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Sermon
King Duncan
Charles Kuralt travels across the United States learning about people. Recently he visited the mountains of North Carolina. Kuralt claims that mountain people know a lot of things the rest of us have forgotten. For example, at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve the mountain people he visited open their windows. That's to let bad luck out and good luck in. On New Year's Day they eat black-eyed peas for dinner. That's also for good luck. Don't worry if you forgot. Simply look for a red-haired girl ...

Sermon
Charles R. Leary
I have to tell you, I generally ask myself a lot of questions. And when I have the opportunity, I ask questions of others. But today I am asking, "What is the question?" What is your question? If you were offered one wish that would be granted, one question that would be answered, one priority that would be fulfilled, right now, at this time in your life, what would it be? What is the question? The untimely death of Michael Landon recently caused me to ask myself, "What would I do...what would I say...with ...

Sermon
King Duncan
(Fourth Sunday in Advent) There is a book titled BARREN COUPLES AND BROKEN HEARTS. It is about married couples who desperately want to have children but, for one reason or another, are unable. It is one of life's ironies, isn't it? Some couples have unexpected and even unwanted pregnancies. Other couples who are totally unfit to be parents also have no difficulty breeding. Then there are those couples with so much love to give but who are denied the opportunity. Of course, children are a challenge. I read ...

Sermon
Dr. Ronald Love
Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, in his autobiography TREASURE IN CLAY, recounts a visit he made to a leper colony in Buluba, Africa. He intended to give a silver crucifix to each of the 500 lepers residing in Buluba. The first person who came forward, however, was a man so disfigured by the ravages of leprosy that Sheen was repulsed by the sight. The man's left arm was eaten off at the elbow by the disease; so he extended his right hand. This hand, too, was unspeakably corrupted by this awful disease. Unable ...

Sermon
Dr. B. Bruce Humphrey
Will Rodgers had a reputation that he could make anyone laugh. President Calvin Coolidge had a reputation that he never laughed at anything. Finally, Will Rodgers was invited to the White House. People wondered what would happen. Both men's reputations were at stake. It is said that Will Rodgers came through the reception line and was introduced to the President. "President Coolidge, this is Will Rodgers. Mr. Rodgers, this is President Calvin Coolidge." Will Rodgers leaned forward and said, "I'm sorry, I ...

Sermon
Eric Ritz
I want to ask you a very important and penetrating question this morning to set the stage for our sermon today. Please answer it in the quietness of your own heart but with utter honesty. Do you have a forgiving spirit? Do you have a forgiving spirit? You could probably answer this question with both a yes and no. When it comes to the difficult subject of forgiveness, there are always limitations, conditions, circumstances, and varying qualifications to the answer we give. However, as we gather this ...

Sermon
King Duncan
A family of five were enjoying their day at the beach. The children were bathing in the ocean and making castles in the sand when in the distance a little old lady appeared. Her gray hair was blowing in the wind and her clothes were dirty and ragged. She was muttering something to herself as she picked up things from the beach and put them into a bag. The parents called the children to their side and told them to stay away from the old lady. As she passed by, bending down every now and then to pick things ...

Sermon
King Duncan
It is a true story - no matter how much like a fairy tale it may sound. A totally unsuspecting man literally stumbled upon the world's largest diamond - all 3,106 carats of it. It happened in Premier Mine #2, near Pretoria, South Africa, in early 1905. This amazing stone was then sent in an ordinary cardboard box to England. One hundred and five stones were cut from this diamond, known as the Cullinan diamond. Two of the largest stones which it produced, the 530-carat Star of Africa and the 317-carat ...

Matthew 6:25-34
Sermon
King Duncan
Very few families are more thankful, or have more to be thankful for, than the Chandler family of Mississippi. The late Charles Kuralt profiled the family a few Thanksgivings ago, when they all gathered from the corners of the U.S. to celebrate their parents' fiftieth wedding anniversary. Kuralt begins the story with the parents, Alex and Mary Chandler, an African-American couple, that raised their nine children in a one-room sharecropper's cabin in Mississippi. The family was poor, and faced many ...

Sermon
King Duncan
A young pastor was telling his congregation how bad women are. He stated that a lot of the trouble in the world was due to women. He went on and on about women and the problems they cause. After the message the pastor was greeting the people as they left church. An older husky woman came up to the pastor and, as she was shaking his hand, she squeezed it quite unmercifully. He cried out, "That hurts." She asked him, "What was the telephone number of the Garden of Eden?" He said, "I don't know." She ...

Sermon
King Duncan
One day many years ago, a fisherman's wife blessed her husband with twin sons. They loved the children very much, but couldn't think of what to name them. Finally, after several days, the fisherman said, "Let's not decide on names right now. If we wait a little while, the names will simply occur to us." After several weeks had passed, the fisherman and his wife noticed a peculiar fact. When left alone, one of the boys would turn toward the sea, while the other boy would face inland. It didn't matter which ...

Sermon
King Duncan
What's it like to live without hope? What's it like to finally decide that your dreams are beyond your abilities and to resign yourself to living without any prospect that things will get better? The closest thing I could find to a picture of a person totally without hope comes from a book by Dr. David Jeremiah titled The Power of Encouragement. Dr. Jeremiah tells about an old Alfred Hitchcock show which featured the story of an evil woman jailed for committing a murder. The woman soon realizes that her ...

2 Corinthians 12:1-10
Sermon
King Duncan
Journalist David Osborne was excited about the purchase of his new home at 58 Glebe Street in the suburbs of Sydney, Australia. Renovations were nearly complete, and he was due to move in within a week. After work, he drove to his new address to check on some of the final details. When Osborne arrived that fateful Monday afternoon, he found a “what's-wrong-with-this-picture" scenario beyond his ability to believe. His dream home had become a nightmare. A huge crane with a wrecking ball towered over his ...

Mark 6:30-44
Sermon
King Duncan
A lady opened her refrigerator and saw a rabbit sitting on one of the shelves. "What are you doing in there?" she asked. The rabbit replied: "This refrigerator is a Westinghouse, isn't it?" To which the lady replied "Yes." "Well," the rabbit said, "I'm westing." I guess everybody needs a westinghouse. Everyone needs a quiet spot--a place that they can get away to recharge the batteries, to re-nourish the spirit. In the 1970s, Michael Caine and Sidney Poitier co-starred in the movie Zulu, which was shot in ...

Sermon
King Duncan
Robert Fulghum tells a wonderful story about a kindergarten class that decided to perform the story of "Cinderella." There are lots of roles in "Cinderella," but still casting was a chore. All the girls, of course, wanted to be Cinderella. Finally all the children were assigned roles except one--a small tubby kid named Norman. The teacher asked, "Norman, what are you going to be?" "Well," said Norman, "I think I will be the pig." The teacher said, "Norman, there is no pig in the story of Cinderella." And ...

Matthew 16:21-28
Sermon
King Duncan
Many of you are familiar with the Broadway musical, Fiddler On The Roof. It is a touching story about a deeply devout middle-aged Jewish man named Tevye and his wife Golde (pronounced Golda). They live in Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century. Their lives are hard, but filled with devotion. A complicating factor in their lives is that they have all daughters. Finding proper matches for their daughters is a major theme in the musical. This is in a community in which marriages are arranged by the ...

Revelation 7:9-17
Sermon
King Duncan
Not long ago, a company in California opened Tinseltown Studios, a theme park devoted to celebrities and the power of stardom. Tinseltown had an interesting twist: for a measly $45 entrance fee, the guests would get to feel what it's like to be famous. Park employees were paid to fawn over visitors, cheer for them, line up along the streets and gawk at them, pester them for autographs. Paparazzi lurked around every corner, snapping photos of the park visitors. Reporters rushed up and asked for interviews. ...

Sermon
King Duncan
An interesting idea appeared recently in THE NEW YORK TIMES magazine. It is a video tape produced by Quality Video of Minneapolis titled, "Video Baby." It is designed for consumers who are devoted to family values but can't seem to find the time to start a family. This 30-minute tape shows two infants doing what babies tend to do, like crawl around the house, play with a rattle, take a bubble bath and turn lunch into a complete mess. There's no narrator (and no cleanup), so once the tape is in the VCR ...

Sermon
King Duncan
There was an article in the newspapers sometime back about a British husband who walked out on a 38-year marriage because he could not stand his wife obsessively moving the furniture. John Turner filed for divorce, complaining he was sick and tired of his wife Pauline shifting chairs, tables, the television--and anything not fixed to the walls--every single day of their married life. "Moving furniture about was just something I did and I always will do," Pauline says. "I suppose everybody has their little ...

Sermon
Angela Akers
Before her death in 1997, Jeanne Calment was the oldest living human whose age could be verified by official documentation. This remarkable French lady claimed she owed her longevity to chocolate, olive oil, and port wine. On her one hundred and twentieth birthday celebration, someone asked Ms. Calment, "What is your vision of the future?" With a twinkle in her eye, Ms. Calment replied, "Very brief." (1) Let's talk about vision. Someone has compiled a list of forty "Killer Phrases," the things that people ...

Sermon
King Duncan
Do you remember a unique cultural phenomenon from years ago called "elephant jokes"? These were jokes that were totally nonsensical. They were funny because they were absurd. For example, here is an elephant joke: An elephant was thoroughly enjoying himself as he splashed about in the river. A mouse was perched on the sandy shore. It was obvious that he was disturbed about something. The mouse yelled at the elephant, "Come out of the water at once." The elephant laughed and said, "Why should I come out?" ...

Sermon
King Duncan
Comedian Drew Carey once said something that I think is quite funny. I hope no one will think it's sacrilegious. Carey asks, "So what's the Pope doing with bodyguards and bulletproof glass? Is he afraid someone will shoot him? [Is he afraid] he'll die and go to heaven? That would be horrible, huh?" Then Carey adds, "If the Pope's afraid to die, what chance do we have?"(1) Interesting thought. I doubt that the Pope is afraid to die. I'm sure the bulletproof glass is so he can continue leading the Church as ...

1 Corinthians 12:12-31, 1 Corinthians 12:1-11
Sermon
King Duncan
Margo Ballantyne was shopping at a store in Scotland when it seemed that the whole world suddenly stopped. As Margo sorted through stacks of scarves, the other shoppers in the store suddenly froze in place. All conversation ceased. Sales clerks refused to make eye contact with Margo or answer her questions. What would you think if you were in Margo's situation? She assumed that she was unwelcome in the store, that she was out of place. But then, Margo remembered that on this particular day, November 11th, ...

2 Thessalonians 3:1-5
Sermon
King Duncan
There's a silly story going around about two factory workers, Joe and Lester, who were talking. "I know how to get some time off from work, " said Joe. "How do you think you'll do that? " asked Lester. At this, Joe climbed up to the rafters of the factory and hung upside down by his knees. The boss walked in, saw Joe hanging from the ceiling, and asked him what on earth he was doing. "I'm a light bulb," Joe answered. "I think you need some time off," said the boss. So Joe jumped down and walked out of the ...

Isaiah 11:1-10
Sermon
King Duncan
A Swiss man, Jean Francois Vernetti, is listed in Guinness World Records 2004. What did Mr. Vernetti do that was so extraordinary? He made the Guiness book because of his enormous collection of "Do Not Disturb" signs. In his travels to 131 countries, Vernetti has amassed a collection of 2,915 "Do Not Disturb" signs in a variety of languages. He dreams of collecting such signs from all 191 countries of the world. (1) Who would have thought that this would be a universal sign? "Do Not Disturb." On second ...

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