Showing 1 to 25 of 29 results
1. Just Checking
Revelation 22:1-6
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
The “Circle of Life.” What parent has not listened to Elton John’s heart-tugging theme song for Disney’s “The Lion King” movie (1994)? It is a glorious piece ... titles in Revelation — the Alpha and the Omega in 1:8 and 21:6, the beginning and the end in 21:1 only Jesus calls himself the first and the last. While John’s theology made it clear that the Word, was “with God” and “was God” from “the beginning,” the unique role of the incarnated Word gives Jesus the Christ a third title ...
Sermon
J. Howard Olds
... car. The world was stunned. This princess, who could make the headlines by waving her hand or send sensations through the media by wearing a party dress, was dead. The queen of people's hearts was gone. Over one billion people watched her funeral as Elton John sang about a candle in the wind. On September 5, 1997, the day of Princess Diana's funeral, an elderly Albanian nun slipped out of this world into eternity. For nearly fifty years this “Saint of the Gutter" had cared for the hungry, the naked, the ...
Sermon
J. Howard Olds
... Jesus Christ is that kind of friend. III. A FRIEND KNOWS US THE BEST THAT LOVES US THE MOST. A group of elementary students were asked “What is a good friend?" Their number one answer was “Someone you can depend on." Barbara Walters asked singer Elton John his greatest fear. Without hesitation the great musician replied “That I will not be loved." Another movie star was asked to define her greatest need. She replied “My greatest need is to have someone know me, really know me, and not go away." The ...
Sermon
Bill Bouknight
... a preacher or on our magnificent buildings or on unlimited parking or on a brilliant team of staff and volunteer leaders. The key is the power of God, and the way to unleash that power is through prayer. If we just want to attract crowds, we could invite Elton John to sing. If we just want to get people excited, we could send them to a ball game. If we just want to raise money, we could hold raffles and give door prizes. But if we want to make disciples, mature disciples, and mobilize disciples, if we want ...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
... . All the jokes we know today are bad jokes. Sick jokes. Warped humor. We have replaced slapstick with slap downs, the jocular with the jugular, and have convinced ourselves it is funny. What are some of the “bad jokes” in today’s culture? Try Elton John spending 293,000 pounds (that’s over a half million dollars) in a single year on cut flowers for himself. (as cited in Times Literary Supplement, 14 December 2007, 27). Think what kind of perpetual gardens could have been established for inner-city ...
Sermon
James Merritt
... they considered to be the greatest, most prolific songwriters of all time. I am going to give you the top nine in their list in reverse order and see if you can guess who was #1. #9 – Elton John #8 – Joni Mitchell #7 – Paul Simon #6 – Mick Jagger #5 - Neil Young #4 - Paul McCarty #3 - Bruce Springsteen #2 - John Lennon Who wants to guess who they said was the #1 songwriter of all time? #1 – Bob Dylan I really have no qualms with that list except for the number one position. I don’t agree with ...
Sermon
Lori Wagner
... trusting God. Misreadings and mishearings are equally as dangerous. Many people mishear song lyrics for example the running joke about Elton John’s song, “Tiny Dancer.” Some have thought the lyrics said, “Hold me close young Tony Danza,” since the ... ourselves. This is what Jesus is experiencing in his encounter with his contemporaries as told by the apostle John today. Jesus is explaining something spiritually and metaphorically. His contemporaries –whether purposefully or not—are taking what ...
Sermon
Frank Lyman
... our emphasis where Jesus put his, with the least of our brothers and sisters, then we have every right to say, "Happy Thanksgiving!" In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen! 1. Webster's Unabridged Dictionary. 2. Hakuna Matata, Lyrics by Tim Rice, Tune by Elton John. 3. Plantinga, Jr. Cornelius, Assurances of the Heart. Frank Lyman is the pastor of the University United Methodist Church of East Lansing, MI. Thanksgiving Day
Sermon
Thomas A. Pilgrim
... too bad he doesn't know how to tell us about it."2 Yogi has become famous for unclear non-communication. He is not a teacher. Elton Trueblood was a well-known Christian teacher, preacher, and writer. After he retired he published a book of essays under the title, The Teacher. The title, ... 7. C. H. Dodd, The Parables of the Kingdom, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1961, p. 5. 8. John Thomas Randolph, "What You Need Is What You See," Emphasis, CSS Publishing, Lima, Ohio, January-February, 1993, p. 67. 9. Ernest ...
10. Good Medicine
Proverbs 10:1-32
Sermon
David E. Leininger
... illustration of someone trying to call attention to a tiny speck in a neighbor's eye while a whole log is hanging out of his own eye is one. Elton Trueblood wrote a book entitled The Humor of Christ that was inspired by that passage. He says, The germ of the idea which has finally led to the writing ... 04," #41, 3/29/99 3. Judges 3:12-30 4. Elton Trueblood, The Humor of Christ, (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1964), p. 9 5. ibid., p. 15 6. Universal Pictures, 1998, a Blue Wolf, Farrell/Minoff, Bungalow 78 ...
11. Hang in There!
Matthew 15:21-28
Sermon
David E. Leininger
... had been having trouble escaping the demanding crowds; things were dangerous politically (King Herod had recently beheaded his cousin, John the Baptist); he was frustrated in his efforts to make any headway with the religious establishment and he was ... a problem. Perhaps we are getting closer to an answer. One more classic explanation to the puzzle of this text comes from Elton Trueblood in his book, The Humor of Christ.(4) He writes, "there is more widespread recognition of this encounter as humorous than ...
Sermon
James Angell
... Evans, Carlyle Marney, James Pike, Ted Loder, Wallace Hamilton, Gerald Kennedy, Eugene Carson Blake, Liston Pope, Elton Trueblood, and Richard Raines. Plus the following, whose writing informed my mind and added muscle and music to my faith: Loren Eiseley, Thomas Merton, Halford Luccock, Reinhold Niebuhr, Frederick Buechner, Walter Brueggemann, C. S. Lewis, Robert McAfee Brown, Ernest Fremont Tittle, John Sutherland Bonnell, Henri J. M. Nouwen, Howard Thurman, Samuel Miller, David H. C. Read, Joseph Ford ...
Sermon
Donald B. Strobe
... and wickedness, and has no need for freeloaders who are “just going along for the ride.” Some years ago Quaker Elton Trueblood wrote a book titled “the Company of the Committed,” in which he reminded us of how often the New ... said Jesus to those first disciples; and through them, to us. One of the most important words in the Fourth gospel is the simple word “sent.” John says that the Father sent the Son, and the Son sent the Church. Later on, we read that the Holy Spirit is sent to empower the ...
Sermon
Donald B. Strobe
... preaching so important. In recent years we have jettisoned so much that our forebears thought valuable. Elton Trueblood calls us a “cut-flower civilization.” We have cut ourselves off from our roots in so many ways, that there ... never done it that way before.” If there is an “Eighth Last Word” I would suggest that it might well be: “Restructure.” John Gardner, in his book “Self-Renewal,” says: “The last act of a dying organization is to get out a new and enlarged edition ...
Sermon
Phil Thrailkill
... a fancy philosophical way of saying that knowing truth is reserved for those who are willing to do what Jesus says. Two verses from John 7 make this clear, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me; if any man’s will is to do his will ... then leaves us facing a further question: If I was to face the flood of God’s testing today, would my life stand or fall? D. Elton Trueblood wrote, “The chief way you and I are disloyal to Christ is when we make small what he intended to make large.”10 For Jesus ...
Sermon
Thomas A. Pilgrim
... Sea of Galilee. There He saw two fishermen, Simon and Andrew. It is thought by some scholars that those two brothers had been followers of John the Baptist. If so, perhaps they were at the river when Jesus was baptized. At any rate, it is possible that Jesus knew who they ... , 1960), p. 65. 2. Walter L. Underwood, The Contemporary Twelve (Abingdon Press: Nashville, 1984), p. 48. 3. Elton Trueblood, The Incendiary Fellowship (Harper & Row Publishers: New York, Evanston, and London, 1967), p. 78. 4. G. Ray Jordon ...
Sermon
Wallace H. Kirby
... passages of the New Testament are based on the insights of a sophisticated and academic tradition. To read the prologue to the Gospel of John, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God," is to hear the good news of ... thinking of a theology professor that made Christianity a continuing option for him and many others of his generation. Elton Trueblood has wisely said that intellectual argumentation does not create Christian conviction. But he also notes that intellectual ...
Sermon
Robert G. Tuttle
... They are excited. They swallow it. They drink it in and do nothing about it. They never follow through. The idea dies and is gone. Elton Trueblood reminds us that if you do not have a good theology you will have a bad theology because you cannot avoid having some ... us. This little fellow was revealing the kind of good soil where a life of faith and goodness takes root and grows. John Wesley believed in the law of the sower as he sought to lead England back into Christian life. Thousands were converted under ...
Sermon
David E. Leininger
... needs to know of your forgiveness. For we pray it in the name of Jesus. Amen! 1. Quoted by Elton Trueblood, The Lord's Prayers, (New York: Harper & Row, 1965), p. 55 2. Dan Baumann, Dare to Believe, (Glendale, CA: Regal Books, 1977), ... pp. 139-140 3. Albert Curry Winn, A Christian Primer, (Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1990), p. 64 4. I John 1:9 5. Quoted by Philip Yancey, "An Unnatural Act," Christianity Today, 4/8/91, p. 36 6. "Ordained ...
Sermon
Eric Ritz
... But before they reached that destination, one principle needed to be clarified: "I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other gods before Me." The Reverend John Brokhoff tells of a Kansas City Chiefs'' baseball game when a dog walked onto the playing field and wandered around. The game was stopped so that the dog ... lives above the din of lesser gods which continually beckon--one dominant voice. Quaker theologian, Elton Trueblood states this commandment in a positive way: "Above all else love God alone."
21. The Science of Happiness
1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
... two words he was unhesitatingly happy. Will you practice happiness this week? That doesn’t mean you will always feel happiness. But as John Wesley taught us, sometimes you need to act as if you have faith, even when you seem to have lost faith, and in ... have faith. So you practice happiness by acting as if you are happy, even when you’re not, in due time you will be happy. Elton Trueblood once said that “it is easier to act yourself into a new way of feeling than to feel yourself into a new way of acting.” ...
22. A Man of One Book
Illustration
Michael B. Brown
John Wesley wrote in 1730: "I began to be 'homo unius libri' (a man of one book). I began to study (comparatively) no book but the Bible." In his preface to Sermons On ... pulpit, in the Sunday school classroom, in mid-week study groups, in cottage prayer meetings, in Disciples or Trinity Bible study courses. Growing churches place a high priority on teaching the Bible. As Elton Trueblood used to say, "We cannot have fruits without roots!"5 The Christian's roots have always been securely fastened to the Word.
Sermon
Carl Jech
... and the element of humor has been brought out in many different ways. There is Dante's Divine Comedy. In 1964 D. Elton Trueblood published TheHumor of Christ, in which he showed how Jesus used humor in his parables and in his encounters with ... humor that is critical, and this truth can hurt. The drunk can be funny, pathetic and tragic all at the same time. When the Gospel of John says that "grace and truth" came by Jesus Christ, itmeans in part that grace helps us to bear the truth - not to be afraid of even ...
24. Theology in Snow
Psalm 147:1-20
Sermon
David E. Leininger
... ministry, we would have found him FUN to be around. Jesus liked people, he liked parties, he even liked jokes. In a wonderful book called The Humor of Christ,(3) the late Elton Trueblood points out over thirty times in the gospels where the people hearing Jesus speak would have understood him to be making a joke. I suspect that, if there had been ... become as little children...nine-year-olds...you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." Amen! 1. Psalm 147:16 2. John 15:11 3. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1964
Sermon
Eric Ritz
... really does belong to God. "You see the holiness of God is like a tent pole holding up everything else," says John Killinger. "True reverence is hierarchical not democratic. It descends from above." The Sabbath day is holy because it comes from above. It ... other "time." The popular writer Chuck Swindoll reminds us that "fatigue is not next to godliness." That is why I like Elton Trueblood''s positive wording of the fourth commandment which states: "The Sabbath rest with care maintain." Yes, when we keep the ...
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