Sermon and Worship Resources

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Isaiah 40:1-31

Sermon

King Duncan

... This Christmas).” That one didn’t reach the popularity of “Blue Christmas.” I’ll bet most of you can’t guess who first sang this Christmas classic? The late, great folk singer, John Denver. Clean-cut and wholesome, “Rocky Mountain High,” John Denver. Singing from the point of view of an eight‑year‑old, Denver reminisces in the song about a Christmas when Daddy drank too much and fell down underneath the Christmas tree, much to Mommy’s dismay. He asks Daddy to show some restraint this ...

2. No Telltale Clues

Matthew 9:9-13

Sermon

... working, friendly, patriotic American. He was a good family man, a person who did not cheat and who was about as straightforward as a person can be. He was full of Rocky Mountain air and sunshine. You and I, George Burns and Carl Reiner, may choose followers of God like John Denver, but Jesus chose a follower like Matthew. Jesus chose a man who could not go to church even if he wanted to. He chose a man who would not be allowed to salute the flag even if he wanted to. He chose a man who would not be liked ...

3. The Awesome Power of a Mustard Seed (Father's Day)

Mark 4:30-34

Sermon

King Duncan

... the story so that they might make it their own and pass it to their children. What a grand privilege. What a purpose that is for a life. Some of you probably saw the movie some years back, Oh, God! starring George Burns and John Denver. Burns played God. Denver played a grocery store manager named Jerry. One day God decides to communicate his love to the world through Jerry. Jerry, with much reluctance, holds a news conference to deliver God’s message. This lands him in a courtroom where God must take the ...

4. Jesus Out of Character

Mark 7:24-30

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... of Jesus in the Gospels. Bill Ritter of Nardin Park Church in Farmington Hills, took a crack at it last fall. He did an excellent job. I give him an “A” for courage. Bill began his sermon on our text with some lines from a once-popular song by John Denver: So live and let live, Let this be our motto, And let the sleeping dogs lie. Here’s to the dogs of Toledo, Ohio; Ladies, we bid you goodbye. Bill says in his sermon: “It was not a very complimentary song, either about Toledo or its ladies. Having ...

5. Wanted: A Lasting Marriage. Only Good Chemists, Bad mathematicians, Expert Soul-O-Flexors Need Apply

Mark 10:2-16

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... Last," Good Housekeeping, 1996, 98-99, 144), as divorce proceedings and grounds have shifted from laborious and shocking to simple and mundane, the average life span of a marriage has dropped alarmingly. I grew up listening to John Denver declare undying, unending love for his wife in "Annie's Song." Denver is now divorced from her, as well as from a second wife, and is in another relationship. Glenn Stanton says that we have gone from "till death do us part" to "satisfaction guaranteed or your money back ...

6. What's in a Name?

Isaiah 43:1-7

Sermon

Mary S. Lautensleger

... change meant no movie contract or no recording contract. Leonard Slye thus became cowboy Roy Rogers, while Betty Joan Perske changed her name to Lauren Bacall. We knew Frances Gumm as Judy Garland. Actor Kirk Douglas was originally Issur Danielvitch Demsky and singer John Denver began life as Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr. We must even pay careful attention to what the initials of our baby's name spell. No child will be pleased to wear a monogram such as C-O-W, D-U-D, or P-M-S. People make judgments about ...

7. Dessert in the Desert

Deut 32:10-12 · Ez 37

Sermon

Robert Noblett

... of God’s felt presence with the absence of God. I don’t think God is ever absent from us, although for reasons attributable to us God can be held at bay. That point for me is neatly made in the film "O God" that featured George Burns and John Denver. Says Burns as God to struggling young Jerry, "If you have trouble believing in me, maybe it will help to know that I believe in you." God believes in us even when we don’t believe in God. That’s reassuring; that’s faith inducing; that’s easing, as ...

8. A Faith, A Farm And A Family

Ruth 1:1-22

Sermon

John P. Rossing

John Denver wrote a song 20 years ago about wanting to get away from the big city to a place in the country - "somewhere to build me a ... in the Old Testament is about the blessings of faith, farm and family. In 1984 Sally Field won the best actress Oscar for a movie called Places in the Heart, with Danny Glover and John Malkovich. That story is also about faith, farm and family. Sally Field's character, Edna Spalding, is like Naomi, a widow struggling to make a living on the land in Texas in the 1930s. ...

9. Jesus Came Preaching

Mark 1:14-15

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... those preachers who worry about manipulating” people: “Don’t overestimate your power!” We can be grateful if just a few words catch hold of somebody’s imagination and turn them toward God. In the movie “Oh, God!” The grocery store manager played by John Denver, asks God, played by George Burns, what good coming among people and talking to them might do. God replies, “You never know...a seed here, a seed there, something will take hold and grow.” I would suggest that those who believe that ...

10. Transfiguration

Exodus 24:1-18, Matthew 17:1-13, 2 Peter 1:12-21

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... see directly the divine nature of Jesus. This brings us to the uniqueness of Jesus - "They saw no one but Jesus only." In the light of Jesus's being the only Son of God, then, we must confront the pluralism of our day. In the movie O God! John Denver asks George Burns (who plays the part of God), whether Jesus was his son. "God" answers, "Jesus is my son, Mohammed is my son, Buddha is my son, and Confuscius is my son." 2. A worship experience. The Transfiguration is an experience that blows the mind. Many ...

11. It's Happening!

Mark 4:30-34, Mark 4:26-29

Sermon

David G. Rogne

... to stimulate their thoughts about the nature of God, I invited a group of teenagers to join me in watching the movie, Oh, God! In the course of the movie, God, in the person of George Burns, has prevailed on Jerry, the assistant manager of a supermarket, played by John Denver, to carry God's message to the world. Toward the end of the film, Jerry is lamenting to God that nobody seems to be listening to the message. He tells God that he thinks that they have failed. But God doesn't see it that way. "Oh, I ...

12. It's Thanksgiving Time!

Psalm 100:1-5

Sermon

James W. Moore

... be right. Thanks may indeed be the best word of all. II. SECOND, THE WORD IS "GIVING." That, too, is a great word… and an even greater spirit. But sometimes we have difficulty here. Remember that wonderful scene in the movie O God where George Burns explains to John Denver why God created Adam and Eve and gave them no clothes to wear. He said God knew that "as soon as they had clothes they would want pockets… And as soon as they had pockets, they would want money… and as soon as they got money, there ...

13. Self-Fulfillment Through Self-Sacrifice

1 Peter 2:19-25

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... true that these concepts bring considerable cargo with them that isn't authentic to who Jesus really was. Jesus was called by God and destined for a unique sacrificial role. But consummating this plan did not mean embracing a doormat destiny. On John Denver's early album, Poems, Prayers and Promises, the song "Gospel Changes" contains the line: "Jesus did not doubt his gifts." Jesus expressed himself he fulfilled himself. Jesus could act as a powerful and compelling leader while calling all who would listen ...

14. Loving Deeply (Mother's Day)

1 Peter 1:13-2:3

Sermon

King Duncan

... not a good experience,” Ellie said later from her bed at Exempla St. Joseph Hospital. The writer of this article in the Denver Post, Diane Carman, notes that the worst part for Ellie was the sense of abandonment. (4) Ask for help in the secular world ... the world, love is the exception, not the rule. For Christians love is to be the rule. There can be no exceptions. Jesus says in John 13:35, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Jesus said we are to even love ...

15. Does God Care Who Wins the Superbowl?

John 14:5-14

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... Broncos had just defeated Pittsburgh, 24-21. "I'm just thankful. It must have been the Lord's will." In one of the game's crucial plays, with just over a minute left in the first half and the Steelers leading 14-10, Denver fullback Howard Griffith made a one-handed grab of a John Elway pass and raced into the end zone. "I attribute everything to Him," Griffith said after the game. "The Lord allowed me to make that catch." OK. But according to some, God not only helped the Broncos, God HURT the Steelers. As ...

16. A New Identity for a New Year

John 1:(1-9), 10-18

Sermon

King Duncan

... . A couple of years ago, Jeff disappeared from the home he shared with his fiancée, Penny Hansen. He ended up in Denver, Colorado. He couldn’t remember his name, his past, or how he got to Colorado. He walked to a local hospital where ... universe, the true light of the world, and full of grace and truth. Notice that John describes Jesus in terms of his essential, eternal, unchanging nature. And then we read this promise in John 1, verse 12, “Yet to all who did receive him (Jesus), to those who believed in ...

17. A Quantum Decision

Mark 1:4-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... act. In our Bible passage today, it says that “the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem” came out to hear John preach a baptism of repentance. There was no privacy in that crowd. When you choose to be baptized, or to have your ... part of her new family. Scott Cormode, professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, tells the story of a man whose daughter moved to Denver, far from her hometown. She called her father one evening to ask for his help. She had made some poor choices, gotten into ...

18. Said the Night Wind….

Sermon

Mike Ripski

... music and the silence. The light and the darkness. Family and strangers. Time and timelessness. Christmas touches us. It affects us. John Wesley, the Anglican priest whose reform movement led to the birth of the Methodist Church, believed that being created in ... intends, our tears express both pain and joy. Recently I read a book entitled, same kind of different as me. It’s about Denver, a sharecropper from Louisiana, who hops a train and ends up in Fort Worth, Texas. He lives on the streets, homeless. And ...

19. Paul, Phoebe, Patronage, and Spain

Romans 16:1-27

Teach the Text

C. Marvin Pate

... thereby support to carry on their business or ministry (cf. Acts 18:27; 2 Cor. 3:1; 4:2; 5:12; 10:12; 12:11; 3 John 9–10; 1 Macc. 12:43; 2 Macc. 9:25).2 From the Greco-Roman literature, Robert Jewett supplies the following example: So-and-so, who ... others in Christ’s name. It tells the stories of a most unlikely friendship between Ron Hall, a wealthy art dealer, and Denver Moore, an impoverished homeless man, and Debbie Hall, who brought them together. The two men become friends through the message of the ...

20. An Empty Tomb

Matthew 28:1-10

Sermon

Robert Allen

... That First Easter, The Empty Tomb Was An Experience Of Joy. On that first Easter Sunday, Mary Magdalene; Salome, the mother of James and John; and Mary, the mother of Jesus; were up before the light of dawn and were on their way to the tomb where the body ... the promise that joy can fill our lives. Recently, I was in Denver for some meetings. Whenever the meetings were over for the day, I would watch the local news. Like many people in Denver, I became fascinated with a particular news story. It was not a ...

21. The Only Way to Fly

2 Timothy 3:15-17

Sermon

James Merritt

... the course that I'm going to follow, the path and the route that I am going to take to get from Atlanta to Denver. Now that course is like doctrine. It tells me what is right and will guide me to my destination. But suppose I am flying the ... s VFR—But the Bible says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. And no one comes to the Father unless he comes through Me." (John 14:6)—that's IFR. "Good works will take anybody to heaven."—that's VFR. But the Bible says, "By grace are you saved through faith, and ...

22. Room At The Inn: Is There Room For Christmas?

Luke 2:1-7; John 1:1-5

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... now more than ever. Let's remind ourselves of the true meaning of Christmas as we look at two passages of Scripture: Luke 2:1-7 and John 1:1-5. First Luke 2:1-7 (NRSV) [1] In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be ... A. Maybe you've heard the Associated Press story that came out last Sunday, November 23rd, in Platteville, Colorado, just north of Denver. It seems after Joe and Chris Miller, the owners of a 600 acre produce farm, heard reports of churches being broken ...

23. Power for Today

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... another interesting story told by William P. Barker years ago in Tarbell’s Teachers Guide. This one took place in Denver, Colorado. It was a beautiful clear day in Denver not a cloud in the sky. There wasn’t even a hint of a breeze. Two young men were ... said Jesus on one occasion. “You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going . . . .” (John 3:8). Today we are celebrating Pentecost when the disciples were all together in one place and “suddenly a sound like the ...

24. I Wonder about Life after Death

John 14:1-3

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... says about life after death. Perhaps the most familiar passage of Scripture that promises the gift of life after death is found in John 14:1-3. Here we find Jesus in the upper room comforting his disciples before his own death: Let not your hearts be ... what we can expect from the mystery of death came from my colleague and friend Ed Beck. When Ed was serving a church in Denver he had a seven year old member of his congregation named Ellen who was dying of an incurable disease. And each time he would ...

25. The Apostles' Creed: "Suffered, Dead, and Buried..."

Mark 15:1-15

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... , none the less. By the same token, an individual may be recognized for some accomplishment or great deed. Not only is that individual honored, the honor also rubs off on the entire family. How do you think John Elway's parents and wife and children felt after the Super Bowl? Come to think of it, how do the Denver fans feel? When one of our own does something honorable and is honored for it, WE are honored. We experience those family shame and honor feelings here in the west even though we, more than any of ...

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