Sermon and Worship Resources

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Genesis 12:1-9

Sermon

Stan Purdum

... It was a pretty well written show, and one that didn't leave you wishing you hadn't watched it, but what I found most interesting about the series was the role God played. His instructions to Joan were almost always confusing and counterintuitive. Joan often questioned them, and over the course of several shows, she eventually asked the questions most of us wish God would resolve. But God is not in the business of providing answers, not about his instructions or about himself or about his methods. The show ...

2. The Voice-activated Life

2 Peter 1:12-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... so much noise, so much happening, how could you hear?” Without saying a word, the old man took several coins from his pocket and tossed them on the ground. With the tinkling of the coins on the sidewalk it seemed everything came to ... live a Voice-activated life. For that’s what discipleship is The Voice-activated life the life that takes you “from glory to glory.” Joan continues: “You have not sat in the field in the evening listening for them. When the angelus rings you cross yourself and have done with ...

3. Yada, Yada, Yada

John 12:20-36

Sermon

King Duncan

... fail to listen, we are cut off from whoever is speaking to us. (3) In George Bernard Shaw’s play St. Joan, which is about Joan of Arc, Joan tells of hearing God’s messages. She is talking to King Charles. Charles doesn’t appreciate this crazy lady in ... a car that matched the description, a Chevrolet Caprice, at a Maryland rest stop and called 9-1-1. He was one of several who called police that night, and not the first. However, he did play an important part in capturing the two suspects. After calling ...

4. Faith In Conflict

Mark 6:14-29

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... we know to be evil, we had better choose the better side. There is a terrible price to be paid when we choose wrongly. Several years after inventing radar, Sir Robert Watson Watt was arrested in Canada for speeding--in a radar trap. Afterwards he wrote this poem: Pity ... rehabilitation of both people and neighborhoods that has become a model far and wide. (4) Sister Mary and her friend Joan heard the call of God. They were raised from internal and external conflicts to the stature of spiritual conflict. They ...

5. Hearing A Familiar Voice

John 10:22-30

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... liability to be seen with her. Others wrote her off as a loser in the company. The worst part was that she felt they were right. She had stopped at Joan’s desk several times with a letter of resignation in her hand. She knew she was a failure. But Joan said, “Let’s just wait a little bit longer.” And Joan said, “Give it one more try.” And Joan said, “I never would have hired you if I didn’t think you could handle it!” The woman’s voice broke. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she softly ...

6. The Plank

Matthew 5:38-48; 7:1-6

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... In the 2015 book “Tablet to Table,” Len Sweet tells an incredible story of an almost 2 billion-dollar gift given by Joan Croc (the widow of Ray Crock, founder of McDonalds) to the Salvation Army through General Linda Bond. It stands as the largest ... blown away like chaff.” (Isaiah 5:24) We know that Jesus used this metaphor of the threshing floor and winnowing process several times, and we know it is prominent in the Hebrew scriptures. As a place of both separation (judgment) and revelation, Jesus warns ...

7. A Platform For Life

Romans 8:28-39

Sermon

King Duncan

... Joan, worked at night. One morning Joan noticed John had left a note to himself on the kitchen counter that read, "STAMPS!" As a helpful surprise, Joan bought him some stamps at the post office and put them on the counter before going to work. The next morning Joan ... a Christian. But when she was just barely out of her teen years, Annie's adoptive parents died, and Annie was diagnosed with severe arthritis. She would spend the rest of her adult life in constant pain. She rarely left her bed. Yet in the midst ...

8. Wide Enough for All (Mother's Day)

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... for speeding as she raced through the state on the way home from Florida. Hoping to get off with a warning, Joan’s mother tried to appear shocked when the officer walked up to her car. “I have never been stopped like this ... women returned to their homes. Sure enough, in due time the two women who took the medicine gave birth to beautiful babies. They waited several months after their infants were born waiting to lose their minds but nothing happened. So they went back to the medicine man and asked, “ ...

9. Hypocrites

Matthew 6:1-4

Sermon

King Duncan

... , he wondered out loud, how come women who have more than one face-lift start looking alike? Joan Rivers no longer looks like Joan Rivers. Is this a new form of mummification, he pondered? When he concluded his dissertation, he asked, “ ... opposite sex. Or our neighbors with the kind of car we drive. Or anyone for whom it is important for us to project a certain image. Several years ago, a scandal hit the music industry. Milli Vanilli, who had won a Grammy Award for the album, “Girl You Know It’s True,” ...

10. Whatever He Says - Do It!

John 2:1-11

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

... out the fact that it was the faith and unquestioning obedience of the people involved that produced the miracle. In the play, The Lark, Joan of Arc is being tried by the hierarchy of the Roman Church. At one place in the trial she says, "I say to you ... take what was offered him. So they forced him, they really punished him when he refused to work or take part in athletics. There were several operations that he didn't want to go through, but he went through them. All the while, they were forcing him to give to ...

11. Angels Announce His Coming

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

King Duncan

... fighting resumed. But this German soldier noticed something extraordinary. At dawn, at the edge of the trench he found some chocolate bars and several packages of cigarettes. It was obvious that some lone British soldier evidently crossed over no man's land and risked his life ... Knox Press, 1987 2. Nancy Gibbs, "Angels Among Us," TIME, Dec. 1993. 3. Joan Quigley, WHAT DOES JOAN SAY? (Carol Publishing Group, 1990), pp. 139140. 4. O Little Town of Bethlehem: The Story Behind the Song, by Joanne Sloan, DECISION ...

12. A Difficult Day to Follow Jesus

Matthew 18:21-35

Sermon

King Duncan

... plane. She was able to tell him about the plane crashes into the World Trade Center and later the Pentagon. Jeremy and several other passengers on that flight determined that they had to do something. We presume that the passengers managed to carry out their ... writing on the Internet, tells about a movie that some of you may have seen The Upside of Anger, starring Joan Allen and Kevin Kostner. Joan Allen plays the role of Terry, an angry housewife, with four daughters. Terry is angry because her husband has ...

13. The Powerful Moments that Change Your Life Forever

Matthew 4:12-23

Sermon

James W. Moore

... all time. It’s a list of answers given by English school children on their religion exams. Noah’s wife was called Joan of the Ark A myth is a female moth. Sometimes it is difficult to hear in church because the agnostics are so ... little green plant was shooting up from it. He said, “Daddy, this is a tomato plant. God and I had been growing it in Sunday School for several weeks. We’ve been studying how God makes things grow and how we can help Him, and God and I have been working on this tomato plant. ...

14. Overcoming "Work-avoidance Syndrome"

2 Thessalonians 3:1-5

Sermon

King Duncan

... bend down and pick them up." The other guy looked offended and said, "You have to BEND DOWN?" There was a PEANUTS cartoon several years ago. Linus is addressing Snoopy who is asleep on the roof of his doghouse: "I quote from the twentieth chapter and ... you this rule: If a man will not work, he shall not eat.'" What a discussion we could have about this verse! Could we talk? as Joan Rivers would say. Could we talk for a few moments about work? Not from a Liberal point of view; not from a Conservative point of ...

15. What Gets Into People?

Mark 1:21-28

Sermon

King Duncan

... we put the weeds into a plastic bag, intending to throw them out with the trash. But we forget to get rid of the bag and after several months come upon it again. When we open the bag to see what is in it, we discover the rotting weeds. If we had put this material ... .com (accessed July 29, 2003). Cited by John C. Maxwell, Today Matters (New York: Warner Faith, 2004), pp. 154-156. 2. Joan Minninger, Total Recall (New York: MIF Books, 1984, p. 61. 3. The New York Times Magazine, September 27, 1998, p. 21. 4 ...

16. Going For the Gold

Joshua 1:1-9

Sermon

James Merritt

... nose of that Cuban, floored him chin first, and knocked him out. The gold medal was his! That match, and how it was won, reminded me of several things. In the Olympics of life, God's will for you is to win the gold medal of victory. His will for you is not bronze or ... , and 57% do not read the Bible other than when they are at church.1 10% of Americans think that Noah's wife was Joan of Arc! I could belabor this point, but I'll simply quote one of the greatest Christians and Bible teachers who ever lived, Dr ...

17. Week Two Of Lent

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... of clothes. For years the boy wandered the streets as an orphan. He eventually entered the seminary and became a priest. After several years he was assigned to Devil's Island as a chaplain. One afternoon one of the convict inmates came running in from ... journey continues this day. Wednesday Week TwoJeremiah 18:18-20Matthew 20:17-28 Agape -- Service To All In the mid 1960s as I recall, Joan Baez, the well-known folk singer, wrote and sang a song called, "Love Is Just A Four-Letter Word." In the lyrics to that ...

18. You Can Be In Heaven Or Hell

Psalm 139:1-24

Sermon

Michael B. Brown

... wedding anniversary, Billy and Ruth Graham were interviewed from their home in Montreat, North Carolina. The interviewer was Joan Lunden of the television show Good Morning, America. Ms. Lunden asked Mrs. Graham: "In all your 50 ... leg. For quite some time, quite understandably, she was depressed and bitter. Hers was a deep faith, but even deep faith does not make severed limbs grow back. However, Carol found something in her loss that perhaps she may never have fully understood in any other way. She reports ...

19. Is Christianity An Escape?

Luke 21:5-38

Sermon

... crowds in the Colosseum in Rome. In the thick of the fight, the fight for our spirits. There was John Huss of Bohemia and there was Joan of Arc of France - both burned at the stake. There was Kaj Munk of Denmark, Lutheran pastor during World War II, who denounced the Nazis from ... he!" and, "The time is at hand!" Do not go after them. In the Acts of the Apostles we read of several coming out of the woodwork soon after the first Easter: Theudas, Judas the Galilean, someone they called "The Egyptian," and Simon ...

20. How Was Jesus' Death Different?

John 19:28-37, John 19:17-27

Sermon

... . Like Jesus, he died at the hands of his enemies and, when he died, he prayed for their forgiveness. There was the martyr, Joan of Arc, who was burned at the stake. We have many others like John Huss, Savonarola, and William Tyndale. Coming down to our ... in a saving remnant by which the world would be brought back to God. The remnant was his servant, Israel, about whom we have several servant poems in the Old Testament. The remnant did not pan out and so God looked to one person, his chosen one, a Messiah ...

21. The Fashioning of Christians

Ezekiel 36:1-38

Sermon

... capable of standing on his own two feet. For this reason, as I look back on it now, I didn’t have a chance. As "Trapper Joan" bent over to pick me up, her fox’s head swung out wide and caught me right in the face! YEOOW! I have observed, in over ... with no tie. The second story comes from my ministry at a country parish in Northern Indiana. I had been there for several weeks when I noticed that an elderly couple, who were regular attenders, invariably wore the same outfits. The gentleman always wore a ...

22. There's No Such Thing as Too Much Sugar

Psalm 91:1-16

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... a lance, and with his foot on the neck of a dragon. That has carried over into legend, so it is Michael who purportedly gave Joan of Arc the power to fight against all odds. It is Michael who supposedly appeared to a doomed division of French soldiers on the ... , and, if not the American way, then certainly God's way. Of course, this is not the only picture we have of Michael. Several years ago Hollywood offered us an alternative, a movie that bears our hero's name.(4) Good business, no doubt. Recent polls say ...

23. Theology in Snow

Psalm 147:1-20

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... in the Carolinas do not get snow very often, even a little arouses great anticipation. They were thrilled. I was not. When the snows began several weeks ago, we turned on the television to see what had gone on in the world while we were marooned and to hear what more ... be around. And that is why little children liked him so much. Can we old fogies recover any of that? I think we can. Joan Davis [one of our St. Paul members] sent me something this week that she found on the Internet. She writes, "I want to go ...

24. The Ultimate Question

Matthew 16:13-20

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... at Jesus, then I say God bless 'em, because looking at Jesus is something Christians do not do enough. Why do we not? Several reasons, I suspect. First, our theological formulations about the person and work of Jesus Christ were fairly well settled for us by the church ... responds, "A vibrant multi-dimensional Messiah: a man haunted by visions of atrocities still to come (the Crusades, the burning of Joan of Arc, the world wars), yet one who loves to laugh, eat, drink, and dance in the streets with wild ...

25. Be Joyful

1 Thessalonians 5:12-28

Sermon

King Duncan

... and was about to walk off when he turned and asked the policeman: "Why have you recommended that particular church? There must be several churches nearby that you could have recommended." The policeman smiled and replied: "I'm not a church man myself, but the people ... Broadman Press, 1991). 5. "A Joyful Noise," by Joyce Hollyday, SOJOURNERS, 6. September/October 1995, p. 48. 7. Joan Borysenko, GUILT IS THE TEACHER, LOVE IS THE LESSON (New York: Warner Books, Inc., 1990). 8. "Holiday Pain," NEWSWEEK, December ...

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