Sermon and Worship Resources

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Proverbs 18:21

Sermon

James Merritt

... . 29:20) It's like the man I heard about who walked into a bird shop one day. There was a parrot sitting up on a perch and in a very smart aleck fashion he looked at the parrot and said, "Hey stupid, can you speak?" The parrot said, "Yes, dummy, can you fly?" Years later, as an old man, Solomon never forgot his own advice. For he said in Eccl. 5:2, "Do not be rash with your mouth, and let not your heart utter anything hastily before God. For God is in heaven, and you on earth; therefore let ...

52. The Client

Zechariah 3:1-7

Sermon

James Merritt

... can get us to focus on our sin, rather than on our Savior, he can hide the sunshine of salvation's joy behind the dark cloud of guilt, and paralyze us in our work, our walk, our worship, and our witness. You see, whatever else Satan is, he is no dummy, and he knows exactly how to get to any child of God. First, he will tempt you. He will show you the mud puddle. Then he will trip you and cause you to fall into the puddle. Then he will trap you and cover you totally with the mud in ...

53. Belling the Cat

John 6:60-71

Sermon

King Duncan

... relish, ketchup, and mustard. He shaves in Wal‑Mart bathrooms and showers at truck stops. Dave never pays to park, and he finds the cheapest tickets he can. He eats bananas for breakfast and orders lunch from the McDonald’s dollar menu. Dave is no dummy. He has earned four master’s degrees but retired after more than thirty years of teaching junior high phys-ed. He just loves sports. Not surprisingly, Dave has an ex‑wife and two estranged daughters. His girlfriend teaches school in Japan. As far as ...

54. Fault-Finding

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

Illustration

J. David Hoke

... by any other name smell as sweet? I'm sure it would. You see, the truth is that the thing is what it is, not what someone calls it. Names are assigned to us, based on our outward circumstances by ourselves and other people. "Sinner, Failure, Stupid, Dummy, Unclean" all are names which label us. But what we are called, either by others or by ourselves does not determine who we are. It might speak of those external circumstances, but it might be wholly inaccurate. You see, a failure is not someone who fails ...

55. Operation Omega

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... Big Hunk of Love” put it, “I ain’t greedy, Baby, all I want is all you got!” All God wants is all you got. Nothing more, nothing less. In the words of the Jewish Shema, spoken daily by the observant — words I like to call “God for Dummies” God is to be loved “with all” with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind.” “Love All. Serve All.” That’s how you launch Operation Omega. So let’s each of us launch Operation Omega this week. Here are ...

56. “Unto Us A Child Is Born... Next, On Omar”

Luke 2:1-7

Drama

Lois Anne DeLong

... didn’t give us a hard time rounding them up. Shepherd 3: And just like the Angels said, we found the baby lying in a manger, with animals all around him, and he was all wrapped up like a mummy. Shepherd 2: That was the swaddling clothes, dummy! And, besides, his head wasn’t covered. Omar: Okay, okay, let’s cool it. Our “Shepherds Who Just Can’t Get Along” show is next week. Let’s take some questions from the audience. (Audience Member 1 stands up, from front row of audience. Jacob walks over ...

57. How To Handle Criticism? Keep Moving

Luke 9:51-56

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... an impact, words can have on children. Children who receive constant criticisms about their looks, or their brains, or their abilities, grow up believing the words thrown at them. Some of you here this morning are spending your adulthood with the sound of “dummy,” “fatso,” “geek,” “airhead,” “loser,” echoing in your ears. Words can stunt spirits. Words can break hearts. We cut each other’s throats with our tongues. So what can we say to those who use words to wound us? How should we ...

58. The Exalted Christ

Mark 9: 2-10

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat; I am. Follow me and I will show you how. Self help is no help at all." (Message Bible) Stores are stocked with books on leadership. There is even a book entitled, Leadership for Dummies. If I attended one-tenth of the leadership seminars that come across my desk I would never be present to lead this congregation. We are a church and society obsessed with leadership. Jesus had a different idea. He was interested in follower- ship. Before you lead, you ...

59. Can You Be Popular and Serve Jesus?

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

King Duncan

... were off as much as half the number. But each time the sociology professor reported hearing whatever the first eleven reported. And before the experiment was over, he simply stopped counting. “It is clear that they know something I don’t,” he said to himself. “The dummies all report what they heard before they get to me. By being last, I can just let them figure it out and report whatever they say since they seem to know.” You doubtless already know what he should have known. There were not twelve ...

60. Deceit as the Art of War

Illustration

Staff

Deception has been a part of warfare since the Trojan horse. During WWII, it became high art. Members of the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops used special "weapons" like dummy planes, tanks, antiaircraft guns, and amplified recordings that created war sounds to fool the German high command. To enable a combat unit to change positions or even attack when the Germans thought it hadn't moved at all, the 1800 men of the 23rd impersonated entire divisions. They would move ...

61. I'll Take the Nickle

Humor Illustration

Joey was a little slow. In fact, Joey was just plain dumb in most people's opinion. Some of the boys would play a joke on Joey. They would show him a nickel and a dime and offer him a choice of one of the two coins. Joey, being the dummy that he was, would always pick the nickel. One day a kindly lady who had heard about Joey decided to see if he was really as dumb as everyone said he was. She took a dime and a nickel from her purse and offered them to him. Joey picked up ...

62. Soiled Faith and Watered-Down Churches

1 Corinthians 3:1-23

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... from the get go. But in the most shallow part of the wading area of that “fixer-upper” gene pool, there are those of us who should never be allowed to handle hammers, screwdrivers, or saws. There are those (like me) who find “Plumbing for Dummies” more challenging than a dissertation on quantum mechanics. All of us have our special gifts; all of us have our special limitations for those things fixable or tweak-able. But, as we so often fail to realize, not everything in life can be “fixed.” Nor ...

63. Waiting Is So Hard to Do

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... Asians can’t wait for that door to close so they can be on their way. Ironically, notes Dr. Sneeringer, the CLOSE DOOR button is often disabled by building managers for liability reasons. People keep pushing the button and it doesn’t even work. It is a dummy, a piece of exercise equipment for anxious fingers.” (2) The point is that few of us enjoy waiting: in an elevator, in a long shopping line, in the doctor’s office or wherever we happen to be. One woman tells about arriving 20 minutes early for ...

64. Gog

Ezekiel 38:1-39:29

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... the land of Magog. This is unique in that in none of the oracles of chapters 25–32 is any specific individual named. Where Ezekiel uses names they are normally metaphorical, as in Oholah and Oholibah (chap. 23). It may be that Gog and Magog are “dummy” words. Commentators have frequently connected Gog with Gyges, king of Lydia, or with Gagaia, referred to in the cuneiform tablets from Tell el-Amarna in Egypt as a king of the barbarians. Magog is mentioned in the Old Testament only in Genesis 10:2 (= 1 ...

65. Out of Control (Good Friday sermon)

John 18:1-19:42

Sermon

John Jamison

... looked like one of those situations that might erupt into a riot. It was a situation that might end up being heard about in Rome and costing him his job, so he realized he needed to resolve it then and there. Whatever else Pilate was, he was no dummy. He had heard the crowd saying something about Jesus being the King of the Jews, and if someone was actually claiming to be a king, that could be considered the kind of political threat that would give him the ability to respond legally. As John tells the story ...

66. We Are Not Alone

John 14:15-31

Sermon

Robert C. Cochran

... gift of the Holy Spirit. In honor of this, I decided to not prepare a sermon today. Instead, I’m just going to stand here and let the Holy Spirit tell me what to say. Uh.... As Christians, we are not to become empty-headed ventriloquist dummies sitting on the Holy Spirit’s lap: we need to continue to use our God-given minds. Some would disagree with this, believing that the Holy Spirit works solely through the emotions. The Holy Spirit thus becomes the “Holy Spouter.” From this perspective, one can ...

When I met Jean, I felt God reach down out of the sky, pull my hair, and say, "This one, dummy."

Richard Atcheson

68. Being Good

Matthew 5:17-20

Sermon

Will Willimon

... woman. "Well, I’m really supposed to only go to the House of Israel," said Jesus, ''but what the heck?" (15:Zlff.). He heals her. "Rabbi, Moses said a man could get out of marriage by giving his wife a certificate of divorce." "It was a dumb law made for dummies like you," said Jesus (19:3-9). "Sometimes you've got to break a rule to do what's right. Stay married." "You have heard it said of old but I say to you" (5:21-48). That's our Jesus. It is possible to be so good, so right ...

69. Living at Cross-Purposes

Matthew 10:24-39

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... Leeds who faked her own death to get out of her commitment to the church. William Melton, the Archbishop of York, wrote the letter in 1318 that describes Joan, with the help of accomplices, escaping the convent. The archbishop wrote that Joan “crafted a dummy in the likeness of her body in order to mislead the devoted faithful, and she had no shame in procuring its burial in a sacred space amongst the religious of that place.” (1) We all have trouble following through with our commitments sometimes. But ...

70. Jesus' Final Exam

Luke 20:19-40

Sermon

Will Willimon

... 't be married to all seven brothers at once. It doesn't seem right for her to be married only to one. What's the answer? Jesus again throws the whole thing back in the face of his examiners. The resurrection isn't dumb, you're what's dumb. Dummy, we're talking resurrection of the dead here, not just some old extension of all the unjust, unequal, and dead old social arrangements with which you are familiar where women are no more than the property of this man or that one. The resurrection is God's reworking ...

71. Family Ties And Unties

Mark 3:20-35

Sermon

David Coffin

... helped Rudy get into Holy Cross Junior College, where he met a tutor and worked as a groundskeeper. After many failed efforts to get into Notre Dame, he was finally accepted and was a walk-on player. He was part of the team as the tackling dummy and red shirt squad that performed the opposing teams’ plays. He inspired the rest of the Notre Dame players to the point that they insisted that he gets to have field time for their final season game against Georgia Tech. The young man who everybody thought ...

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