Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1 to 25 of 57 results

1. Thankfulness For Fleas

Illustration

Michael P. Green

... Place relates an incident that taught her always to be thankful. She and her sister, Betsy, had just been transferred to the worst German prison camp they had seen yet, Ravensbruck. On entering the barracks, they found them extremely overcrowded and flea-infested. That morning, their Scripture reading in 1 Thessalonians had reminded them to rejoice always, pray constantly, and give thanks in all circumstances. Betsy told Corrie to stop and thank the Lord for every detail of their new living quarters. Corrie ...

2. The Flea Left the City

Humor

A teacher telling the story of Sodom and Gomorrah to her class explained: "Lot was warned to take his wife and flee out of the city which was about to be destroyed. They got away safely. Then Lot's wife looked back and turned into a pillar of salt. Now, children, do you have any questions to ask about this story?" "Yeah, I have a question," announced a boy, raising his hand. "Could you please tell us what happened to the flea?"

3. What Is Your Life?

James 4:13-17

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... opportunity to be faithful...to be a good steward of the gift that God has given us. A teacher once had her class conduct an experiment with "jumping fleas." The students put hundreds of the fleas on a table and observed how they jumped. Then they took a large glass container and turned it upside-down over the jumping fleas. Now when the fleas jumped, they kept hitting the top of the container. Finally they realized they couldn't jump any higher, so they measured their jumps. Later, the teacher removed the ...

4. A Faith for the Uncharted Way

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

Leonard Mann

... sun, but it can rain. We can sing "Don’t let it rain on my parade," but it will - sooner or later. The most sophisticated Fifth Ave parlor dog will occasionally have to scratch a flea. And fleas have their problems, too. At least Jonathan Swift thought so as he wrote: So naturalists observe, a flea Hath smaller fleas that on him prey, And these have smaller ones to bite ‘em, And so proceed ad infinitum. We may arise in the morning singing, "O what a beautiful morning, O what a beautiful day; everything ...

5. Waltzing With Coyotes

Luke 6:27-36

Drama

Robert F. Crowley

... were adoin'. I should aknowed it. I thought I felt a li'l somthin' on ma nick. But I thought it were a flea. WILLIE: A li'l somthin'! Ya most nearly fainted dead away. Why, ya haint looked that sickly since ya found that skunk in yar long johns. BART: By gum, I ... see it were you on ma nick. I was right it were a flea. WILLIE: By tha smell o' ya, ya still got thet skunk in yar long johns. (LI'L BUTTERCUP-SHINES-IN-THE-MORNING BECOMES FRANTIC) BART: Li'l ...

6. What Are You Looking At?

Acts 3:11-26

Sermon

Paul W. Kummer

... honoring Zeus was all set to offer sacrifices until Paul told them, "Don't look at us!" Even when God uses us to do great exploits in his kingdom this should be our attitude. It's not me. It's Jesus! Jumbo the elephant and Flick the flea were long-time great friends. They often walked and chatted together. Actually, they were inseparable. One day they were walking along a back-country road when they came to a flimsy wooden bridge that spanned a deep gorge. They walked across, the little bridge swaying and ...

7. "Unless A Grain Of Wheat ..."

John 12:20-33

Sermon

Elaine M. Ward

... even "the mother of beauty" (Wallace Stevens). Because we are aware of the proximity of death, we appreciate life's beauty here and now. We are hooked on living. Death is not only the mother of beauty but the equality. We are on a par with flies and fleas and flowers that die. But the Christian sees beyond death. Yet it takes courage to die. A young boy dying of cancer gave Elisabeth Kubler-Ross a picture of a cannon with a large barrel aimed at a small boy with a stop sign in his hand, his interpretation ...

8. Keeping Sunday

Mark 2:23-3:6

Sermon

David G. Rogne

... his ox fell in a ditch, he could pull the ox out; if he fell in a ditch, he had to stay there. Eggs laid on the Sabbath could not be eaten; the hens had been working. If a flea bit a person on the Sabbath, he must not scratch it, but let it bite in peace, for to try to catch the flea would be hunting on the Sabbath. Once fire broke out in Jerusalem on the Sabbath. The Jews, afraid to work on that day, let it burn, and three people were killed. The day became more important than the ...

9. Getting Our Lives Out Of Hock

Psalm 105:1-45

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... in a pawn shop. Now, it may surprise you to know that I visit pawn shops now and then. In fact, that may strike you as weird. I've told you before that I like auctions and estate sales. I don't like flea markets too much, but I hardly ever go to London without going to the PortoBella Flea Market or the one at Angels Crossing. Psychologists in the crowd can play with my compulsions, and figure out the strange person who is your pastor. I've never hocked anything but I've bought a few things at pawn shops for ...

10. Lowered Expectation

Matthew 14:13-21; John 6:1-21

Illustration

John Marks Templeton

... in the first place, you can change it? What a powerful notion! Whatever happens to you, you can say, "I am the master of my life." But just as the good that comes to you is a demonstration of your mastery, so is the negative. Consider how hopping fleas are trained. The fleas are put into a glass jar. As they try and jump in the jar, they bump their heads on the lid. Over time, they forget they can jump and, for fear of bumping their heads, never go beyond the limits of the jar, even though the lids have ...

11. The Reluctant Celebrity

Mark 1:40-45

Sermon

King Duncan

... famous, he replied, “It feels fine when you get a choice reservation at a football game, but it’s never helped me make a good picture or command the obedience of my daughter. It doesn’t even seem to keep fleas off our dog, and if being a celebrity doesn’t give one an advantage over fleas, then I guess there can’t be much in it after all.” Disney was a sensible man who was able to put life into perspective, but I suppose celebrities serve their purpose. They make life more interesting for those ...

12. The Good Life

John 10:11-18

Sermon

James Merritt

... very flattering. For one reason, you won’t find a dumber animal than a sheep. You can train dogs, you can train cats, you can even train fleas, but you’ll never go to a circus to see a trained sheep. They have poor eyesight, they have no common sense, left to their own ... from difficulty. There are wolves and bears that want to devour the sheep, there’s bad weather, there’s ticks, fleas, insects that want to sicken the sheep and weaken the sheep. The shepherd does not guard the sheep from difficulty, ...

13. Fame Doesn't Shoo the Flies

Illustration

Michael P. Green

... choice reservation for a football game.… As far as I can remember, being a celebrity has never helped me make a good picture, or a good shot in a polo game, or command the obedience of my daughter, or impress my wife. It doesn’t even seem to help keep fleas off our dogs and, if being a celebrity won’t give me an advantage over a couple of fleas, then I guess there can’t be that much in being a celebrity after all.”

14. I Once Was Blind…and Maybe I Still Am

John 9:1-41

Sermon

King Duncan

... make the same mistake. There are many people in our community who somehow have the idea that they are not good enough to come inside these walls. One little girl said her favorite hymn was, “Just as I am without one flea . . . .” We need to get the word out that we take people, “fleas” and all. We dare not have the world see us as an exclusive community reserved only for saints. The very word “religion” means “to bind together.” We are outside the will of God when we allow our faith to erect ...

15. In The Carpenter's Workshop

Sermon

Jerry Eckert

... 've heard that one before. Joseph: Very good. Say, you are almost done there,aren't you? Jesus: Just time for one more riddle, only make ithard this time. Joseph: Okay. If it takes 55 yards of pink linen tomake a robe for a baby elephant and it takes a flea tenminutes to kick a half-inch hole in a pickle, how old am I? Jesus: 44. Joseph: How did you come up with that figure? Jesus: Your younger brother is 22 and he's only halfcrazy! Joseph: I think you are going to have to learn alittle respect, my son ...

16. In The Carpenter's Workshop

Matthew 18:21-35

Drama

Jerry Eckert

... that one before. Joseph: Very good. Say, you are almost done there, aren't you? Jesus: Just time for one more riddle, only make it hard this time. Joseph: Okay. If it takes 55 yards of pink linen to make a robe for a baby elephant and it takes a flea ten minutes to kick a half-inch hole in a pickle, how old am I? Jesus: 44. Joseph: How did you come up with that figure? Jesus: Your younger brother is 22 and he's only half crazy! Joseph: I think you are going to have to learn a little ...

17. The End of Babel

Genesis 11:1-9, Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

Dr. Raymond Bailey

... fall, and the stars come out. He hurls lightning bolts at us. I think we could run things better. We're the best." Then one of them asked, "Who's gonna tell him?" They all scratched their heads. They did that quite often. That Iraqi desert is full of fleas and lice. Then one wise guy said, "Never mind that! How are we going to get to his house?" "Hmmm," they all said. "Let's build a tower," someone posed. "Great idea!" they all exclaimed. "Uhhh, what's a tower?" "Let's build a building that gets higher and ...

18. Living Passionately

Luke 4:14-30

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

... in Boris Pasternak's Doctor Zhivago. I thought of his words as a few months ago I stood on the highest rim of the Colosseum and allowed my mind to stray back 2,000 years to imagine what it looked like then. Pasternak said, "Rome is a flea market of borrowed gods and conquered people, a mass of filth convoluted in a triple knot, as in an intestinal obstruction. Heavy wheels with no spokes, eyes sunk in fat, sodomy, double chins, illiterate emperors, fish fed on the flesh of learned slaves, all crammed into ...

19. An Unidentified King

Matthew 21:1-11

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... now have a hard time getting a fix on who Jesus is. Some people today have tried to domesticate and tame Jesus. They have turned him into something resembling TV's Mr. Rogers with long hair, a sweet Jesus, meek and mild, who wouldn't hurt a flea. But, you know, Jesus was not crucified for saying, "Let the little children come unto me." No, one of the reasons they crucified him was because he physically assaulted the money-changers in the temple, saying, "Get out of here, you bunch of crooks." When Hollywood ...

20. Embalmed Leaders

John 10:1-21

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

... unspeakably chaotic rites. No other such convocations, anywhere in the civilized world, perform their functions amid such torrents of hoarse, lamentable oratory, such displays of hypocritical bedlam, and such barefaced recourse to the mores of the poker table and the flea market. They are motivated by the arrant opportunism, and are such natural incubators of bathos and low comedy that their functionaries sometimes seem to be engaged in a large-scale revival of the 19th Century burlesque." There is guile ...

21. A Season Of Joy

Luke 2:8-20

Sermon

Robert Allen

... my wife and me on our wedding day. It also has pictures of the children from the day they were born up to the present. What is that photo album worth? I don’t really know. It’s probably not worth very much monetarily. If you took it to a flea market, you might get a few dollars, but not much more. But, it is important to me! And do you know why it’s important to me? It is important because it contains a pictorial history of my family. I think you can understand why that family photo album is ...

22. The Establishment of An Empire

2 Samuel 5:1-5

Sermon

Roger Prescott

... clay like the rest of us if not more so - self-serving and deceitful, lustful and vain - but ... you can see why it was David more than anybody else that Israel lost her heart to and why, when Jesus of Nazareth came riding into Jerusalem on his flea-bitten mule a thousand years later, it was as the Son of David that they hailed him.* (*Frederick Buechner, Peculiar Treasures, Harper & Row, 1979, p. 24.) We do not know what our lives will become either. Our faith leaves the door open to many mysteries - and ...

23. Why Prophets Get Under Our Skin

Luke 3:1-20

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... to a nation like Iraq and a brutal madman like Saddam Hussein. He expends huge proportions of his gross national product on arms. He is enormously in debt for his military acquisitions. He expends the lives of his citizens as cavalierly as some would expend fleas. His own men and youth mean no more to him than expendable cannon fodder. And they either have to shoot at Hussein's enemies or his commanders will shoot them in the back. Or consider the warlords of Somalia, or the tinhorn dictators of Rwanda ...

24. It's Not Nice To Call Someone A Dog

Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon

King Duncan

... you are staring at?" he asked, taking it off and holding it up. When he did so he saw the cleaning instructions on the inside of the collar, and to make conversation, he asked, "Do you know what it says here?" "Yes," responded the little girl. "It says, ˜Kills fleas for six months." (1) I can hear Jesus telling such a joke on himself, can’t you? People who are secure in themselves don’t have to "put on airs." He was open and caring. People of all sorts were drawn to him. Our story for the morning is ...

25. God's Design and Our Destiny

Isaiah 63:7--64:12

Sermon

King Duncan

... investigation it was discovered that lizards in the same area accumulated DDT in their bodies and died. This, in turn, killed the village cats which ate the lizards. As a result, the village rat population exploded and with the rats came the fleas which cause plague. And the thatched roofs that were collapsing? This happened because the insects which live in the thatched roofs were immune to DDT and multiplied due to the decreased lizard population. Prior to the well-intentioned intervention, the villagers ...

Showing results