Sermon and Worship Resources

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2 Corinthians 6:1-13

Sermon

Gibson “Nibs” Stroupe

... mother from at least the 1850s and providing me with the grandmother that I never had, since my mother's mother died in 1937. I remember especially listening to the St. Louis Cardinals play baseball on the radio with Gran and my mother. I recently read A Painted House by John Grisham, and a strong theme in his book was about a boy growing up in rural Arkansas, who also listened to the Cardinals. It resonated in my ears and heart.1 We weren't as poor as the Chandler family in ...

2. Boldly Going . . . Nowhere

Philippians 3:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... Joy--101 Ways to Free Your Spirit and Dance With Life (New York: Harper Perennial, 1994), p. 178. 2. "Come Fly With Me" by Mary Ann O'Roark, Guideposts, August 2000, pp. 24 - 27. 3. "The Write Stuff," by Will Norton, Jr., Interview w/John Grisham, . . . talking about staying grounded in the midst of fame, Aspire, November 1995, p. 55. 4. Bob Moorehead, found in A Life of Integrity, edited by Howard Hendricks (Sisters, OR: Multnomah Books, 1997), pp. 26-27. 5. Mike Trout. Off the Air (Nashville: Thomas ...

3. Comfortable Christianity Is a Big, Fat Lie

Matthew 7:15-23

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

... gate.” I think I’m right, but I am willing to be corrected if you have good evidence and careful arguments. I am no prophet, just a pastor, and I think that comfortable Christianity is a big, fat lie. What think ye? 1. John Grisham, A Painted House (New York: Doubleday, 2001), 85-86. 2. The United Methodist Hymnal, 34. 3. Citation found at www. mercuryworld.blogspot.com. 4. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990), 46. 5. Edited from Brian Cavanaugh, More Sower’s Seeds (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1992 ...

4. The Roman Trial

Mark 15:16-20, Mark 15:1-15

Teach the Text

Grant R. Osborne

... before God guilty, but through the vicarious sacrifice we can find absolution as God “covers” our sins (the meaning of “atonement” in the Old Testament) by Christ’s blood. Illustrating the Text The silence of Jesus Fiction: A Time to Kill, by John Grisham. Grisham’s first novel deals head on with race relations in the southern United States. A young African American girl, Tonya Hailey, is brutally raped by two white men. Her father, Carl Lee Hailey, fully expects the men to be acquitted, as the ...

5. The God of Second Chances

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

King Duncan

... figure in the novel is a disgraced corporate attorney named Nate O’Reilly. Nate is plagued by alcoholism and drug abuse. After two marriages, four detox programs, and a serious bout with dengue fever, Nate acknowledges his need for God. Listen to how John Grisham describes the transformation: “With both hands, he clenched the back of the pew in front of him. He repeated the list [of his sins], mumbling softly every weakness and flaw and affliction and evil that plagued him. He confessed them all. In one ...

6. Family Ties And Unties

Mark 3:20-35

Sermon

David Coffin

... to heal and forgive sins. In today’s terms, they might be the accrediting agency’s inspection team that makes periodic visits to community schools and colleges to make sure the school is maintaining high enough standards to be listed as “accredited.” John Grisham has written a book titled, The Rooster Bar. Roughly, the plot is based around law school students who discover in their final year that their school is barely accredited; their degrees are worthless; and they are now way over their heads in ...

7. Peacemaking and Self Control

Matthew 5:21-26

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

... . “Blessed are the peacemakers,” said Jesus, “they shall be known as God’s kids; they bear the family likeness.” A defining moment in John Grisham's journey came several years after graduating from law at Mississippi State. One of his classmates told Grisham he was terminally ill. The author asked, "What do you do when you realize you are about to die?" "It's real simple, John. You get things right with God; you spend as much time with those you love as you can. Then you settle up with everybody ...

8. The Greatest Story Ever Told

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... our original goodness, to choose life and come home. What can we do about a loving God who welcomes his children home? We can accept His grace; we can respond to it and rejoice in it; experience it and live it to its absolute fullest. In John Grisham’s novel, The New Testament, he paints the portrait of one man’s surrender to God’s will. Nate O’Reilly is a disgraced corporate attorney plagued by alcoholism and drug abuse. After two marriages, four detox programs and a serious bout with a chronic ...

9. Pilate's Dilemma

John 18:28-40

Sermon

King Duncan

... weakness? The kind that wrecks families and ruins lives. The kind that refuses to speak out in the face of evil? Weakness sometimes takes the form of sexual temptation. Sometimes it entraps us in chemical dependency. In his novel, The Testament, John Grisham paints a powerful word portrait of one man’s weakness and his subsequent surrender to God. Nate O’Reilly, a disgraced corporate attorney, is plagued by alcoholism and drug abuse. After two marriages, four detox programs, and a serious health crisis ...

10. Challenge and Counterchallenge

Luke 20:9-19, Luke 20:1-8

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... wrath” (Prov. 15:1)? Illustrating the Text Christ knows how to effectively confront a difficult situation in order to establish his authority and thwart the opposition. Film: A Time to Kill, directed by Joel Schumacher. This film (1996) is based on the novel by John Grisham. Set in the deep South, this is the story of a small black girl who is brutally raped and left to die (she does not) by a group of drunken white men, members of the Ku Klux Klan. Her father, expecting their acquittal, takes vengeance ...

11. The Story behind the Glory

Galatians 3:26--4:7

Sermon

Fredrick R. Harm

... after Christmas. As our text conveys the Christmas message, we will see that the glory grows as the story unfolds. First of all, it is a Mystery Story. "When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman" (v. 4). Agatha Christie or John Grisham couldn't match this story for sheer excitement! Think of it, Almighty God invading human life in the person of his Son. Next Sunday's Gospel will say it in another way: "The Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the ...

12. For the Love of God Is . . .

1 John 5:3-4

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... love for stuff like when we say, "I love pizza or peanut butter or chocolate." or "I love the works of Charles Dickens and John Grisham." Or even, "I love your house." But it's not limited to inanimate objects. It also has to do with those things which ... you've ever wondered with that little boy, "Where's the love?" The answer is, as near as your heart. As Bonnie Raitt asks in a John Hiatt song, "Are you ready for this thing called love?"(5) All you have to do is be ready and reach out to Christ who gave ...

13. Does Christmas Make Any Difference?

Titus 2:11-14

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

In John Grisham’s novel Skipping Christmas, which is now a hit movie, Luther and Lora Krank decide to take a year off from all the clutter of ... ,” may we find the courage to say, “Yes.” Yes to goodness, yes to justice, yes to peace, yes to hope, yes to love. Dare I remind you on this holy night of the motto of our founder, John Wesley: Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, In all the ways you can, in all the places you can, To all the people you can, As long as you ever can. Does ...

14. Like a Phoenix

Mark 6:1-13

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

... car, wearing his white suit, and his idea was rejected 1,009 times before someone finally decided to try it. Theodor “Dr. Seuss” Giesel’s first book, To Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street was rejected by 27 different publishers before he finally sold it. John Grisham’s first book, A Time to Kill, took three years to write and was rejected 28 times until he got one yes for a 5,000 copy trial run printing. Today he’s sold over 250 million total copies of his books, world wide. Steven Spielberg ...

15. Investment Choices

Matthew 25:14-30

Sermon

Steve Molin

... years ago. Like any pastor, so much of what I read relates to theology or ministry that I needed to find some genre of reading that would take me away from what I do twelve hours a day; something to capture my imagination. I started with John Grisham and read everything he has written. Then I moved on to Swedish author Henning Mankell and read all of his stuff. More recently, I have been reading the murder mysteries of Lee Childs. There is nothing like a good “whodunit” to take my weary brain away ...

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