This is the season of at least two kinds of fever going around. The first is an elevated body temperature. The kind that accompanies an illness. After all, this is the flu season. And with the flu comes fever. But a fever is a symptom of many diseases. All of us have had it at one time or another. Frequently, fevers are caused by bacterial infections, sometimes causing a fever to be extremely high. Several times when one of our children has been sick, my wife would say "He's on fire!" Unless it's a family ...
[While King Duncan is enjoying a well deserved retirement we are going back to his earliest sermons and renewing them. The newly modernized sermon is shown first and below, for reference sake, is the old sermon. We will continue this updating throughout the year bringing fresh takes on King's best sermons.] Original Title: Changed Lives – Nicodemus New Title: What Does “Born Again” Mean? If you have ever been around a child who is mentally challenged and has difficulty with speech, you may appreciate a ...
A pastor went to a nursing home to offer communion to the residents. This was not one of those upscale places called a retirement center. This facility was for the poor and its residents were mostly in various stages of dementia. When the pastor arrived she was told by a volunteer, who was wheeling patients into the room, that since it was late afternoon, everyone’s medication seemed to be wearing off. Some would sleep through the service as usual, but for the most part, her little congregation would be on ...
When I was in the tenth grade in high school, I was a sprinter on the Memphis Tech High School track team. Back then, tenth grade was the first year of high school, so I was a real rookie on the track team. I had been running: - The one hundred yard dash. - I was also running on the sprint relay teams. - In addition, I was doing the long jump and the high jump. One day in a practice track meet, the coach suddenly decided to try me in the two hundred and twenty yard dash. I had never run this event before, ...
We have all heard that famous American Express slogan, "Don't leave home without it." The problem is, if some people don't leave home without it, they are going to be without a home. The 80s and 90s are when the "Jet set" became the "Debt set." The new slogan seemingly has become "Buy now, pay maybe." Now a days people can be divided into three classes: The Haves, The Have-Nots, and The Have-Not-Paid-for-What-They Haves In 1994 Americans whipped out their plastic to the tune of $701 billion.[i] Consumers ...
Being President of the SBC for one year has been both one of the greatest blessings, and one of the greatest burdens of my life. On the one hand, it has reminded me of just how blessed I am to be a Southern Baptist. Southern Baptists are not a perfect people, but they are a precious people. I don't believe there is a group of Bible believers anywhere in the world that love Jesus more than Southern Baptists. I sometimes feel like a lady who lived up in the mountains of North Carolina. She was a Baptist ...
You will be far down the road to success in life if you will look at life as a race. The Apostle Paul compared his life to a race. As he came to the end of his journey on earth, he said, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." (2 Tim. 4:7) Every morning when you get up you have several choices concerning your race. First of all, you can choose not to run. But if you don't run you can't win. Secondly, you can choose to run, but not run your best. If you don't run ...
Our world has been shaped by one image. It may be the most powerful image to come out of the 20th century. If you were asked about the most important image of the 20th century, what would you pick? Here is my pick . . . [if you use screens]. The one picture that did the most to transform our perception of this world was that look-back at Earth from the tiny port-hole window in the first Apollo mission to the moon. Dangling in the bleak blackness of space was this beautiful blue-ball planet — with swirling ...
Ah, the changing seasons, the unfolding of each new day, like the seasons of a life. This week we were up north for Judy's birthday - the first day of summer, the longest day of the year - and experienced once again: The glory and freshness of dawn, which comes so early right now in the north country, like the eager excitement of early life - first child, first grandchild, first steps, new experiences. The seasons of life. Then the steady stability of the afternoon of life when much has been accomplished, ...
Jesus' call to discipleship is an invitation to get off the flight deck and into the cockpit! Do you remember "Top Gun"? Remember how planes took off and landed on aircraft carriers? [NOTE: If you have a screen in your sanctuary, you may wish to show a short clip from the movie of an F-14 taking off and landing.] These sleek, large, worth-more-than-their-weight-in-gold jets sit on even bigger, more expensive ships. In order for both pieces of equipment to function without disaster, a bond of complete trust ...
Postmodern culture has a moral atmosphere of zero. In a zero-morality culture, the church must pump up the atmosphere with the gravity of grace. One of the most basic skills astronauts must learn to master is how to function in an environment of zero gravity. While it may be a thrill to find your body suddenly capable of flying and free-floating anywhere in the cabin, an absence of gravity can also increase the difficulty of completing a host of tasks. For instance, just how do you get the toothpaste to ...
How many of you here this morning have flown on a plane this past week? Anyone here been this week on a bus or a subway or a train? How many of you this week entered a public building and had to push or pull open the door? Let me try this: anyone recently ridden an escalator or taken a stairway, and held the handrail? How many of you have pushed a grocery cart this week? I think we got just about everybody, and some of you we got multiple times. All of these actions, just normal everyday living, put you up ...
Have any of you ever looked through “night vision goggles.” [Or, if you can get a pair to show to the congregation . . . . ] Do any of you know what these are? Night vision goggles. Used by the military, and in all good spy novels, the special light source used in “night vision” technology allows you to see someone as much as 200 yards away on a moonless night. Night vision goggles project out either a near infra-red light source, or ultraviolet radiation, to detect the presence of individual photons. The ...
I heard about a man recently in Minnesota who clearly needs to choose another profession. His name is Rafiq Abdul Mortland. Mortland had committed a string of robberies, and fortunately for him, he was eventually caught. I say fortunately, because during his crime spree, Mortland received the nickname, “The Rolaids Robber.” The reason he received this nickname was that, while he was robbing their store, he repeatedly asked store clerks for antacid tablets. Mortland needed the antacid because of the stress ...
(After a video of Hershel Walker) Oh, those were the glory days! Now there is something most of you probably missed in seeing that video. You thought the focus was on Hershel Walker, but the key to what you just saw was the offensive line. Not even Hershel Walker, the greatest college running back who ever lived, who happened to play for the greatest college football team, at the greatest university in history, cannot run one yard unless he has an offensive line opening the holes. There is an old football ...
Earlier this year, Debra Bezzina was piloting her Nissan Altima down Interstate 96 in Michigan. Reaching for a pack of gum in her pocket, she took her eyes from the road for a couple of seconds. All of a sudden, a voice, speaking with urgency, said, "Not, Not, Not." Yanking her attention back to the road, Bezzina realized that her car had started to drift across the solid white line to the right. She quickly corrected and went safely on her way. Bezzina was grateful for the warning, but there was nobody in ...
It’s something for a commoner from rural Mississippi to be in the presence of royalty, but I want you to know I was there. I shook hands with Prince Philip. And my wife Jeri was standing beside the Bishop of Kenya, when he was introduced formally to the Queen of England. It was the occasion of the reopening of Wesley’s Chapel in London in 1980. It was a great occasion and people from all over the world, Methodists from all over the world had come for that exciting event. I’ve never experienced anything ...
There is an old adage which has God saying, take what you will, take it and pay for it. That brings us immediately into the heart of our theme this morning. There is a price, a price for everything. We began our discussion of this theme in the sermon last Sunday, and if you were here you may recall that we used this first scripture lesson that we read today for that sermon last Sunday. And to get on board with the theme, let’s review it. In this lesson, Jesus gives us three parables – many parables really ...
John 20:24-29 (NRSV) [24] But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. [25] So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe." [26] A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with ...
Who do you serve? That's a valid question for everybody, don't you think? Now you probably wouldn't think you would have to ask that question in Church, would you? But the truth is we don't all come with pristine purposes. I'm not trying to make anyone feel guilty but we may not even know that we are at cross purposes with God. That was certainly the case in the life of the Apostle Paul. And that's what the Superhero we're focusing on today had to find out as well. Paul and Spiderman both had to find out ...
When I was a teenager two events happened, not too far apart either, which were catastrophic to everything I held near and dear. My allowance at the time was $3.00 a week. Not a whole lot, I know, but the median income in 1965 was only $6,800. Now, I supplemented my allowance by mowing two yards in the neighborhood for $5.00 each. I was saving as much of the money as possible to buy a 5 speed English racer that I had fallen in love with at the local bicycle shop. I had allotted $1.00 of my weekly allowance ...
Some of you have seen the play, “Big River”, now playing in New York. This setting of Mark Twain’s Huck Finn is well done. The music is exceptional. For days after I saw it, I found myself blurting out, “Arkansas, Arkansas, O how I love Arkansas.” I would find myself humming the tune and trying to remember the words of that haunting piece. In one scene, two river rogues who have commandeered Huck and his barge, schemed to put together a sort of vaudeville act for river towns. To arouse curiosity, crowd and ...
Did you hear the story about an inattentive, workaholic husband who suddenly decided to surprise his wife with a night to remember? He went down to the department store and bought her the expensive dress she had been admiring. He bought her a large bottle of perfume to go with it. He ordered tickets to the Broadway play she had been wanting to see and made reservations at their favorite restaurant. On his way home he stopped by the florist and bought two dozen red roses which he carried home under his arm ...
I officiated at a funeral recently of a man who died of a heart attack two weeks after he declared bankruptcy. With his beautiful wife, five kids, and many grandchildren circling the grave, this is how I began the eulogy: One of the wealthiest men in the world died on [....] His name was . . . . He made his wealth in real estate. The real real estate of life. You say: how cruel can you be? In front of his grieving family you are calling a man “wealthy” who died right after declaring bankruptcy. I say: how ...
A young man was sent to Spain by his company to work in a new office they were opening there. He accepted the assignment because it would enable him to earn enough money to marry his long-time girlfriend. The plan was to pool their money and, when he returned, put a down payment on a house, and get married. As he bid his sweetheart farewell at the airport, he promised to write her every day and keep in touch. However, as the lonely weeks slowly slipped by, his letters came less and less often and his ...