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Showing 601 to 625 of 2561 results

601. Slavery and Freedom

John 8:31-41

Sermon

Jesus then said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." They answered him, "We are descendants of Abraham, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will be made free’?" Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, every one who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not continue in the house for ever; the son continues for ever. So if the Son makes ...

602. Proper 15

Lk 12:49-56 · Jer 20:7-13; 23:23-29; 38:4-10

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

THE LESSONS Jeremiah 20:7-13 For preaching Yahweh's message of doom, Jeremiah is persecuted but is confident of victory. Jeremiah expresses his inner turmoil as a prophet. True to God's Word, he preaches doom and destruction for the nation at the hands of the Babylonians as God's judgment upon their sins of idolatry and wickedness. For telling the truth of what is coming, he is ridiculed and thrown into stocks; friends wait to catch him in a word of treason. Because he loves his people, he is hurt by their ...

603. An Altered State of Consciousness

Romans 5:1-11

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

Now we move to the fourth Sunday after Pentecost, and from the reading we select the text: "For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." We shall come into new life by his life. That means a different life, a new way of seeing things, "an altered state of consciousness." Let me give it to you in the terms of one man’s experience. He was an exceptionally fine plumber - so good that he was employed in a nuclear ...

604. Clouds and Son-Shine

Ephesians 3:1-13

Sermon

Hubert Beck

Motivation is the key to life. It is not only the key to getting work done, but it is the key to living itself! Once a person loses the will to live, health suffers and death is never more than a step or two away. Motivation is hard to sustain at times, though. The cloudy moments of life cause us to say, "What’s the use of it all?" We want to chuck everything and let come what may without care or concern. That’s when we need to see again the glory of the Lord revealed, for in God’s presence among us we ...

605. Being Set Free

John 8:31-41

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

Today’s Gospel promises us freedom, if we will truly be disciples of Christ. In fact, Jesus promises that if we will learn, know, and follow the truth, we will be set free. Remember, however, first we must become disciples. Jesus tells us that to be a real disciple is to accept what he says about how great God is and how terrible sin is, and what the real meaning of life is. When we do this, we are starting to take the role of discipleship. In order to be a disciple, we are told to remain in the word. The ...

606. Night Fighters

Sermon

James Bjorge

Night can be beautiful when dreams of sugar plums dance through your head. When worries have wandered away and left you relaxed, the descending darkness comes like a billowy blanket of down. God has washed behind your years and you feel clean and content as you slip into the freshly washed sheets for a long winter’s nap. No doubt about it, night can be nice. But it is not always that cozy and comfortable. Night can be blacker than a hundred midnights in a southern swamp. Anxiety, fear and pain become like ...

607. How Do You Like Yourself?

1 Peter 3:8-22

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

Tell me, what do you think of yourself? How do you feel about living with you? You know, the precedents aren’t too encouraging. A man that we call Saint Peter cried out: "O, Lord, keep away from me, for I am a sinful man." A man whom we call Saint Paul had the words wrenched out of him: "O, wretched man that I am." And the great king, David, cried out in the Psalm: "I am a worm" - I am a worm! - "and no man." Or make it more contemporary. A teenage girl in my study stated her problem honestly: "People don’ ...

608. 'Nevertheless': A Word of Faith

Luke 5:1-11

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

Conventional wisdom has it that Billy Graham got his big push toward success from newspaperman William Randolph Hearst. In 1949 Graham's first major crusade was being launched in Los Angeles, and Hearst owned both major newspapers there. Supposedly, Hearst sent a brief message to his editors, saying, “Puff Graham.” But Billy Graham has a different understanding of his launching. In his autobiography, Just As I Am, he tells about a retreat he attended just a few months before that crusade. One night he was ...

609. Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone?

Luke 9:18-27

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

In Douglas Southall Freeman’s classic biography of the famous Southern commander, Robert E. Lee, he tells about a young mother who brought her baby to him to be blessed. General Lee took the infant in his arms, looked at it, and then said to the mother, “Teach him that he must deny himself.” Both of our scriptural texts for today agree wholeheartedly with General Lee. The prophet Joel declared, “Return to the Lord with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.” Jesus said, “If any want to become my ...

610. A Time to Dance

Psalm 30:1-12

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

My maternal grandfather was a railroad engineer and a Presbyterian elder. During the 1930s he had three teenaged children. It was his custom on many Saturday nights to invite all the local teenagers into his large living room for a dance. He would hire a little three-piece band and roll back the rugs. Grandfather was thrilled that the teenaged girls would invite him to dance and then would break in on each other. Some of the other elders at the church did not share Grandfather's enthusiasm for those dances ...

611. Hector’s Case Against Christmas

Luke 1:26-38

Sermon

Erskine White

"In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee named Nazareth." (v. 26) I am going to begin the Advent season this year by telling you a part of the Christmas story which is unknown to most people because it was left out of the modern Bible. Of course, ministers have known about this for many years, but we have kept it secret because we didn’t want to shake anyone’s faith. But in this age of full and complete disclosure, I have finally decided to break with my fellow clergy’s ...

612. Come Celebrate! Send in the Light!

Isaiah 9:1-7

Sermon

Richard L. Eslinger

It was a time of growing darkness for the covenant people. There was not much light in sight. Israel, the northern kingdom, had fallen to the Assyrians and now they threatened Jerusalem itself. Isaiah had pointed to these disasters as sign of judgment from Yahweh, the Covenant God. But the people learned nothing from all the disasters. With nothing but tiny Judah and David’s city left unconquered, it only seemed a matter of time. It was a time of growing darkness. And to the people walking in that darkness ...

613. Remember!

Deuteronomy 31:30--32:47

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Oft in the stilly night, Ere slumber's chain has bound me, Fond memory brings the light Of other days around me.(1) Memories...we like them...and we need them. And as those words of Thomas Moore remind us, we are comforted and instructed by them. That is why a day such as this is a GOOD day. I have WONDERFUL memories of Oakdale. I remember our first night together - a covered dish dinner, our Erin just one week old (and now a sophomore in high school), and Emily Beamguard insisting that I sing. I remember ...

614. There's No Such Thing as Too Much Sugar

Psalm 91:1-16

Sermon

David E. Leininger

The Archangel Michael. We meet him here in Revelation as commanding General of God's forces in heaven. We meet him in the book of Daniel as the guardian of the nation of Israel,(1) who, together with Gabriel, fought against the prince (the angelic patron) of Persia. Then we meet him once more in Jude 9 where we read of a strange dispute between the devil and Michael over Moses' body. We meet him today on the liturgical calendar - in some church traditions, today, September 29th, is the Feast Day of St. ...

615. The Preacher Was A Bigot

Jonah 3:1-10

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Jonah. Terrific story. One of Sunday School's most memorable hours - it is great drama. As you recall Jonah was a prophet in Israel. God came to him and said that he should leave his nation and go over to the capital of one of his country's fiercest foes...Ninevah in Assyria. Jonah did not want to go. So he went down to the seaport of Joppa and got on a boat headed for Tarshish in Spain. The direction was exactly opposite the one God wanted him to take. Jonah did not want to preach to the Ninevites. After ...

616. The Get-ready Man

Isaiah 40:1-31

Sermon

King Duncan

James Thurber once told of a thin and lanky prophet who went around his boyhood hometown crying, "Get ready! Get ready! The world is coming to an end!" The community called him the Get-Ready Man. That tag could have been applied to John the Baptist. He was a get-ready man if there ever was one: "A voice crying in the wilderness, ˜Prepare the way of the Lord.’" This is the season of getting ready. That is the purpose of Advent. It is a time to get ready for the celebration of the Lord’s birth. Norm Lawson ...

617. Rushing And Realizing

Isaiah 2:1-5

Sermon

King Duncan

Advent was one week away, so Michelle Hardie and her husband thought they'd see what their children remembered from their family devotions the year before. "Who can tell me what the four candles in the Advent wreath represent?" Michelle asked. Luke jumped in with seven-year-old wisdom and exuberance. "There's love, joy, peace, and . . . and . . ." "I know!" six-year-old Elise interrupted to finish her brother's sentence: "Peace and quiet!" (1) I don't know about you, but peace and quiet would get my vote. ...

618. 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’ ...

619. Finding Our Way Back Home

2 Corinthians 5:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

Have you ever been accused of being a little absent-minded? Some of us have. We can take comfort in the fact that somewhere in Norway there is a young man named Jermund Skogstad who is worse off than we. Last year Jermund moved from the country to the city and rented an apartment. Thirty minutes after moving into his apartment, he stepped out for a bite to eat. By the time he found a cafe, he was hopelessly lost and had no idea how to get home. Further, he had forgotten the address of his new apartment. ...

620. For Laughing Out Loud!

Genesis 18:1-15

Sermon

King Duncan

There are all kinds of reasons to laugh. Sometimes we laugh out of embarrassment. Other times we laugh because something is witty. There are times we laugh to cover our despair. I was reading recently about a man who awoke one morning to find a puddle of water in the middle of his king-size water bed. In order to fix the puncture, he rolled the heavy mattress outdoors and filled it with more water so he could locate the leak more easily. The enormous bag of water was impossible to control and began rolling ...

621. Unlocking The Doors

John 20:19-23

Sermon

King Duncan

Sometime back, former talk show host Johnny Carson visited Harvard University to receive an award. After the ceremony he agreed to answer some questions from members of the press. One reporter asked, "What would you like to have inscribed on your tombstone?" Carson thought for just a second, then answered with the words he used before every commercial break on his television show. He wanted his tombstone to say, "I'll be right back." Throughout the pages of the gospels we see how much the disciples loved ...

622. Facing Up To The Giant Task Of Life

1 Samuel 17:1-58

Sermon

Eric Ritz

From our scripture lesson this morning, we find that facing a Giant task is not a new experience in human history, nor in the life of the people of God. In our passage from I Samuel, we see an incident that would put a challenge into any person. Here are two armies in their camps, each occupying a side of the mountain, with a valley in between them. Out of the camp of the Philistines comes the giant, Goliath, the champion of the group, with an interesting proposal to save bloodshed. It would be well for ...

623. Thanks For All You've Done

Colossians 1:15-23, Colossians 1:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

The story is told of a professor of philosophy at a major university in this country who was a deeply committed atheist. His primary goal for one required class was to spend the entire semester attempting to prove that God couldn't exist. His students were always afraid to argue with him because of his impeccable logic. For twenty years, he had taught this class and no one had ever had the courage to go against him. Sure, some had argued in class at times, but no one had ever "really gone against him." ...

624. A Place Of Honor

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

King Duncan

A Sunday school teacher had been telling a class of little boys about crowns of glory and heavenly rewards for good people. "Now tell me," the teacher said at the close of the lesson, "in heaven, who will get the biggest crown?" There was silence for a while then Johnny replied, "Him what's got the biggest head!" Pretty good answer! James and John, the two sons of Zebedee, came up to Jesus with a request. "Teacher," they say somewhat presumptuously, "we want You to do for us whatever we ask of You." Jesus ...

625. When Your Lips Are One Place But Your Heart . . .

Mark 7:1-23

Sermon

King Duncan

It would make a great idea for a Country-Western song: "When your lips are one place, but your heart is somewhere else." If someone has a steel guitar or a fiddle, maybe we can work on the lyrics after the service. "When your lips are one place, but your heart is somewhere else." Jesus doesn't claim the title as his own; he attributes it to the prophet Isaiah. "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites," said Jesus to the Pharisees. "As it is written: "˜These people honor me with their lips ...

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