Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 1151 to 1175 of 2561 results

1151. The Incomparable Christ

Matthew 11:1-19

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Life was difficult. It always was for prisoners. Meager rations. Hard labor. Sometimes restrained and tortured by the stocks or collar. Left with festering wounds in damp, abandoned cisterns converted to maximum security dungeons. Why was he here? His only crime was criticizing the king for stealing his own brother's wife, Herodias. Herodias wanted John killed, but Herod Antipas was reluctant - he knew the people thought highly of John. John's ministry had begun in the wilderness where he subsisted on an ...

1152. Head's Up!

Luke 21:5-38

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Wait a minute! Christmas is coming. What about Silent night, Holy night, All is calm, All is bright?" Instead we hear "...nations will be in anguish...the roaring and tossing of the sea...People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world...the heavenly bodies will be shaken." Ho, ho, ho! Where is Santa when we need him? So why in the world would the church choose a Gospel lesson such as this to begin Advent and our preparation for the coming of the Christ child? Good reason. The ...

1153. Who Could Forget That?

Mark 14:32-42

Sermon

King Duncan

A mother and her young daughter were driving to the zoo during Lent. On their way, the little girl began counting out loud the crosses on various church steeples. "Mom," she asked, interrupting her counting, "how many times did Jesus die?" "One time, dear," her mother answered. "Then why are there so many crosses?" the little girl asked. "To help us remember how much Jesus loved us," her mother replied, "He died on a cross for us." "Well," the child responded, "how could we forget something like THAT?" (1 ...

1154. It's A Wonderful Life

Isaiah 35:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

Every year about this time television stations bring out of their vaults an old black and white film that is still speaking to people's lives. It's a film titled It's a Wonderful Life. George Bailey, the lead character in this heartwarming film, never felt like he amounted to much in life. He had dreams of becoming a famous architect, of traveling the world. Instead he feels trapped in a humdrum job in a small town. Then a crisis occurs that strains his every resource. He is faced with unjust criminal ...

1155. You Can Dress Them Up...

Romans 12:1-8

Sermon

King Duncan

Several years ago, a barbers' supply company held a large convention in a metropolitan city. To show the world how good their products were they organized a publicity stunt. They went to the worst section of town and brought back the dirtiest and most helpless drunk they could find. They presented him on the stage. Everyone saw how dirty and unkempt his hair and beard were. Then they took him out and cleaned him up. They shaved him. They shampooed and styled his hair. They sprayed him with cologne. They ...

1156. Battle With The Law

Mark 2:23-3:6

Sermon

King Duncan

How's your blood pressure today? I want to read you some very interesting results from some extraordinary legal cases. In 1964 a California woman was driving a Porsche after having had several drinks. While driving 60 in a 25-mph zone, she had an accident in which her passenger was killed. Porsche was ordered to pay $2.5 million for having designed a car that was too high-performance for the average driver. In 1985 an overweight man with a heart condition bought a lawnmower from Sears. Later he had a heart ...

1157. How Do You Get To Heaven?

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

King Duncan

The school bus was filled with children discussing various topics as children often do. Suddenly waxing serious, A.J. asked the group, "Where is heaven? I don't know." The group gave it some serious thought, but none of them seemed willing to answer. However, as it always works with kids of any age, one young man rose to his feet, turned to A.J. and began to address the group in response to the question of the hour. "That's easy," said Matthew. "The way you get to heaven is to go to the North Pole, put it ...

1158. How Do You Act In The Presence Of The Queen?

Isaiah 6:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

Associated Press, Dateline, Washington, D.C.: A woman in our nation's capitol welcomed Queen Elizabeth II into her home in a warm and beautiful way. She gave her a hug. This simple act made headlines around the world because British protocol forbids commoners from touching a monarch. The queen, accompanied by first lady Barbara Bush and Washington Mayor Sharon Pratt Dixon, visited 67-year-old retiree Alice Frazier's home in an area formerly plagued by drugs and crime but now rehabilitated. It was on this ...

1159. Busybodies

Luke 13:10-17

Sermon

King Duncan

People who knew legendary jazz musician Cab Calloway as a man of dignity and humor. One night at Birdland, the legendary jazz bar, Cab was introducing a promising young saxophone player. As the sax player finished his set, a self-appointed jazz critic came over to him and said, in front of Cab, "You aren't that good, man. All you can do is play like Charlie Parker." Cab took the young man's sax and handed it over to the critic. "Here," he said, "you play it like Charlie Parker." (1) Isn't it true that ...

1160. Entitlements

Luke 16:19-31

Sermon

King Duncan

Did you read about that Arab sheik out in California who has a limousine that is 66 Â½ feet long? True story. It's a white Lincoln Town Car that can carry 36 passengers. It's in two pieces with a hitch in the middle like a tractortrailer so it can bend around corners. It has five axles. A normal Town Car is 18 feet long; most city buses are only 40 feet but this baby is 66 Â½ feet long. It has two fax machines, cellular telephones, TV sets, love seats and a microwave. It's going to get a satellite ...

1161. Full Barns--empty Souls

Luke 12:13-21

Sermon

King Duncan

Motivational speaker Danny Cox tells an interesting story in his book, Seize the Day. Danny and his wife took a hot air balloon trip early one morning in Africa. As the balloon rose gracefully, they saw a herd of wildebeest running frantically across the vast expanse below. The herd stopped suddenly and began looking around as if they were confused. Danny asked their pilot why the herd had stopped so suddenly and what they were looking for. He told them that the wildebeest, which migrate by the millions ...

1162. It's A Terrible Thing To Be Rejected

Matthew 21:33-46

Sermon

King Duncan

One of the characteristics of many Eastern cultures is a deep sensitive people are to other people's feelings. For example, one publication, the Financial Times, carried this rejection notice, written to a writer by the overly polite editor of a Chinese economic journal: "We have read your manuscript with boundless delight. If we were to publish your paper," says the editor, "it would be impossible for us to publish any work of lower standard. And as it is unthinkable that in the next thousand years we ...

1163. Where Can I Be Safe?

Psalm 46:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

Where can I be safe? That is a question many people are asking. All of us want to know that our home is safe, our family is safe, that those we love are protected. Some unknown wit has suggested some signs that you can put around your home to keep it safe from burglars. Perhaps you will find these signs helpful: Sign #1. Dear Mr. Butcher, starting tomorrow, please leave eight pounds of meat for Brutus. Six pounds only makes him angry and vicious! Sign #2. Dear Mr. Mailman, Please be sure to keep all parts ...

1164. Come Home To God

Joel 2:1-11

Sermon

Angela Akers

A patient, while recovering in the hospital from a heart attack, met this over zealous evangelist. For half an hour, the preacher lectured the man on being thankful for God's mercy and repenting immediately of his sins. "Tell the truth, brother," the pastor remarked. "During your heart attack, didn't all your sins flash before your eyes?" With a mischievous grin, the patient responded, "Don't be ridiculous, the attack only lasted six hours!" (1) None of us likes to hear the word "repent," do we? At best, ...

1165. Inexpressible Joy

1 Peter 1:1-12

Sermon

King Duncan

Bernard Kerik is a former New York City police commissioner. Kerik always kept a low profile in his job. He was not a man who sought publicity. And then came the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Suddenly, Kerik's face was all over the national and international news. He organized and led the highly-praised police response following the attacks. In his autobiography, Bernard Kerik talks about the rocky road that led him into police work. He dropped out of high school, then entered his chosen ...

1166. Labor Day

Mark 9:14-32

Illustration

King Duncan

Eiton Mayo, a professor at Harvard, once did a five-year study at the Western Electric Hawthorne Works in Chicago to find out what effect fatigue and monotony had on productivity. He stumbled onto a motivation principle that revolutionized the theory and practice of management. Mayo took five workers off the assembly line and put them under the watchful eye of a friendly supervisor. Then he started to make frequent changes in their work conditions. But he always discussed the changes in advance. He changed ...

1167. Swords Into Plowshares

Isaiah 2:1-5

Sermon

King Duncan

One Sunday after church, a mother was talking to her young daughter. She told her daughter that, according to the Bible, Jesus will return to earth some day. "When is he coming back?" the daughter asked. "I don't know," replied the mother. "Can't you look it up on the Internet?" the little girl asked. (1) Well, you can find lots of interesting things on the Internet, but to read an authoritative source about the return of Christ, you will need to turn elsewhere. Eight hundreds years before Christ, the ...

1168. In A Time Of War

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

King Duncan

In 1930 a movie was made about World War I called "All Quiet on the Western Front." In one scene some American "doughboys" were talking. A comic character asked, "Where do wars come from anyway?" Another replied, "Well, one country gets mad at another country, and they start fighting." The first soldier asked, "Do you mean that one piece of land gets mad at another piece of land?" "No," the other replied. "The PEOPLE of one country get mad at the PEOPLE of the other." The first soldier picked up his rifle ...

1169. What the Heck Is Sin?

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

In a church-related college, a philosophy professor was giving a lecture on some of the traditional Christian doctrines. After he had concluded, he asked if there were any questions. One student lifted her hand and said, “I have a question. You have talked a lot about sin in your lecture. What I would like to know is: what the heck is sin?” I. SIN IS NOT A VERY POPULAR WORD THESE DAYS. Awhile back psychiatrist Karl Menninger wrote a book titled Whatever Became of Sin? bemoaning the fact that people don’t ...

1170. Grace Is Not a Blue-eyed Blond

John 1:1-18

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

I often wonder what goes through people’s minds when they hear certain words which we use in church. Words like “incarnation,” “redemption,” and “grace.” I have a hunch that a lot of people confuse incarnation with reincarnation, which is something totally different; and redemption is something one used to do with “green stamps.” As for “grace,” well, that is, indeed, a strange word. Some years ago a minister by the name of R. Lofton Hudson wrote of an experience he had during a conversation with a friend ...

1171. What Kind of Vote Would Jesus Get?

Mark 15:1-15

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

All four Gospels make reference to Barabbas, the man who got more votes than Jesus did on that fateful Good Friday so long ago. In his book PERSONALITIES OF THE PASSION, Leslie Weatherhead says: “Matthew and Mark tell us that the priests incited the multitude to choose Barabbas as the one who should be released by the act of clemency with which the government marked the day of Jewish festival. It seems a strange choice.” (New York and Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1953, p. 87) I. NOT TO ME IT DOESN’T. It ...

1172. Good Friday

1 Corinthians 1:18--2:5

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

A clerk in a gift shop in California was responding to an inquiry from a customer about purchasing a gold cross. The clerk said, “Yes, madam, we do have gold crosses. Do you want a plain one or one with a little man on it?” To an outsider, the cross must seem like a very strange thing to have at the center of our worship. It was a particularly gruesome instrument of torture and death. It is sort of like having an electric chair or a hangman’s noose at the center of our attention. Outsiders may wonder at ...

1173. Gospel Through The Person

Philippians 1:12-30

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Carl Joseph is a young black athlete who comes from a little one-horse town down in Florida. It’s a very poor town. There’s one road in and one road out, one old hotel, one fairly decent restaurant, one high school, one dilapidated theatre that shows ten year old movies, one grocery store, just one of everything. From that town, Carl Joseph entered the University of Pittsburgh on a four-year football scholarship. Strangely enough, he will never play in a single game for the Panthers. But then Jackie ...

1174. East Of Eden

Genesis 3:1-24

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Last Sunday we talked about The Fall in Eden in terms of Paul Harvey's phrase: "The Rest of the Story". The story is simply told -- "Evil entered paradise. Satan tempted Eve and Adam by appealing to their pride and vanity to "be like God." After their sin and expulsion from the garden, death made its first relentless assault on the race. There was "brother trouble" when Cain killed his brother Abel. In Genesis 4: 7, we have this stark warning: "Sin is crouching at the door; its desire is for you, but you ...

1175. It's All God's Doing

Ezekiel 17:1-24

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

"A few years ago, a little boy was diagnosed as having a terminal illness. When he was told the situation and that he would soon die, he retreated fearfully into a cocoon of total silence. No one...not his doctors or nurses, not even his parents could get through to him. No one could penetrate the wall of silence the little boy had erected around himself. He would not speak to anyone. The only way he would communicate was through drawings he scratched out on a legal pad. One drawing showed a beautiful ...

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