Showing 476 to 500 of 900 results
476. Mr. Hooper Is Dead
John 11:1-44
Illustration
Brett Blair
In the summer of 1981, Will Lee, the actor who played an adult character named Mr. Hooper on the children's television show SESAME STREET, died. This posed a difficult set of issues for The Children's Television Workshop, producers of the show. Should they deal at all with the subject of death? If so, how would they explain it to their 10 million viewers, most of whom are under the age of six? A s...
477. Muggeridge Encounters Mother Teresa
Mark 12:41-44
Illustration
Brett Blair
In 1970, a man by the name of Malcolm Muggeridge went to Calcutta to do a special documentary on Mother Teresa for BBC-TV. Muggeridge then was Europe's Tom Brokaw. Well, on that fated morning of their meeting (a morning that would change him the him for the rest of his life) he met her as she was working out in the streets with sick and poor people in a ghetto like he had never seen before, amid ...
478. Must Suffer and Be Rejected
Mk 8:2; Lk 9:22; 17:25
Illustration
Brett Blair
Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Cost of Discipleship dissects the phrase: Jesus must suffer and be rejected. He pulls out three significant teachings: What is about to happen must happen. What is about to happen is - Jesus will suffer What is about to happen is - Jesus will be rejected Bonhoeffer continues: This "must" is inherent in the promise of God - the Scriptures must be fulfilled. Next, there is a...
479. My Business
John 20:19-23
Illustration
Brett Blair
As D.L. Moody walked down a Chicago street one day, he saw a man leaning against a lamppost. The evangelist gently put his hand on the man's shoulder and asked him if he was a Christian. The fellow raised his fists and angrily exclaimed, "Mind your own business!" "I'm sorry if I've offended you," said Moody, "but to be very frank, that IS my business!" Moody rightly observed that this is the busi...
Children's Sermon
Brett Blair
Exegetical Aim: To demonstrate how God lavishes upon us his goodness and grace. Key verses: 28 specifically and Psalm 23:5b. Props: A full pitcher of water, a good size clear glass, and a pan large enough to hold the water that will make ample noise when struck by falling water. Lesson: Good morning! (response) How many of you this morning have friends? (response) Could anyone tell me why frien...
481. My Dog Saw The Rabbit
Matthew 13:44-46
Illustration
Brett Blair
There is a story from the Desert Fathers about a young monk who asked one of the old men of the desert why it is that so many people came out to the desert to seek God and yet most of them gave up after a short time and returned to their lives in the city. The old monk told him, "Last evening my dog saw a rabbit running for cover among the bushes of the desert and he began to chase the rabbit, ba...
Children's Sermon
Brett Blair
Exegetical Aim: The sanctity of the church. Props: A stepstool or small stepladder in front of the pulpit and the ability to take the children around the different stations of the sanctuary. Lesson: Good morning! (response) Everyone feeling well this morning? (response) Can anyone tell me about their father's house? (response) Tell me some things that are in your father's house? (response) This mo...
Children's Sermon
Brett Blair
Exegetical Aim: Help the children discern the voice of God. Props: A quality tape recorder. A hand held would be best. What to do: Record the voice of three or more parents whose kids will be participating in the Children's Sermon. Have the parent say something that would be a familiar common phrase within their home but instruct them not to say their child's name. If you have children who will be...
484. Nanook of the North
Mt 10:1-4; Lk 6:12-16
Illustration
Brett Blair
As a young man Robert Flaherty was a prospector. A trade he learned growing up in his father's business. He spent many months in the far north looking for iron ore and cod. He found neither, but during his explorations, being something of a photographer, he shot 30,000 feet of film during the travels. He was encouraged by friends to edit the film and create a movie, which Flaherty spent weeks doin...
485. Natural Disasters and The Second Coming
Mark 13:1-31
Illustration
Brett Blair
Some folk in Seattle were sure the end of the earth would come in the year 2000. Earthquakes. Floods, wars, and tornadoes will devastate the earth, they said, by the year 2001. They had planed to build an airship so they could escape. I wish I knew what these people are doing right now. Whatever good or ill lies ahead in life we need not worry about some human device to reassure us. In His own goo...
486. Nature of Faith
Eph 5:31-32
Illustration
Brett Blair
In 1520 Martin Luther explained the nature of faith using marriage as an illustration: "The third incomparable benefit of faith is that it unites the soul with Christ as a bride united with her bridegroom. By this mystery, as the apostle teaches, Christ and the soul become one flesh. And if they are one flesh and there is between them a true marriage ... it follows that everything they have they h...
487. Neglecting the Source of Our Strength
John 15:1-17
Illustration
Brett Blair
Many years ago at the Tournament of Roses parade the Standard Oil Company, now known as Chevron, had a beautiful float. In the middle of the parade the oil company's float came to a grinding halt and the rest of the parade with it. What had happened? It had run out of gas. The directors of the Chevron float had done everything well but they neglected to avail themselves of their companies vast re...
Sermon
Brett Blair
What parable would make a man with three doctoral degrees (one in medicine, one in theology, one in philosophy) leave civilization with all of its culture and amenities and depart for the jungles of darkest Africa? What parable could induce a man, who was recognized as one of the best concert organists in all of Europe, go to a place where there were no organs to play. What parable would so intens...
489. Neighbors Who Never Met - Sermon Starter
Luke 16:19-31
Illustration
Brett Blair
What parable would make a man with three doctoral degrees (one in medicine, one in theology, one in philosophy) leave civilization with all of its culture and amenities and depart for the jungles of darkest Africa? What parable could induce a man, who was recognized as one of the best concert organists in all of Europe, go to a place where there were no organs to play. What parable would so intens...
490. Never Give Up!
Luke 13:1-9
Illustration
Brett Blair
In the middle of WWII on October 29, 1941 Winston Churchill delivered a short address at the Harrow School. England had been through some of its darkest days. But Churchill was equal to the task. He said to the students: "You cannot tell from appearances how things will go. Sometimes imagination makes things out far worse than they are; yet without imagination not much can be done. Those people w...
491. Never Underestimate the Power of a Cold Cup of Water - Sermon Starter
Matt 10:40-42
Illustration
Brett Blair
Now I would like to stop the world for just one minute and ask you to think back. Think back with me to the first century. Think about those 50 years after Jesus' death and what it must been like for Jesus' disciples. Before the last one died their efforts had brought 500,000 men, women, and children into the ranks of the church. But what they had to suffer in order to accomplish this task is seld...
Sermon
Brett Blair
Now I would like to stop the world for just one minute and ask you to think back. Think back with me to the first century. Think about those 50 years after Jesus’ death and what it must been like for Jesus’ disciples. Before the last one died their efforts had brought 500,000 men women, and children into the ranks of the church. But what they had to suffer in order to accomplish this task is seldo...
493. Nicodemus
John 3:1-21
Sermon
Brett Blair
For years, the opening of "The Wide World of Sports" television program illustrated "the agony of defeat" with a painful ending to an attempted ski jump. The skier appeared in good form as he headed down the jump, but then, for no apparent reason, he tumbled head over heels off the side of the jump, bouncing off the supporting structure down to the snow below. What viewers didn't know was that he ...
494. No Celebration without Confession
John 2:12-25
Illustration
Brett Blair
Another set of "money-changers" in the church seem to have lost their reason for forgiveness. Catholic priests have expressed concern over the sharp decline in the number of people desiring to take confession. We hear a lot of talk about the word celebration in our church today. There can be no celebration until there is first confession. In the parable of the prodigal son, the banquet does not oc...
495. No One is Exempt From Doubt
John 20:19-23
Illustration
Brett Blair
Some of you may remember Dave Dravecky, former pitcher for the San Francisco Giants. At the peak of his career in 1991 he lost his pitching arm to cancer. Those who watched his 1989 comeback will never forget the Montreal game. Dave's left arm snapped with a deafening crack that could be heard in the stands. The comeback quickly ended. It was a devastating experience. It is bad enough to have canc...
Sermon
Brett Blair
Wally was big for his age--seven years old. Everyone wondered what role the teacher would give him in the annual Christmas play. Especially considering the fact that he was also a slow learner. Perhaps he could pull the curtain. To everyone’s surprise the teacher gave Wally the role of the innkeeper. The boy of course was delighted. After all, all he had to learn was one line: “There is no room i...
497. No Time Left
John 12:20-36
Illustration
Brett Blair
A man had been driving all night and by morning was still far from his destination. He decided to stop at the next city he came to, and park somewhere where it was quiet so he could get an hour or two of sleep. As luck would have it, the quiet place he chose happened to be on one of the city's major jogging routes. No sooner had he settled back for a snooze when there came a knock on his window. H...
498. Not Always A Saint
Luke 24:13-35
Illustration
Brett Blair
One of the greatest voices of the church was St. Augustine. He lived between the 4th and 5th centuries in Rome and was a Bishop. After Rome fell and faded into dust it was largely Augustine's writings that kept Christianity alive and made it the most influential movement the world had ever known. It is remarkable that between the 8th and 12th centuries his writings were more widely read than any o...
499. Not As the World Gives Peace
John 14:23-29
Illustration
Brett Blair
In the early 80's while the threat of nuclear war still hung over most the world there was a couple who, so fearful of that threat, sought to find a place somewhere on this planet where they would be free from the danger. After much time and attention to geography, trying to find the securest place possible, they settled on a group of islands, seemingly isolated from the world, called the Falkland...
500. Not Peace but Division
Luke 12:49-53
Illustration
Brett Blair
Jesus said, "Do you think I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division." That saying of Jesus has always struck me as one of the most disturbingly honest things Jesus ever said. There's a legend, which may actually be true because it sounds real, that when Abraham Lincoln was first introduced to Harriet Beecher Stowe, who wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin, he said, "So this is the...
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