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Showing 1326 to 1350 of 1967 results

1326. Don't Let the Parade Pass You By

Luke 19:28-44

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

America’s great child-philosopher, Dennis the Menace, offered this observation as his mother washed his dirty hands: "Margaret’s Mom must like me. I heard her say, ‘I just wish he was my child for five minutes.’" The people of Jerusalem had a similar kind of love/hate attitude toward Jesus. They cheered him on the first Palm Sunday as he entered Jerusalem, but then shouted "Crucify him" the following Friday. The Palm Sunday crowd was enthusiastic but fickle. As the politicians would say, Jesus’ support was ...

1327. The First Council

Acts 15:1-21

Sermon Aid

CSS

The elation among the Christians at Antioch lasted "no little time." We can only guess how long. But in the early church the storms and sunshine, the happy days and the dark days of controversy, the good times and the bad seemed to alternate in rapid succession. How quickly the ecstasy of the people at Lystra, in their zeal to make Paul and Barnabas into gods, changed into violence and threats! Now the same sudden storm comes to Antioch. Some men came down from Judea - from Jerusalem itself, in all ...

1328. Advance into Europe

Acts 15:36-41

Sermon Aid

CSS

Paul’s second missionary journey got off to a bad start. After several months at Antioch, Paul suggested to Barnabas that they retrace their steps over the route they had followed on the first journey. This would enable them to present to each congregation the message from the council at Jerusalem and also to revive and strengthen the faith of their earliest converts. Barnabas wanted to take with them John Mark, the young mam who had begun the first journey with them but had withdrawn from it in Pamphylia ...

1329. Miracle On Main Street by Dr. George A. Buttrick

John 1:1-18

Sermon

Leonard Mann

There’s always mystery on Main Street, and one day the miracle occurred. You look into the mirror. You don’t say, "Who am I?" No, a Voice asks, "Who are you?" You don’t say, "I needn’t be here." No, the Voice says, "It is inevitable that you are here." Try it, and see. You are meant to be here. Then trouble begins. Who meant your life? "My parents," you say. Oh no, parents don’t create life: they only transmit life. We shouldn’t speak about "my children." They are not ours: they are God’s, every one of ...

1330. "But, Lord, I Didn’t Want To Be Saved in That Way"

2 Kings 5:1-27

Sermon

Thomas D. Peterson

The encounter between Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria and a leper, and the prophet Elisha is quite a treat. The story opens with Naaman bringing a fortune in gifts which the king had provided him to buy the healing powers of Elisha. It concludes with Naaman asking for "two mules’ burdens of earth" so that he may sacrifice to the true God when he returns home. Two stories from my own life came to me when I began to unpack this text. When I was in seminary there was a young professor whom ...

1331. Do Children Like You?

Mark 10:13-16

Sermon

Richard Patt

"Let the children come to me." (v. 14) What’s the test for human success? How do you measure good personality? When do we say that a person knows about interpersonal relations? In short, who is the attractive person - the one who draws the best out of people, and therefore draws others to himself? In our day we might look to the psychology books for answers. Maybe we would read the latest issues of Cosmopolitan or Redbook. They always seem to be having articles about personality-development and achieving ...

1332. An Attitude of Gratitude

1 Thessalonians 5:12-28

Sermon

David E. Leininger

It was almost exactly five years ago. Just before Thanksgiving, a Friday morning, shortly after 5:00 AM - I was awakened by a shout from our kitchen, "OH, NO!" A moment later, the cry came again, "OH, NO!" Christie had gotten up, gone in to start the coffee, and discovered we were flooded. A hose leading to our washing machine had burst during the night and water was gushing out. For the next hour and a half we were bailing out our house, then later watched as a crew moved in, hoisted furniture, pulled up ...

1333. Long Range Planning

Ephesians 1:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

Our text for the day comes from that immortal television series, The A-Team. At the conclusion of each show the leader would light up his cigar and say, "I love it when a plan comes together." He's right! It is great when a plan comes together. In 1943 Great Britain was planning an invasion of Sicily. In order to carry out this invasion successfully British planners had to convince the Germans and Italians that the invasion would occur elsewhere. And so the British came up with a plan that would be worthy ...

1334. Ready Or Not

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

King Duncan

Remember as a child when you played hide and seek? Remember how you would cover your eyes and count? Then you would speak those immortal words: "Ready or not, here I come." Do you get the feeling this time of year that you can hear the voice of Christmas like Marley's ghost saying to us, "Ready or not, here I come." The next few weeks will be filled with so much activity, all the parties, the shopping, the visits to Santa. I like the story about the grandmother who took little Anne along on a shopping trip ...

1335. Love In Action

1 John 3:11-24

Sermon

King Duncan

There is a ridiculous old story about a fisherman who was enormously successful. Each morning he would take his small boat out on the lake and within a few hours he would return with a boat loaded with fish. People wondered, how did he do it? One day a stranger showed up and asked the man if he could go along the next time the man went out fishing. The man said, "Sure. Meet me here tomorrow morning at 5:00 and we will go out." The next morning the two of them made their way through the early morning mist ...

1336. Possibly Our Best Year! (A Sermon for New Year's)

Isaiah 60:1-22

Sermon

King Duncan

Most of you are familiar with that apostle of possibility thinking, Dr. Robert Schuller. Schuller was best known for his glittering Crystal Cathedral. On one occasion Schuller invited entertainer Pat Boone to sing for his congregation. He introduced Boone by saying that Pat sometimes gets tired of his all-American-boy image. Once a year, said Schuller, Pat Boone checks into a motel under an assumed name, closes the drapes, goes into the closet, and puts on black shoes. The congregation chuckled. They knew ...

1337. 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 ...

1338. When Christ Shall Come

Matthew 25:31-46

Sermon

King Duncan

Only moments after prying open a window and stepping into a dark bedroom a burglar came face to face with a vicious looking Doberman Pincher. The burglar froze in his tracks. Once his eyes adjusted to the dark he noticed a parrot on the back of the dog which squawked "You're gonna get caught!" The burglar hesitated, then ever so carefully lifted an item off a dresser and put it in his sack. The dog watched every move. The parrot said, "You're gonna get caught!" Without any sudden or jerky movements the ...

1339. A Most Disagreeable Man

Jonah 3:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

Have you ever known anyone with a thoroughly disagreeable attitude? There are some people who, if opportunity were to knock, would complain about the racket. They would re-write the twenty-third psalm to read like this, "My cup runneth over, what a mess." Senator Sam Ervin told about a man in his home state who did not agree with anybody about anything. The man found that cabbage didn't agree with him, the Senator says, and from that day forward wouldn't eat anything else. Jonah, the Old Testament prophet ...

1340. A Journey To A New Life

Matthew 3:13-17

Sermon

King Duncan

Danne and Jorge Martinez wanted to raise their eleven-year-old daughter Lizbet to do right. Unfortunately, they had no choice but to teach Lizbet to lie. You see, the Martinez family lived in Cuba. They were members of Castro's Communist Party. But inside their home, these devoted parents complained bitterly about the political situation that was destroying their country. And so, when Lizbet was old enough to attend school, her parents sat her down and explained the facts of life to her. She was never to ...

1341. It's Not About Us

Revelation 22:1-6

Sermon

King Duncan

In his book Rewriting the Family Script, Roger Hillerstrom notes that young children are egocentric. This means that their view of the world is so small that they think they are the center of things. Hillerstrom says that as a child he and his family took a drive one evening. He remembers assuming that, as they traveled, the moon followed them home and then stayed there all night hovering over their house. Wouldn't that be nice? Your own personal moon? An acquaintance whose last name is Steele told ...

1342. The God Who Is Near

Isaiah 55:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

Dr. Leslie Weatherhead used to tell the story of a woman who was trying to find God. She had a certain dream which she dreamed more than once, namely that she was standing in front of a thick, plate-glass window. As she looked at it, she seemed to see God on the other side. She hammered on the window, trying to attract His attention, but without success. She grew more and more desperate, and soon found herself shrieking at him at the top of her voice. Finally, a quiet, calm voice at her side said: "Why are ...

1343. What Kind Of God Is That?

John 9:1-12

Sermon

King Duncan

You have to wonder what kind of God some people have! Kathryn Lindskoog has suffered for two decades with multiple sclerosis (MS), a chronic disease that gradually weakens and paralyzes the body. She has been amazed at some of the advice she has received from friends and relatives. A few typical examples: "You must really like to be sick; you bring so much of it on yourself." That comment was from a nearby relative who never so much as sent a get-well card. "The reason I have perfect health is that I think ...

1344. Confronting Hypocrisy with Humility

Matthew 23:1-12

Sermon

Brett Blair

Politicians in Washington play the gotcha game to perfection. To make matters worse the news media feeds on it. Not only do they feed on it, they feed it, hoping for a national scandal to make themselves appear relevant. These various political events are a fitting context for our scriptural text about hypocrisy. Listen to what Jesus says about these politicians (in his day they were called Pharisees): “They tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a ...

1345. The Lord Has Need

Mark 11:1-11

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

Our Scripture lesson sounds more appropriate for Palm Sunday than for the Sunday before Christmas, doesn’t it? But I am fascinated by the story, because it proclaims a truth: that the God of the Christian faith is a God who has need. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, His parents had to borrow a shepherd’s cave because there was no room at the inn. When Jesus rode into Jerusalem in triumph on that first Palm Sunday, He borrowed a donkey. Both of these ideas came together for me in a poem which I came across ...

1346. Where Is My Guest Room?

Mark 14:12-26

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

In Dostoevski’s masterpiece THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV there is a scene in a courtroom after Dmitri has been sentenced to imprisonment in Siberia. He is so exhausted that he falls asleep on a bench. When he awakens, he finds that someone has placed a pillow under his head. He doesn’t know who has done the kind deed, but he is overjoyed. It is a sign of the goodness of life. He will go to prison, he says, and keep God’s name alive there, because he knows that God is alive in the world. The nameless, anonymous, ...

1347. The Greatest Table in the World

Mark 14:12-26

Sermon

Eric Ritz

The Reverend Dr. John Killinger, who is an outstanding preacher and distinguished Christian author, shares a prayer that he designed for a Communion Service when he was senior pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Lynchburg, Virginia, shares this thought: "Lord, we thank you for this table, which is more important than any other table in the world, even the table of kings and emperors where lands have been divided and the tables of soldiers and generals where peace has been designed. For here, O Lord ...

1348. The Family: A Place For Persons

2 Timothy 1:1-2:13

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

I doubt if there is anything more important for persons in shaping their lives than the families in which they are nurtured. So, on this Father’s Day, and the day following the marriage of our daughter, could I preach about anything else than family? I want to talk particularly about the family as a place for persons. The family is threatened in our day. The pressures of modern living bring explosion to the home. Consider these shocking statistics – over 40% of all marriages today end in divorce; 59% of ...

1349. On Level Ground

Luke 5:1-11

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

A Sunday School teacher was checking with her students one day to see if they knew the people with whom Jesus lived. "How many of you know who Matthew was?", she asked. Not one kid raised a hand. "Well, then," she said, "what about Luke? How many of you know who Luke was?", she asked. And again, the class just sat there and no one said a thing. She tried again. "How about John? Do you know who St. John was?" And still the children just sat there in dead silence. Finally the teacher said, "Well, what about ...

1350. On Level Ground

Luke 5:1-11

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

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