Sermon and Worship Resources

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1 Corinthians 15:1-11

Sermon

Mary Austin

... through each cabinet and box. He thought hard about what to do with everything. My parents were savers so this was a big job. They believed that you never knew when you might need something again, and so their grandkids were delighted to find their parents’ childhood toys in the basement whenever they visited. There was a lot for him to sort through. Each time I visited, I would notice a brown cardboard box sitting next to the door. At the end of the visit, my dad would announce that the box was for me ...

802. We Fools

Luke 12:13-21

Sermon

Will Willimon

... boat, a clock. A priest I know says, at that point in the movie he exclaimed, ''That's my congregation!'' We are so hungry, so full of indiscriminate desire. [Read today's gospel, Luke 12:13-21.] If you take a child, even a very young child, into Toys R Us, you will not have to teach the child what to do. Hours of training by Barney and Disney have taught a child that there is no higher calling than consumption. If you take that same child into this Chapel on Sunday, that child will be disoriented, confused ...

803. First Things First

Genesis 1:1-2:3

Sermon

Will Willimon

... this world is the Deist clockmaker who sets the whole, whirring machine to working a billion or so years ago and retired. Seasons change, the planets turn, apples fall in obedience to gravity's law. Our world is not creation but rather a giant, mechanical toy. Just another machine. No need for God, once the thing gets going, so we have none in this great, clockwork, reproducing, clicking, cosmos. The machine usually works quite well and, when it doesn't, someone has a government grant to find out why, and ...

804. How Did I Get That Job?

Luke 12:13-21

Sermon

Dave Zuchelli

... dollars poorer or have I just invested in the kingdom of God? Our personal answer to questions like that one will say a lot about where we stand with our wealth and possessions. I once saw a bumper sticker that said, “He who dies with the most toys, wins.” I’m pretty sure Jesus didn’t have that one on the back of his donkey. It’s anathema to everything for which Jesus stood. While it’s no crime to be rich, Jesus had some rather stringent things to say about it. You’ve undoubtedly heard ...

805. Rule Breakers

Matthew 5:21-37

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

Have you ever noticed how many rules we unconsciously follow each day? Most of us were raised with a list of rules that help us to get along with others or to achieve some goal: Share your toys. Pick up after yourself. Don’t run with scissors. Kids often get frustrated because they have so many rules to follow. Because nobody is perfect. We all bend the rules occasionally. Yes, rules can keep us safe. They can help us create a civil society. But we can also go ...

806. After Everyone Had Gone Home

Matthew 2:13-23

Sermon

John Jamison

... sorry for Herod because he was so alone. I have never met anyone as alone and lonely as the men and women I have met in positions of great control. Oh, they don’t look lonely, that’s for sure. They are busy, have the benefits and toys that come with control, but they spend their days and nights living inside a bubble. It is a bubble that protects them from the things that might threaten their control. Only rarely does any other person get inside that bubble. The person in control is always surrounded ...

807. What Fills Your Life Now?

Acts 7:55-60

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly father.” (Matthew 5:16) As word spread of their club, they soon had members in all 50 states, and the club dues helped to pay for toys and care packages for pediatric cancer patients. According to Luke and Holly, Keaton kept his focus on helping other hospitalized children, even as he was undergoing grueling cancer treatments himself. His positive attitude, his compassion for others, and his dedication inspired his ...

808. If There Isn’t Enough To Go Around

Matthew 14:13-21

Sermon

William G. Carter

... but her failures etched deep lines into her face. In time, their home became haunted with the unspoken phrase, “There must be more money.” No one ever said it aloud, least of all the children. But the words filled the home, especially when expensive toys filled the nursery. Behind the shining modern rocking-horse, behind the smart doll’s house, a voice would start whispering: “There must be more money. There must be more money.” The children could hear it all the time, though nobody said it aloud ...

809. Dynamic Preaching January 2024 Sermons

Sermon

King Duncan

... her baby brother on her lap and tells him the story of Christmas. According to her version: Jesus was born just in time for Christmas up at the North Pole surrounded by eight tiny reindeer and the Virgin Mary. Then Santa Claus showed up with lots of toys and stuff and some swaddling clothes. The three Wise men and elves all sang carols while the Little Drummer Boy and Scrooge helped Joseph trim the tree. It was Frosty the Snowman who saw the star. Her confusion is understandable. There is a lot to learn ...

810. We Don’t Have To Do This

Mark 8:31-38

Children's Sermon

Various Authors

... to her house. When the babysitter came, the girl’s parents left instructions that the girl must do some homework for a spelling test before she could have her bedtime snack. The babysitter and the girl then began to have a good time playing with some toys. They had such a great time that they didn’t realize how late it was getting. The babysitter said, “Let’s stop playing and review your spelling words.” The girl answered, “Oh, we’re having such a good time, let’s forget the spelling words ...

811. Why We Light the Candles

Luke 2:1-20 · Isaiah 9:2, 6

Sermon

Will Willimon

... dark, our world. Tonight, this service is blessed with many children, whose faces shine in the glow of our candles. But tonight, there are children in Durham who will go to bed hungry, who know from Christmases past, they shall not wake in the morning to new toys. Tonight in our town, a little child will cry itself to sleep, when Christmas Eve becomes an occasion for Daddy to too much and Mama to pay the price for his abuse. No candles within the Durham jail tonight. It will be dark. And when, on the radio ...

812. For Someone Remembered by Many

Luke 24:13-35 · Acts 20:31-35 · Matthew 16:13-20

Eulogy

Richard E. Zajac

... number of you are old enough to remember home milk deliveries, newsreels before movies, telephone numbers that began with words, party lines, hula hoops, 45 RPM records, green stamps, treasure chest coupons, Lincoln Logs, 15 cent hamburgers, Studebakers, washtub ringers, Tinker Toys, the Fuller Brush Man, five cent packs of baseball cards with that awful layer of bubblegum inside, erector sets, pop guns and roller skate keys. Those of you old enough to remember many of the things and places and people I ...

813. A Gift With YOUR Name On It

Romans 1:1-7

Sermon

Heather Sugden

... kids would rearrange the gifts into our own little piles and dream of what might be inside the pretty paper, underneath the bows, and inside the variety of boxes. We kids also dreamed out loud about what gifts still might be coming our way. We wondered if a certain toy could possibly be in a box that size and shape, or if it was still to come… The focus on our gifts became so all-consuming, in fact, that my mother tried to distract us. When games and songs and the light-hearted threat did not work to move ...

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