Synonyms: Levi, disciple, evangelist, tax collector, the 12, the twelve, apostle, sermon on the mount, jewish audience, beatitudes, lord's prayer, great commission, parables, olivet discourse, mount of olives, olivet, synoptic
Showing 901 to 925 of 2273 results
Sermon
David R. Cartwright
How do you handle what happens when you're not prepared for what happens? Well, sometimes not all that well. I would like to call your attention to a movie, Cheaper By The Dozen, starring Steve Martin. There are numerous scenes in this movie that illustrate how one father tries to take care of things while his wife is away. This movie is about a father who has just gotten his dream job of coaching football at his college alma mater. But this job change calls for him, his wife, their twelve children — yes, ...
Sermon
King Duncan
A certain aged Catholic priest had become deaf. So members of his parish would write out their sins on a piece of paper before going to confession. One day, a parishioner slipped a piece of paper to the priest which read, “Two loaves of bread, a gallon of milk, a box of detergent and a pound of bananas.” The puzzled priest scanned the note, then passed it back to the parishioner. The parishioner looked at the note, then exclaimed with horror, “Oh, no! I’ve left my sins at the grocery store.” Well, where ...
Sermon
James Merritt
Without question, I can tell you what my absolute, all time, favorite meal is. It is so special that I only get to eat it once a year. It is so special, and so good, and so tasty that it is worth the wait. It is not just what I get to eat that makes it the most special meal of the year, but who I get to eat it with. It is the time of year I get to eat it and it is the occasion that brings me to the table. Can you guess what meal this is? It is Thanksgiving. The reason why Thanksgiving is my favorite meal ...
Sermon
King Duncan
Comedienne Joan Rivers who died last year once said something with which many people would agree. “People say that money isn’t the key to happiness,” said Joan Rivers, “but I always figured if you have enough money, you can have a key made.” “I always figured if you have enough money . . .” says Joan Rivers. How much is enough money? That is a good question. A Hollywood film editor once said, “I had this date the other night with a woman who wanted to walk along the beach. I’m wearing a twelve?hundred ...
905. 144,000 Sealed
Revelation 7:1-8
Understanding Series
Robert W. Wall
In concluding the horrific judgment brought about by the opening of the sixth seal, John interposes an eschatological interlude that responds to the two questions evoked by the experience of human suffering. Whether they concern the suffering of Christian martyrs, lamented at the opening of the scroll’s fifth seal, or of their persecutors, initiated by the sixth, the cries for vindication and of lamentation envision a common recognition that the social order and its ruling elite are opposed to the well- ...
Drama
Karren Boehr
Theme: The Fruit Of Kindness The small, insignificant things people do in life often carry more impact than they realize. This drama may be presented as a whole or in two sections with a time period lapse. Example: at the beginning and end of a service/sermon. If this play is done as a whole, place Scene I to left of stage, Scene II to right of stage. Scene I Setting: Several days before Valentine's Day Characters:1ST GIRL: nine to twelve years old2ND GIRL: nine to twelve years oldBOBBY: nine- to twelve- ...
Children's Sermon
B. Kathleen Fannin
Object: A picture of a large crowd. (National Geographic magazine is an excellent source.) Lesson: Faith. "What does it mean to take a risk?" I ask the assembled children. As the seconds of their silence lengthen I wonder if today's topic is going to be too ephemeral for their concrete way of thinking. Just as I am about to answer my own question, I hear a soft voice inquire, "Does it mean to do something dangerous?" "Yes!" I reply. "Taking a risk is often dangerous because taking a risk means that you ...
908. Redrawing The Landscape
Multiple Scriptures
Sermon
Harold Warlick
One summer's day my wife and I journeyed to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to attend a conference. We packed early in the morning and joined a colleague and his wife for breakfast. The other couple was also attending the Pittsburgh conference. After saying "goodbye" to our friends, we indicated that we would see them at the hotel in Pittsburgh. We were leaving directly from the breakfast while they were not leaving for another two or three hours, after they went home, packed, and took their children to the ...
Eulogy
Alan Bacon Bond
Using the Available Spiritual Resources The deceased was a forty-eight-year-old married man with five children in their late teens and early twenties. He was a recovering alcoholic with a twelve-year chip. He had been sick for two days with influenza, and, while having had some high blood pressure problems some years earlier, showed no signs for alarm. He simply failed to wake up one morning. The family was unchurched and seemingly bereft of spiritual resources until it became evident that most of them ...
Sermon
Leonard Mann
Anyone who has browsed through a gift shop sooner or later has come to a polite but insistent sign, "Please Do Not Touch." It was refreshing, therefore, to come recently upon a sign of different tone. In the gift shop at O’Hare Airport the word above some African wood carvings said, "Please touch. You can’t appreciate these until you do." There are many evidences that this in fact was the mood in which the New Testament writings first came into being. Those writers were sure they had come upon something ...
911. The Unexplainable Reality
1 Corinthians 1:18--2:5
Sermon
Allan J. Weenink
In more recent times we have become almost nonchalantly accustomed to the sonorous sound of the countdown ... glued to the television screen, we view the drama and hear that even voice charged with vibrancy ... 10, 9, 8 and so on, ending in a crescendo of BLAST OFF! With spectacular power and energized fury, another spacecraft is launched on its incredible journey. With each departure comes a new advance in knowledge and achievement. We have a profound respect for the genius of man and his accomplishments ...
Children's Sermon
Wesley T. Runk
Object: A custom such as Christmas cards. Good morning, boys and girls. Today is one of the most fun days that I know. Here it is the first Sunday in a new year, and we are happy over the idea that everyone is getting a fresh start. Twelve months ahead of us that will bring us happiness and new friends. Of course, there are a lot of good times to remember about last year. I can remember some of the most wonderful moments that took place last year and I know that I shall never want to forget them. One of my ...
Sermon
Bill Bouknight
We who experienced the nearness of a recent tornado can appreciate the experience of a certain Kansas farmer. He heard that a tornado was coming so he went down into his cellar. It was an awful storm. Windows were knocked out of his house and roofing was snatched away. His barn was blown away and his car flipped over. After the terrible storm finally passed, a neighbor came to the cellar and called down to him: "Is anybody down there?" The farmer replied, "Nobody is down here but me and God, and we are ...
Drama
Jerry Nordstrom
Cast PATIENT - Resident of a nursing home (male) HOMEMAKER - Food-happy matron (female) SHOPPER - Wealthy, materialistic socialite (female) SPORTSMAN - Young ski enthusiast (male) MERCHANT - Toy store owner (male) TRADITIONALIST - Sentimental Swedish-American grandma (female) CORPORATION MAN - Heavy-drinking party-goer (male) *CHILD - Greedy little girl (female) WORKING WIFE - Frazzled victim of the Christmas rush (female) *May be read, in character, by an adult. Presentation time: about half an hour Using ...
Sermon
Brett Blair
Mark makes it clear that Jairus was no ordinary individual. Indeed, he was a very important person. He was one of the rulers of a local synagogue, probably Capernaum. He was charged with correct administration and the due conduct of worship. His decision to go to Jesus could not have been an easy one. This scene was early in Jesus’ ministry, but already the opposition is beginning to crystallize against the Nazarene. Jairus thus had many reasons not to go to Jesus, but he had one overriding reason to go to ...
Sermon
King Duncan
Some cynic has said that if it were up to most of its members modern churches would have on their steeples lightning rods instead of crosses in memory of that time when lightning struck the early church and as protection against it ever happening again. On the Day of Pentecost lightning struck the early church. They were gathered in an upper room in Jerusalem. All the original twelve were there, save one. Judas' place had been taken by Matthias, who had been chosen by the casting of lots. That this was an ...
Sermon
King Duncan
We give God thanks today for another New Year. We are eternal optimists, are we not? We somehow expect that this year will be better than last year. Deep in our hearts we agree with Lucy in the PEANUTS cartoons when she says, "I don't want ups and downs. I want ups and ups and ups!" We are more realistic than that. Still, we hope for more ups than downs. There is an old Eskimo blessing that goes like this: May you have warmth in your igloo, oil in your lamp, and peace in your heart. That is my New Year's ...
918. Family Survival
Genesis 37:1-11
Sermon
Stephen DeFur
This morning I want to spend a few moments talking about families. And to do that, I want us to look at a family in the Bible. It is the family of the Old Testament character, Joseph. Joseph's family was an imperfect one much like yours and mine. So we start with Genesis, Chapter 37, verse 1. "Joseph, being seventeen years old, was shepherding the flock with his brothers; he was a helper to the sons of Bihah and Zilpah, his father's wives. And Joseph had brought a bad report of them to their father." ...
Sermon
King Duncan
On January 1, 2002, John Guth, 32, and Jeff Teiten, 24, set up camp outside the Cinerama theater in Seattle. They announced they intended to await the public sale of tickets for Star Wars Episode I; Attack of the Clones, scheduled for release May 16, 2002. Teiten said he was actually involved in an art project which involved "waiting for something." He was keeping a log of his experience and originally wanted to await the film for two years. "I'm becoming very aware just how long an hour is," he said, and ...
Sermon
King Duncan
For just a moment, I want you to imagine a lightning rod on top of our steeple [rather than a cross]. Some cynic with a wicked sense of humor has said that, if it were up to most of its members, modern churches would have lightning rods on their steeples instead of crosses in memory of that time when lightning struck the early church. He’s speaking of the amazing events that happened on the Day of Pentecost. But then he adds, “The lightning rods would serve as protection against such events ever happening ...
Sermon
Maxie Dunnam
There are some experiences or encounters that are so solidly lodged in our memory they continue to invade our consciousness – to haunt us – to help us or to hinder our Christian walk, to call and challenge us to be more than we are. John Birkbeck is a person around whom for me a whole cluster of memories is gathered – memories that invade my immediate awareness now and then. John was a Scot Presbyterian preacher. During a part of my tenure as the World Editor of The Upper Room, he was the editor of the ...
Sermon
Mark Trotter
The song we have just sung, "Lord of the Dance," declares that the proper response on learning the meaning of the Gospel is to celebrate, to dance. This hymn is one of the less traditional hymns in our hymn book, written in the 1960's, which you may have guessed, when the Church began experimenting with new music. It was finally included in the 1988 hymnal. It was written by an Englishman, a man named Sydney Carter, who put the words to the arrangement of the American Shaker hymn, "Tis a Gift to be Simple ...
923. Thanks Be to God
Deuteronomy 26:1-15
Sermon
Richard Gribble
Once upon a time there was a woodcutter who spent the majority of every day in the woods. He knew every trail and basically every inch of the forest. One day the woodcutter was preparing to fell a tree when he heard a cooing sound not far away. He followed the sound and found two white doves that were caught in a wooden trap. He felt sorry for the birds and thus opened the trap door and allowed them to fly to freedom. He then returned to his job of felling the tree and forgot all about the birds. As the ...
Sermon
James Merritt
The church is taking a beating. On the outside the picture looks bright. Its affluence is at an all-time high. The church is taking in more money and spending out more money than ever before in all of her glorious history. Just take for example the Southern Baptist Convention. Last year 40,000 Southern Baptist churches took in $6 billion, and now owns property valued at $30 billion. The same could be said for practically every major denomination in America. But a closer look reveals a darker picture. First ...
Sermon
James Merritt
Something that has become a Christmas tradition for our family every year is going to see the play, A Christmas Carol, at an Atlanta theatre. It's one of those stories that I never get tired of seeing. As you know, the central figure is a bitter old man by the name of Ebenezer Scrooge. For much of the play Scrooge is a real downer. But at the end, Scrooge discovers the true meaning of Christmas, and with his heart totally changed, a man who once lived in the desert of bitterness, now swims in the river of ...
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