The game warden had been trying to catch Quill for a long time. Today was the day. He knew Quill would be up early to go fishing. So the game warden sneaked down there in the middle of the night and ...

4789. Blessing, Testing, Response

Matthew 25:31-46

Sermon

King Duncan

Sometime back newscaster Paul Harvey reported that the average person blinks his eyes 13 times every minute. That's an interesting bit of trivia. But what really interested me was what I also read this week about the problem of world hunger. I read that 13 people starve to death every minute in this world. That means, of course, that every time you and I blink our eyes, another person has died from starvation. Now I am usually unaware of blinking my eyes. It's just an automatic reflex. I don't have to be ...

4790. The Ultimate Success Formula

Mark 8:31--9:1

Sermon

King Duncan

Jesus would turn over in his grave, if he were in his grave -- which, of course, he is not. However, I want to suggest to you this morning that the ultimate formula for worldly success is found in a portion of his words in Mark 8:34, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." In a secular sense that text alone would guarantee any person's success in the wonderful world of business or art or education or sports or whatever career you may choose. After all, ...

4791. Rise Above It

Hebrews 4:14-5:10

Sermon

King Duncan

Nothing perplexes the sensitive heart more than the problem of human suffering. Studdert-Kennedy used to say that anyone who was undisturbed by the problem of pain was suffering from one of two things: either from a hardening of the heart, or a softening of the brain. He's absolutely right. Is there any purpose to pain? Any advantage to adversity? Any solace in suffering? "Don't be discouraged, Charlie Brown," Schroeder tells him. "These early defeats help to build character for later on in life." "For ...

4792. Why Did He Do It?

Mark 14:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

Each Lenten season we come to the same troubling question. Why did Judas betray his Master? Thirty pieces of silver was a paltry sum. Why go to the trouble? There is evidence to indicate that before the betrayal, Judas had a place of honor among the disciples. The fact that he was the treasurer shows he was trusted. John 13:29 indicates that he may have been reclining alongside Jesus at the last supper. He was in a place of honor. Why in Heaven's name did he do it? What caused him to betray innocent blood ...

4793. A Story Almost Too Big To Tell

John 20:1-9

Sermon

King Duncan

Sportswriter Red Smith once told a story about novelist and film writer, Laurence Stallings. Though he was not a sportswriter, Stallings took an assignment to cover a football game between the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Illinois. The year was 1925. The brilliant halfback Red Grange was on the field that afternoon and he was dazzling. On a muddy field he broke loose for three touchdowns and set up another. The old hands in the press box were pounding away at their typewriters. Not ...

4794. One For All

John 10:1-21

Sermon

King Duncan

Sometimes in our complex relations with Middle East countries, we are confronted with instances of barbaric forms of justice. We hear of people getting hands cut off for stealing, a princess stoned to death for adultery and so on. We need to remind ourselves that Christian history has also been full of barbaric acts. Humane treatment of wrongdoers and enlightened applications of justice are modern developments. The morality of rehabilitation as opposed to retaliation is still not fully evolved. Consider, ...

4795. The Mighty Tide Of God Rolled In

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

A ship strayed off course near San Diego some years back. It became stuck in a reef at low tide. Twelve tugboats were unsuccessful in their attempts to budge it. Finally, the captain instructed the tugs to go back home. He sighed, "I'll just be patient and wait." He waited until high tide. All of a sudden the ocean began to rise. What human power could not do, the rising tide of the Pacific Ocean did. It lifted that ship and put it back into the channel. (1) Something like that happened to the early church ...

4796. If It's The Lord's Will

James 4:13-17

Sermon

King Duncan

Have you heard about the pastor who was out painting his fence one day? He was meditating on this passage from the book of James. He was meditating on the fact that life is so brief. It's just a vapor. About that time, a man came along the road pulling a horse. The pastor looked up and said, "Where are you going with that horse?" The man said, "I'm going to go to town to sell it." The pastor said, "You ought to say you're going to sell it if it be the Lord's will." The man said, "The Lord's will has ...

4797. Looking For Mr. Right

James 4:13-17

Sermon

King Duncan

A year or so ago the newspapers carried a story from India. Two brides and two grooms discovered that a rather serious mistake had been made on their wedding day. The brides had been wearing long veils. They were hardly able to see anything around them. To make matters worse, the simple wedding ceremonies had been rushed. Hence both ceremonies were over before it was discovered that both brides had been paired with the wrong grooms. A ruling by the village elders confirmed that the marriages were binding ...

4798. Soli Deo Gloria

Mark 12:28-34

Sermon

Mark McGilvey Livonia

"SDG" -- Soli Deo Gloria, "to God alone be the glory." On each manuscript he completed, Johann Sebastian Bach wrote these three letters. When we imprint those three letters on everything we do, we are living as God would have us live. Soli Deo Gloriato -- God alone be the glory. A teacher of the law asked our Lord, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: `Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart ...

4799. A Real Solution For Real Problems

Acts 9:1-19a

Sermon

King Duncan

There is a silly story about a man who went to his doctor complaining about terrible neck pains, throbbing headaches and recurring dizzy spells. The doctor examined him and said, "I’m afraid I have some bad news for you. You have only six months to live." The doomed man decided he would spend his remaining time on earth enjoying himself. He quit his job, bought a sports car, and a closet full of new suits and shoes. Then he went to get himself a dozen tailored shirts. He went to the finest shirt shop he ...

4800. The Wondrous Possibility Of Change

Galatians 1:11-24

Sermon

King Duncan

The prophet Jeremiah asked 2700 years ago, "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil." (13:23) In other words, can a person change his or her basic nature? Can the cruel become kind, the vulgar become refined, the coward become courageous? It is an important question. Few of us are all we want to be. Is there any hope for us? Albert Einstein once said that it is easier to denature plutonium than it is to denature the evil spirit ...

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