Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 26 to 50 of 71 results

26. James the Lesser · A Small Man for a Big Job

Matthew 10:1-3

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

... someone with a name that will hurt him and make him feel badly. When Jesus and the disciples called James the "Lesser" they were not talking about the way that he did his job. He did his job very well and all the disciples respected him. When you call someone "dummy" or "fatty" you are making fun of him and hurting his feelings. James was a short man, but he had a big job. He preached to the people and taught them what Jesus had said and done and he was a great disciple. It is said that James the Lesser ...

27. Changing The Rules

Mark 7:1-23

Sermon

Robert Salzgeber

... of the holster and start taking pot shots at stop signs and street lights. I just stood there with my stupid mouth swung wide open in disbelief. I couldn't believe what Jimmy was doing and I should have taken off home then running full speed ahead. But like a dummy I just stood there and gawked dumbfounded! And let him go on shooting at car tires and then he started to knock out windshields. You've gotta hand it to him. Jimmy is nuts! That's when the police showed up and put the handcuffs on both of us. And ...

28. What's So Good About Feeling Bad?

Exodus 17:1-7

Sermon

Joann Hary

... , and friends have been wonderful - and for just a little bit, we feel like we have it made. Then comes day after day of not being able to find what we are looking for, and we fuss and carry on, thinking a box must have been left behind, or some dummy carried it to the basement instead of the kitchen well, you know how it goes ... God provides us with a beautiful, sunny day, no wind and it is as clear as can be, and we complain, "But it's so cold." Or we complain about needing rain and God sends ...

29. Don't Give Up Too Soon!

Acts 15:36-41

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... so wrapped up in her civic responsibilities and her bridge club, Mary, that she loses the whereabouts of her own child?" "Well, if you'd go to church more, Joseph, and had finished college, you might be able to answer his religious questions. You dummy!" Actually, the Scripture simply says that Mary, "his mother kept all these things in her heart." Wouldn't you love to know what those things were? Moles. Warts. Wrinkles. The dirt under the fingernails. Failure. Fortunately she did not give up too soon on ...

30. A Queen Bee’s Sting

2 Samuel 6:1-23

Sermon

... of a plot to assassinate David and implored him to escape. Late one night assassins crawled up the stairway in the craggy palace at Gibeah and plunged a knife into David’s heart. Or so they thought. Actually, the shrewd Michal had dressed up a dummy and covered it with a goats’ hair blanket while David made a quick exit. Years passed and Michal did not see David. Saul forced her into marriage with a man named Palti (Paltigh), and gradually she grew to love him, forgetting David. Suddenly her happiness ...

31. "I Was Hoping for a Longines"

Sermon

Peter Rudowski

... , I think of the Longines commercial. It’s the commercial in which person gets a gift and, with a sullen face, says "It’s fine." You know it’s not fine. You ask what they wanted? "Well I was hoping for a Longines." That says "You did it all wrong, dummy." The question is, are you going to be a failure with your gifts? You can always tell. The gifts are open, the joy is there, but which one of us doesn’t watch a week later to see whether the gift is on a wrist or on a pair of ...

32. Pilgrim Living in a Vagabond World

Matthew 7:13-14

Sermon

Leonard Mann

... . As a guide, conscience is usually better than nothing, but sometimes not much better. Conscience is not a constant; it is a variable. It can be sensitized or deadened. It can be trained to say what we want it to, assuming somewhat the same role as the dummy that sits on the knee of a ventriloquist. Not many people violate conscience very much; they simply tone it down, shoot it with novocaine, recondition it, and make it parrot what they want it to say. A first lie may trouble the liar a bit; but after ...

33. Derailed Dreams

Genesis 37:12-36, 50:15-21

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... have rolled down the face of that teenager Joseph, whose dreams faded as each lumbering camel's stride took him farther from home. THE SECOND TRUTH I WANT TO DECLARE IS THIS: BEYOND EVERY “DEAD-END” SIGN IS GOD’S DETOUR. When the world says, "Dead end, dummy," God says, "Stand firm and see the deliverance of the Lord." When the world says, "It's impossible," the Word says, "with God all things are possible." When the world says, "There is no way," Jesus says, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life ...

34. A Large Fish Story

Jonah 1:1-17, Jonah 3:1-10

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... a deep sigh of relief, and offered a heart-felt prayer of thanksgiving. Then the Lord gave him the same command again, the one he had disobeyed earlier. "Arise, go to Nineveh, and preach to those people." Now, it would have taken a world-class dummy to say no to God again. Jonah replied, "Lord, I'm on my way." Jonah went to Nineveh, preached in that strange, foreign metropolis, probably through an interpreter. He denounced the sinfulness of that people and announced God's judgment. Instead of being beaten ...

35. Saturday Night And Sunday Morning

Drama

Pamela Urfer

... was so busy crying, and so sure he was dead, that I didn’t recognize him at first. I thought he must be one of the gardeners who take care of the tombs. Maria: And then? Magdalena: Then he said, "Woman, why are you weeping?" and I said, like a dummy, "Sir, if you know where they had laid him, tell me, and I will take him away." Joanna: And then? Magdalena: Then he said, "Mary!" and it was like the scales dropped from my eyes. I fell at his feet but he drew me up and told me to come ...

36. Greatness

Mark 9:33-37

Drama

Robert F. Crowley

... . I'll tell you the truth. John, here is the one who looks like he's going to rule with the Master. JOHN: You see. I told you so. PETER: Nonsense. (PUSHING JOHN OUT OF THE WAY, GRABBING BOOK FROM JAMES) JAMES: Hey! JOHN: Let him alone. The big dummy. Look how unspiritual you are. The Master doesn't want a big oaf like you ruling in his kingdom. Mother assured James and me that we would both rule with the Master when he comes into his kingdom. PETER: (READING FROM BOOK) This is stupid. "John was closest to ...

37. The One in the Middle

Matthew 25:14-30

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... can surely be equal in effort. You can probably think of a few others you have heard. Regardless of the lesson though, the point is always obvious - those who follow Jesus are to be like unto the wise, five-talent servant and not like the one-talent dummy. Case closed. OK. But there is one aspect of this story that troubles me if we close the case so quickly. What about the one in the middle, the two-talent guy? Is he superfluous? For that matter, were any of the characters in Jesus' stories superfluous ...

38. You Are A Winner!

Romans 5:12-21

Sermon

King Duncan

... seventhree?" Kramer said he didn't know. His new friend told him that sevenone was for the smart kids, seventwo for the average kids and seventhree for the dumb kids. Kramer walked into seventwo. When his name wasn't on the blackboard, he said to himself, You big dummy, you ought to know better. And he went to seventhree. When his name wasn't there, either, he finally went to sevenone, which was where he was supposed to go in the first place. He began to suspect that maybe he wasn't really stupid. But the ...

39. Speak, Your Servant Hears

1 Samuel 3:1--4:1

Sermon

King Duncan

... time or another. In a magazine of humor, an elder monk is admonishing a younger monk: "It has come to our attention, Brother Hooper, that you may not be happy with your vow of silence." The younger monk is seated on a bunk with a ventriloquist's dummy on his lap. We all get that way at times. How could God possibly be in our job? Suppose, however, there was no one willing to drive our buses, work our fields, type our memos, design our buildings, prescribe our medicine, teach our children, etc? Think how ...

40. Marriage In Heaven? No. Heaven In Marriage? Yes.

Luke 20:27-40

Sermon

King Duncan

... telegraph office and sat down to compose his telegram. He wrote: "Sold wheat profitably. Return tomorrow. Embrace lovingly. Itzik" As he was about to hand the text to the clerk he hesitated. "Now why do I have to write `profitably'? Certainly, my wife knows that I am no dummy. Would I sell my wheat at a loss?" So he crossed out the word "profitably." Then he went over the telegram more carefully. "Tsk-ask! What have I done? Doesn't my wife know already that I went to town to sell my wheat? So why the devil ...

41. For Future Generations

Psalm 22:1-31

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... dead. The survivors crawled behind rocks and fences and the corners of building. For nearly an hour, she said, the bullets kept them pinned in fear. She saw three boys rise up from a barricade and make a run for the house. They were cut down like dummies in a shooting gallery. So was the priest who followed them, even though he was waving a white handkerchief. So was an elderly man who bent over them to say a prayer. It was a scene from a slaughterhouse or a battlefield. Finally, the gunfire stopped, she ...

42. Resisting The Power Of Temptation

1 Corinthians 10:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... news story from San Francisco about a police inspector named Lou Bronfield who has been fishing for burglars. Bronfield was assigned to investigate the theft of packages left in the hallways of office buildings for couriers to pick up after hours. He set up four dummy packages outside an office and attached fishing line to the bottom of each package. He then ran the lines under a door into another office where he waited. Almost 45 minutes later he got his first bite, a big jerk with the line zooming out ...

43. Do You Have The Glory?

John 17:20-26

Sermon

King Duncan

... the children wondered, had the strength to push its way up and through ten inches of road binding and asphalt? Each day the little mound rose noticeably, and the children were full of ideas. "It's an oak tree," said one. "No. It's a locust," said another. "No, dummy, it's a walnut," said still another. "I know," Ruth heard little Bunny exclaim, "it's a morning glory and that's the glory coming up." (8) My most fervent prayer is that you feel the glory of God swelling up in you this day. Glory is a quality ...

44. Good Neighbors

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

King Duncan

... in the law? What do you read there?" And the lawyer answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." This lawyer was no dummy. He was obviously a devout and intelligent man. Jesus said to him, "You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live." But wanting to justify himself, Luke tells us, the lawyer pressed Jesus further, "And who is my neighbor?" Then Jesus told one of ...

45. People of Influence

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... he could ask for the audience’s help, and they would poll the audience. Now, the experts did fairly well. They were right 65% of the time. But here’s what’s surprising. The audience was right 91% of the time. (4) People are smart. They are not dummies. People who influence others know this. They know that in order to be effective they must help others use their natural intelligence for the collective good. Each of us is smart in our own way. Each of us has strengths and each of us has weaknesses. Each ...

46. Is Your Love Shy?

Mark 9:33-37

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... school teacher says, "Now I'll explain it and if you have any questions or if you don't understand it, just raise your hand." And after she explains it the class room is full of blank stares, but no one asks any questions for fear of being the only dummy in the class. It's sort of like Abe Lincoln once said, "It's better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool, than to open it and remove all doubt." And people play on our pride, don't they? They profit from our unwillingness to show our ...

47. Slaves of a Different Master

Romans 6:12-23

Sermon

William G. Carter

... reputation to maintain. She tells him that she loves him, and he yanks the chain, so that the tall actor can respond with a theatrical flourish. She tries to have a real conversation with him, for the first time in years, and he pulls the chain, so that the tall dummy will speak for him. Pretty soon, you know why he is the ghost. Finally she says, "Frank! Frank! Look at me. Look at me. What are you doing with that great, ugly doll? Let go of the chain. Send it away. It is you I want. Don't you see ...

48. What Names Are You Naming?

Isaiah 49:1-7

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... you're famous or infamous for, whether serious or humorous. Your nickname is what makes you YOU. What nicknames do you cherish most? Dad? Mom? Sweetheart? Baby? Do you have nicknames that heal you ("Sweetie Pie," "Little One," "Princess"), and nicknames that hurt you ("Fatso," "Dummy")? Each one of us has a peculiar relationship with God. Each of us have been sought out "in the womb" and given a particular nickname by God - a name we may or may not choose to inhabit. In fact, the Book of Revelation teaches ...

49. The Real Winning Attitude

1 Timothy 6:3-10

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... who cheated his way into the little league world series and destroyed his team's record and chances. The Bombers wanted to win so badly, wanted to be winners so desperately, that they were willing to do anything, break any rule, to achieve their goal. The dummied up birth certificate that shaved two years off their pitcher's age was the final evidence that convicted them. But there has been a long trail of clues that a win-at-any-cost attitude has been getting bolder, and more accepted, in kids' sporting ...

50. Mystery

Ephesians 3:1-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... you to lose weight this year? Just buy the latest diet-fad book that promises to unveil the secret to weight loss. Want to figure out how to access all the riches of information and opportunity on the internet? Just purchase P.C.'s for Dummies and all will become clear. Want to empower your earning capacity and leadership abilities to the max? Just shell-out for Tony Robbins' latest lecture/book/CD package that guarantees to transform you from a mensch to a millionaire. This past Christmas the big hit ...

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