Sermon and Worship Resources

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Mark 4:30-34

Sermon

James Weekley

"What is God up to now?" he wondered. "Are you serious, Lord? Did I hear you correctly? You say you want me to withdraw my money from the bank, stop my newspaper, pull up stakes, leave the friends I have grown up with, and move to a somewhere land which has no name?" God did not even give Abraham an Exxon road atlas and a U-Haul trailer. All that he had to go with was faith. "Now I want to see tho...

2. Even God Called Time Out

Mark 2:23-3:6

Sermon

James Weekley

One sabbath he was going through the grain-fields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. And the Pharisees said to him, "Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?" And he said to them, "Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high pr...

3. Friendship Arms or Cold Shoulders

Mark 6:1-6

Sermon

James Weekley

A man began buttering his wife with romantic talk. "My dear, let me feast my eyes upon your lovely face, and I'll buy you a sable muff. Let me hold your hand, and I'll buy you a silverfox scarf. Let me kiss you, and I'll give you a mink cape. Let me ..." "Stop!" she pleaded. "that's fur enough!" Like two porcupines, some people will never get too close for comfort. The poets and theologians have ...

4. Keeping God First in the Polls

John 3:1-21

Sermon

James Weekley

Did you know that a glass of hippopotamus milk contains eighty calories, or that only five percent of people are able to dream in color? Facts are intriguing but, just as quickly, they are easily forgotten. The recent knowledge explosion has had a great impact upon technology. With that technological 'know how,' we thought we had a blank check to the future. Then came the new bullies on the block:...

5. Liquid Hope

John 7:25-44

Sermon

James Weekley

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and proclaimed, "If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, 'Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.' " Now this he said about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive. John 7:37-39a (RSV) Our bodies contain the following percentages of water: muscles, ...

6. On Polishing Up the 24 Karat Jesus

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

James Weekley

A newly appointed minister was preparing to deliver his first sermon. As expected, he was as nervous as a long tail cat in a room full of rocking chairs. In his introduction he misquoted Jesus as follows, "I have come to heal the dead, cast out the sick, and raise the devil." Jesus did not want to be misquoted. In fact, he wanted to make his lasting impressions stick. How could the disciples ever...

7. Restlessness

Illustration

James Weekley

Michael Faraday, an early pioneer of electromagnetic current, once addressed a convocation of scientists. For an hour he held the audience spellbound with his lecture on the nature of the magnet. After he had finished, he received a thundering ovation. The Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII, stood to congratulate him. The applause thundered again. Just as quickly, a deadened silence pervaded t...

8. The Big Hand

Mark 14:12-26

Sermon

James Weekley

And on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the passover lamb, his disciples said to him, "Where will you have us go and prepare for you to eat the passover?" And he sent two of his disciples, and said to them, "Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him, and wherever he enters, say to the householder, "The Teacher says, Where is my guest room,...

9. The Four Chaplains

Mark 4:35-41

Illustration

James Weekley

On a cold February 4, 1943, the American ship, the Dorchester, was carrying several hundred soldiers off the coast of Greenland. Suddenly, an enemy torpedo ripped into its hull. Within minutes the ship would go under. Amid the panic and confusion, four chaplains, Alex Good, Jewish; John Washington, Catholic; Clark Poling and George Fox, Protestants, stood together with their life belts on. Many of...

10. The Song in Search of a Voice

John 20:19-23

Sermon

James Weekley

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you." When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send yo...

11. Think What God Can Do with Our Sins

Mark 3:20-30

Illustration

James Weekley

M. H. Schubert shares the story about a group of fishermen in the Scottish highlands. They gathered for tea and discussed the day's catch. As a waitress set down a cup of tea, a hand accidently knocked it against the wall. It left an ugly stain. One of the guests got up, went to the wall, and began sketching around the stain with a crayon. What emerged was a stag with magnificent antlers. The man ...

12. Tilted Haloes

Mark 3:20-30

Sermon

James Weekley

And the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for people were saying, "He is beside himself." And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said. "He is possessed by Beelzebul, and by the prince of demons he casts out the demons. "And he called them to him, and said to them in parables, "How can Satan cast out Satan? If...

13. Turning the Corner on the Very End

Mark 5:21-43

Sermon

James Weekley

The greatest of all human mysteries is death. Its sphinx-like profile casts a mysterious shadow upon the light of our progress. It becomes a riddle even to us today because, we, too, are unable to comprehend it. There is very little we can document about death. We do know that death is the unwelcome stranger who comes without invitation. This dark angel is no respector of age and social status. Th...

14. What's a Good God Doing In a World Like This?

John 16:5-16

Sermon

James Weekley

But when the Counselor comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness to me; and you also are witnesses, because you have been with me from the beginning. "I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. But now I am going to him who sent me; yet none of you asks me, 'Where are you going?'...

15. When You Can't See The Rainbow for the Storm

Mark 4:35-41

Sermon

James Weekley

Following the battle of Guadalcanal, Barney Ross recalls himself petitioning a Jewish God. Adkins, in the next foxhole, was praying to a Baptist God. A kid with a hole in his side was praying to a Catholic God. It hit him that there was no difference between himself and his friends beneath a hell of gunfire. He confessed, "I couldn't help but wonder if people have to come that close to death to re...

16. Where Have All the Shepherds Gone?

Mark 6:30-44

Sermon

James Weekley

Have you ever seen a shepherd in living color? Near our home in Southern California several years ago, we would occasionally observe this rare phenomenon on grassy hillslopes of the San Gabriel Mountains. The sheep looked the part, except their wool coat didn't have that washed-in-Tide appearance. The shepherd wore boots, blue jeans, and a Texas straw hat. With a two-way transistor radio strapped ...

17. Who Short-Circuited the Good News?

Mark 6:7-13

Sermon

James Weekley

And he called to him the twelve, and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. He charged them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics. And he said to them, "Where you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. And if any place will not receive you...

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