Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 2426 to 2450 of 5000 results

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

James W. Moore

... ’s my own and I’ll do as I please! You gotta look out for number 1! I’m a self-made man! I don’t need anybody!” Adolescent people say things like that so often and so loudly that you wonder who they are trying to convince. One Biblical illustration of the adolescent stage is the picture of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden saying in effect: “Who does God think He is telling us what we can eat and what we can’t eat!” Do you know anybody like that? The word here is “arrogance” and the ...

2427. The Wise Men: Going Home Another Way

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... Paul put it this way: “If anyone is in Christ, He is a new creation, the old has passed away, behold, the new is come.” As new creations, we have experienced a paradigm shift and we have a new way of being in the world. Dr. Karl Meninger illustrated this truth. He noticed that when a new doctor or nurse came onto the ward of his hospital In Topeka, Kansas, patients who had been making no progress to speak of, suddenly began to make progress, and often recovered. He said the reason was not because of the ...

2428. Holiness of Heart and Life

Romans 2:21-23

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... it. It’s primarily a book on personal and social holiness. In one chapter entitled “The Every Day Business of Holiness,” Colson makes the case that holiness is loving and obeying God. In that chapter he gives a series of personal vignettes that illustrate telling truths about holiness. Those truth are: One, Holiness is obeying God loving one another as He loved us. Two, holiness is obeying God - even when it is against our own interest. Three, holiness is obeying God - sharing His love, even when it ...

2429. Style: Some Distinctive Marks of a Methodist

Galatians 5:1-15

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... things — things-we would not otherwise do. Circumstances also cause us to do things we should have done but never got around to doing them before, like learning that we might have cancer, might provoke us to write a will. That’s really too serious an illustration for the story I’m about to tell. Two out-of-town visitors were walking along a street in New York City late one night. One of the pair, wary of the reputation of city streets at night, kept glancing over his shoulder, nervously eyeing every ...

2430. Born Again

John 3:1-21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... those happily any old sort of brand. I won’t press that too far — only to make the point that our labels may be pure in intention but our intentions may be woefully inadequate in communicating truth. I heard a funny story recently which vividly illustrates the truth. A man wanted to express appreciation for his friend. The friend was expanding his business and moving to a new location. So the fellow decided to send some flowers and a note of “best wishes” on the day of the open house. He instructed ...

2431. Samaria and Our Spiritual Journey

John 4:1-26

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Edward DeBono is a man who travels all over the world, giving seminars on how to think. He teaches what he calls “lateral thinking,” and he illustrates what he means by that from an experience in an early life. Some thirty years ago he was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford. One night he attended a party in London. The party lasted late, and he got back to Oxford after the gates were closed. Traditionally in that college ...

2432. Who Will Cast the First Stone?

John 7:45--8:11

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... put clearly by Jesus – “You have heard it said ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you love your enemies – do good for those who despitefully use you….” But we still follow Elijah. At no place is this more dramatically illustrated than in our prison system. I don’t know anyone who would argue that our prisons are working to serve the cause of justice; and I certainly do not know anyone who would argue that they are serving the common good. Frustrated by the rising tide of ...

2433. Christ's Chosen People: Privilege

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... . Jesus does not separate our praying from our witnessing and bearing fruit. And he says that we are to pray in Jesus’ name; that is, we are to pray as “partners with Christ,” read y to witness and serve and bear fruit as we are called. Let me illustrate. A few months ago a woman in this congregation lost a gold bracelet at a football game. She filed an insurance claim for the bracelet and forgot about it. A while latter a need came to her attention – the need of Billy Joe Jackson’s family for a ...

2434. The Essence of the Gospel

2 Corinthians 4:1-18

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... you. Words are necessary. You must speak the word. But maybe even more important than words is how you are with people, your avail ability in love, your listening and responding, your genuinely caring about what’s going on in their life. Here is a story to illustrate the point. A minister’s wife was afflicted with terminal illness. He told of stepping out of his house one day when a fellow clergyman was coming by. The clergyman pulled over and asked, “How’s your wife? I hear she is ill.” Then the ...

2435. God's Chosen People: Partners

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... we need to immerse ourselves in Scripture to keep alive the awareness of who we are – friends of Christ. Then, a second help is to hold onto the experience of God’s love and our and our friendship with Christ in our memory. The Psalmist illustrated the power of memory over and over again. They talked about being “pricked in heart,” of being “afflicted and in pain,” of being “cast-down, O my soul…” They talked about being “like an owl in the waste places,” or “shut-in so they cannot ...

2436. Let God Be God - As if It Could Be Otherwise

Exodus 7:14-24

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... g). God is God! That is what the plagues are all about. Not only was God seeking to subdue Pharaoh’s obstinate heart to free his people from bondage, at an even larger level, he was exposing the gods of Egypt as false. A couple of examples will illustrate. In the first plague, the Nile River is turned to blood. The fertility of the land of Egypt depended upon the overflow of the Nile River to bring it both fertilizer and water. Therefore this river was sacred to the god, Osiris, whose all-seeing eye is ...

2437. What Is Man?

Psalm 8:1-9

Sermon

King Duncan

... Counts (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc., 2005), p. 24 . 4. http://www.calvincrc.org/sermons/topics/psalms/psalm47.html. 5. Rev. Mac Schafer, http://www.pinnaclepres.org/sermons/2006/sermon_060820.html. 6. http://www.lakegrovepres.org/sermons/S2004/sermon_2004-11-28.htm. 7. I have lost the source for this illustration. 8. Dr. Mickey Anders, http://www.mickeyanders.com/Sermons/Sermon20011007.html.

2438. Fresh Every Morning - A Token and a Truth

Exodus 16:1-36

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... , but growing us up into the image and likeness of God -His own image - the stature of the fullness of Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “He who eats this bread will live forever.” He is a sustaining provision. Not only for today, and everyday, but for eternity. Let me illustrate it and I’ll close. A man in prison wrote to Robert A. Rains. He described his setting. “There’s a high chain-link fence below my second story window, and on the top of the fence, there are huge coils of barbed wire. A dozen or so ...

2439. Being the Lord's Instrument

Exodus 17:1-7

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... And before she had quite arisen, she would call the names of all the children and issue the orders for the day.” II Then there is the second thing. To be the Lord’s instrument. We have to have a sense of our usefulness. Let me illustrate. Stradivarius is a premier name in violins. Antonio Stradivari had a sense of usefulness and a sense of usefulness in relation to God. George Elliot has him saying: “When any Master holds ‘twix chin and hand a violin of mine, He will be glad that Stradivari lived ...

2440. Lessons from Rephidim - Being the Lord's Intercessor

Exodus 17:8-16

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... when we pray. But we do it in other ways also, because we are interconnected. There is no solitary Christian. And so Paul is right when he calls us to “bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.” Maybe I have time just to illustrate it and imprint your mind with the truth of it. Many years ago, Bishop McConnell told a story of something that happened in a little fishing village on the New England coast. One winter’s day a storm came up suddenly while the boats were out at sea. The ...

2441. Taught by a Golden Calf

Exodus 32:1-33:6

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... to Moses: “Go, lead the people t the place of which I have spoken to you; my angel shall go before you.” A clear picture of the triumph of commitment. So, the call comes to you and me: “Who is on the Lord side?” I have time just to illustrate it and I close. More than a hundred years ago, there was an Episcopal rector in Philadelphia whose name was Dudley Tyng. He had a deep Christian faith and a strong concern about slavery. In March, 1858, he preached to 5,000 men challenging them to stand up for ...

2442. Just When We Think We're Safest, There's a Sunset Touch

Mark 6:30-44

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... his life because He had a clear purpose. His vocation, what he was about, was the connecting, integrated power in his life. That’s the first word. To cope with interruptions, you must have purpose in life and keep that purpose clean. Here’s a story to illustrate. Toscanini was one of the great conductors of our century. When he was 88 years old, he was invited to conduct the B.B.C. Orchestra in Albert Hall in London. He gave a spectacular performance, and the Board of Trustees of BBC quickly met and ...

2443. Come Forward to God's Throne Where There Is Grace (Relief for Guilt)

Hebrews 4:1-13

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... . Recognize that you may process a crushing guilty conscience which is illegitimate. You can blame yourself, and drive yourself to emotional torment by taking responsibility for what you can’t control. Let me use a dramatic, but very common illustration. Much mental retardation is caused by various metabolic problems. These medical problems are produced by genetic errors - each parent contributing a defective gene at the moment of conception which results in an unhealthy child. It is not unusual for ...

2444. When You Have Everything You Need, Except What You Need (Managing Money)

Luke 12:22-34, Luke 12:13-21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... . The truth is Jesus talked as much about money as he did any other subject in life. I wish we had time to read the entire 12th chapter of Luke; I hope you’ll read it sometime today or during this coming week. The pivotal issue of the chapter was illustrated with a parable Jesus told. We didn’t read that parable, but I want to tell you the story. You’ll find it in verses 15-21 of the 12th chapter. It’s a picture of a man with money. many of you now that story. A fellow had done ...

2445. The Unsuspected Trojan Horse

Psalm 139:1-24

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... into its own flesh in an act of self-destruction. I’m not sure that’s what rattlesnakes do, but I agree with my friend, Jim – that’s what we do. We become self destructive by releasing the poison of resentment upon ourselves. To illustrate that, Jim shared a fascinating article about Dr. Christian Bernard Most of us remember that day in December, 1967, when Dr. Barnard shocked the world by performing the first heart transplant in his hospital in South Africa. Immediately he became a world—wide ...

2446. Three Wise Men

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... of the three wise men, this lesson is suggested in verse 12: “And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.” I think Earl is going to preach on that text next Sunday, so I’ll simply illustrate it. I do with a familiar and beloved poem by Myra Brooks Welch. THE TOUCH OF THE MASTER’S HAND ‘Twas battered and scarred, and the auctioneer Thought it scarcely worth his while To waste much time on the old violin, But held it up with a smile: “What ...

2447. Not a Servant, but a Son

Galatians 4:6-7

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... ”, we’re still “under age” and the inheritance is not yet ours. To understand what Paul is talking about, we don’t have to know the precise court system relating to minors, or the inheritance codes of those days. A modern situation will serve to illustrate. A parent sets aside $100, 000 in trust for a child. The money actually belongs to the child, but cannot be possessed and used by the child until the age stipulated in the trust — for instance, 18 or 21 years. Until that time comes, there’s ...

2448. Exit and Entrance

Galatians 4:21-31

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... ninety years old, bore the promised son and he was named Isaac. Paul emphasizes the point that Ishmael was born of the ordinary human impulses – of the flesh – while Isaac was a result of God’s intervention. An allegory is much more than an illustration. It is a spiritual truth embodied in historical events. Paul, uses this bit of significant history to teach a great lesson. He pleads with his “dear children” to “hear the law” and let the law teach them that the true children of Abraham, the ...

2449. For Freedom Christ Has Set Us Free

Galatians 5:1-15

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... she met the brilliant young German director, Otto Preminger. They fell in love and soon married. They went to America soon thereafter, where he began his career as a movie director. Unfortunately and tragically, Hollywood is a place of dramatic illustrations of people “biting, devouring, and consuming” one another. Marian was caught up in the glamour, lights and superficial excitement and soon began to live a sordid, promiscuous life. When Preminger discovered it, he divorced her. She returned to Europe ...

2450. He Presented Himself Alive

Matthew 28:1-10

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... . Jesus presented himself alive. That’s what the resurrection is all about. Jesus is set loose in the world as the eternal Christ, not limited by time and space, set loose to be a very present help in every time of trouble. Here is a moving illustration of it. I had had two or three counseling sessions with the young man. He had revealed some hidden corners of his life, had talked at length about his sin and failure, including an adulterous relationship, saying that he had prayed and confessed his sin to ...

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