Sermon and Worship Resources

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Matthew 13:24-30

Sermon

King Duncan

... parable indicates. There are not people in white hats who always do good things and folks in black hats who always do bad things. The folks in white hats sometimes make dreadfully bad choices. Fans of country music revere the name of George Jones. Jones has had enough hit songs on his hundred or so albums to make the careers of ten singers. Sometime back George was nearly killed in an automobile accident. He was talking on his cell phone. When the news first came out, many of his fans probably assumed that ...

2. Fueling a Habit

Mt 13:24-30

Illustration

King Duncan

... for wild living and self-destructive behavior. In the past he struggled with a serious addiction to alcohol and drugs. His addictions were so severe that Jones would literally do anything to fuel his habit. At one time, George was almost outwitted by his then-wife, Tammy Wynette. To keep him away from the local bar, Tammy took George's car keys. But George's determination to feed his addiction won out. He hopped on his riding lawn mower and rode ten miles to the nearest bar. Why otherwise good people ...

3. Are You a Polar Bear?

Ephesians 1:1-14

Sermon

... music icon from the old school. A lot of his songs were the stereotypical country “cheatin’ & drinkin’” songs. And the fact that George Jones had a drinking problem himself was no secret. But on March 6, 1999 country music fans were horrified to hear that George Jones was critically injured when he crashed his Lexus into a bridge in Nashville. The investigation showed that George had been drunk at the wheel. Thankfully he recovered, and he kept performing until his death a couple of years ago. Two ...

4. The Bridge Builder

Luke 6:27-36

Sermon

King Duncan

... stars, has lived a troubled life; his drinking and reckless behavior once came close to ruining his career. Probably the lowest point in his career came the night in 1979 when George performed a major concert in Nashville. That night, Jones did the whole concert--a string of hits--in the voice of Donald Duck. Not long afterwards, Jones checked into a rehab center. Since then, he has been sober and successful. (1) Can you imagine? How would you react if your favorite singer showed up one night and did ...

5. You Can Be Forever Young

Genesis 25:1-11

Sermon

Michael B. Brown

... ." I am not certain I understand that. Perhaps Dr. Barnard has confused "aging" with "getting old," and those are two distinctively different things. Apparently millions of aging Americans agree and demonstrated such recently by purchasing a recording of the silver-haired country singer, George Jones. The refrain of his hit song said: I don't need your rocking chair, Your Geritol or your Medicare. I've still got neon in my veins, And this gray hair don't mean a thing! It is an interesting song, particularly ...

6. Minority Report

Matthew 13:1-9; 18-23

Sermon

James Merritt

... us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us." George Whitefield is one of the greatest preachers in the history of America. He had uncounted thousands and thousands and thousands and tens of ... extravagant lifestyle, and he was a friend of many of the Hollywood celebrities. He met a man by the name of Bill Jones. Bill Jones was a Christian who served time in prison and had gotten to know Mickey Cohen and began to share the Lord Jesus ...

7. Radical Surgery

Mark 9:42-50

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... feels about the ball: fall on it, hang onto it at all cost to legs, arms, and head. Don’t let go of it! George Arthur Buttrick said it this way: “Its value is so far beyond all reckoning that at any cost of purchase it is still a ... that question as I sat in a hotel room in Alaska writing. I looked up and saw myself in a looking glass and said to myself, ‘Stanley Jones, you’re a very happy man, aren’t you?’ I replied, ‘Yes, I am.’ And then the vital question: ‘How did you get this way?’ And ...

8. Bildad Again Beats the Retribution Drum

Job 18:1-21

Teach the Text

Daniel J. Estes

... is unbiblical. Film: Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Bildad’s picture of the traps that threaten the wicked person can be illustrated by Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), in which Indiana Jones (played by Harrison Ford ... pleasure in heaven by becoming converted!”2 Poetry: “Affliction (IV),” by George Herbert. In a wonderful poem called “Affliction (IV),” the British metaphysical poet and beloved pastor George Herbert (1593–1633) wrote the following lines indicating his trust in God ...

9. The Jump to Judgment

Matthew 7:1-6

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... is that keeping quiet, failing to report suspected wrong-doing, is simply BAD citizenship. Obviously, as the case with Mr. Jones and his umbrellas points out, some investigation should occur before accusations are made. But failure to make any judgment at ... , CD-ROM edition (Liguori, MO: Liguori Faithware, 1996) used by permission of Westminster/John Knox Press 2. II Samuel 12:1-7a 3. George W. Koch 4. Matthew 7:15-16a 5. "Are We Living in a Moral Stone Age?" Vital Speeches, LXIV, May 15, 1998, pp. ...

10. When You Are Uncertain About Your Salvation

1 Kings 3:1-15

Sermon

King Duncan

... like I do." Let me tell you something: Jake's friend was wrong. The One who knows us best loves us most. As E. Stanley Jones once put it, "When you surrender to Christ, all self-hate, all self- loathing, all self-rejection drop away. How can you hate what He ... blind man, or a man in danger of becoming blind. Now, many people in this situation would have been very bitter and angry, but instead George sat down and wrote a great hymn that begins like this: "O Love that will not let me go, I rest my weary soul in ...

11. When Jacob Got a Vision

Genesis 29:15-28

Sermon

Arley K. Fadness

... solely to provide them busy work and as an excuse to feed them, the men grew listless and stopped singing. And commenting on the incident George Moore said, â€˜The roads to nowhere are difficult to make. For a person to work well and sing, there must be an end in view.' " ... mission statement can help one focus on the mission and purposes of Christ in one's own life. Laurie Beth Jones, in her workshops and book The Path: Creating Your Mission Statement for Work and for Life, gives her personal mission ...

12. Paul, Phoebe, Patronage, and Spain

Romans 16:1-27

Teach the Text

C. Marvin Pate

... was sincerely wrong. One thinks here of the followers of Jim Jones in the late 1970s, who were led astray by the distortion of the gospel preached by that minister. Jones’s followers—about one thousand of them—relocated from California with ... .2).5 The best way to resist false teaching is to know well the truth of the gospel. Quote: Franz Kafka. Essayist and educator George Steiner (b. 1929) wants to read books that operate on his affections: “To read great literature as if it did not have upon us an ...

13. A Life Above All Others

John 12:20-36

Sermon

King Duncan

... IS A COST TO BEING ONE OF HIS FOLLOWERS. Remember Gracie Allen, who played the scatterbrained wife in a comedy team with her husband George Burns? Once, Gracie called in a repairman to fix her electric clock. The repairman fiddled with it for a while and then said, "There ... affirmation: "In the name of Jesus of Nazareth, rise and walk." During his five-month stay in a Boston hospital, Dr. Jones used a tape recorder to chart the progress of his returning speech. During this time he began to dictate a book that ...

14. Jesus Heals Body and Soul

Mark 1:29-34

Sermon

King Duncan

Two of our greatest presidents were born in February, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. One of the things I love about Lincoln was his sense of humor. Abe ... If some of you need physical healing,” the priest said, “now is the time to pray.” Nor was he prepared for his wife’s response to the priest’s suggestion. Lory Jones turned to her husband and said, “Let’s pray for my arthritis.” Lory was taking about thirty aspirins a day to relieve the pain in her hands. Some of you probably know ...

15. All My Children

John 1:1-18

Sermon

Frank Lyman

... the Selma to Montgomery Civil Rights March, Wallace called him every name in the book. The last thirty years of his life dealt George Wallace some cruel blows. His wife Lurleen died an early death of cancer. A would-be assassin's bullet confined him to a ... a spiritual change--Wallace did make some dramatic U-turns. He recanted his "Segregation Forever" speech, he met with Vivian Malone-Jones, one of the students whose entry he tried to prevent, and at the 30th anniversary event honoring the Selma to ...

16. Anger - Eleven Ways To Blow Up, Seven Ways To Cool Off

Matthew 5:21-26

Sermon

R. Curtis Fussell

... and believers in God's mercy and judgment, is to give our anger over to God for God to handle it. Give your anger to God. You can't change the past, there's no way; but God can change the future, if you will only permit it. 1. Todd Jones, op. cit., tape number 8. 2. Adapted from Jones, ibid. 3. See George Sinclair's sermon, "The Third Deadly Sin: Anger" (First Presbyterian Church, 120 Broad St, LaGrange, GA 30240), July 31, 1994. 4. I have adapted this list from Todd ...

17. Celebrity Culture

Psalm 95:1-11

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... someone was grilling steak so that the congregation could smell the barbecue and sauce. You might need to use a George Foreman grill, and/or barbecue chicken/vegetables/fish; whatever is especially aromatic and fits in with your local food culture ... some Saran Wrap over the cup, put a rubber band around it, and placed it in the door of our deep freezer," Jones writes in his eBay posting. Jones auctioned off the remaining three tablespoons of water, now stored in a glass vial, for $455. He then came up with ...

18. After A Lost Election, Field Of Dreams

Jeremiah 8:4--9:26

Sermon

James Angell

... friendly to me - and honestly so. The night the city council met, the vote was 3 for Mr. Jones and 3 for me. The mayor had to cast the deciding vote, and he voted for Jones. I wasn't shattered by that turn of events. I would have been surprised to have been ... three pastors during the major portion of the twentieth century - all household names in the world of the church: Henry Sloan Coffin, George Arthur Buttrick, and David H. C. Read. But to be a New Yorker is and always has been, to identify with the ...

19. No Reserves, No Retreats, No Regrets

Luke 9:57-62

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... and sisters, we've got too many whistles and wheels in the church now; what we need is more coal." Sam Jones was talking about commitment, the willingness to be used for Christ's sake. The most important thing about the commitment cards that churches hand out isn't the amount of money they provide. Their real importance is that they measure commitment. The pollster George Gallup says that his surveys reveal that fewer than 10 percent of Americans are deeply committed Christians. Though 44 percent attend ...

20. The Real Leap Of Faith

Mark 5:21-43

Sermon

King Duncan

... and he had to do something. And what did he do? He turned to Jesus. He was truly a wise man. In a recent poll, George Gallup found that more than half of the Americans who are experiencing grief turn to God, prayer, and Scripture reading for comfort. And of ... Celtics Coach K.C. Jones told of diagramming a play on the sidelines, only to have Bird dismiss it, saying: "Get the ball to me and get everyone out of my way." Jones responded: "I'm the coach, and I will call the plays." Then Jones turned to the other ...

21. A Father Pleased With His Son

Mark 1:9-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... did, or have given me a greater impulse to dedication. What kind of a man was I going to be, if I was to be the pattern for my boy?" (2) Rufus Jones became a great man partially because his son was proud of him. What a powerful bond there is between parent and child. How we love to please one another. I hope each ... my beloved son; with thee I am well pleased." 1. In an interview with George Plimpton. 2. Source unknown. 3. Cited in Keith Miller and Bruce Larson, THE PASSIONATE PEOPLE (Waco: Word Books, 1979.

22. A Room with Locked Doors

John 20:19-23

Sermon

King Duncan

... took place during World War I. After the Armistice of 1918, a destroyer carried the British prime minister, Lloyd George, from France to England. The weather during that crossing was frightful, and when they reached Dover the conditions were ... a more perfect picture of faith than that. It means letting go and trusting ourselves completely to the promises of God. Dr. E. Stanley Jones, one of the great Christians of the twentieth century, put it like this: “I see that I am inwardly fashioned for faith and ...

23. From Tears To Triumph

John 20:10-18

Sermon

King Duncan

... of shadows...real life has not even begun yet." Love does hurt particularly when we are separated from the one we love. Before George Burns became a star in his own right, he was better known as the straight man for his delightful wife, Gracie Allen. They ... purpose and power no longer cared about us, as if Christ had never been raised from the dead! That great missionary and writer E. Stanley Jones used to say that he didn't grieve over the awful events in life because he knew how it would all turn out. God is ...

24. While It Was Still Dark

John 20:1-9

Sermon

King Duncan

... were also deeply in love. Gracie died in 1964. George Burns, of course, didn’t die until 32 years later at the age of 100. When Gracie died, George was devastated. One of the things that George kept close to him following her death was a love ... moment that we live? (5) Still, there is no hard scientific evidence of immortality. Without Easter, there is only blind speculation. Pastor Jerry Jones tells about a Christian man and his wife who lost their young son in a tragic accident on Good Friday in 1996. ...

25. Phoebe

Joel 2:28-32

Sermon

Warren Thomas Smith

... way in a man’s world. She learned to stand toe to toe with her male competitors, but unlike George Sand, did not wear masculine attire, nor, like George Eliot, assume a man’s name. She did not choose to outwit her chauvinistic rivals by becoming one of ... home with her own daughters. And who was that missionary, that early-twentieth-century Pheobe? My mother’s sister, Jane D. Jones. Phoebe’s daughters hold a key post in the contemporary church. They are among the brightest and best seminarians, giving ...

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