Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1 to 25 of 105 results

1. The Way, The Truth, And The Life Style

John 14:5-14

Sermon

Thomas Long

... much of a life style; offering one's all for the glory of God, though, is to have life, and to have it abundantly. In his memoir about his career as a physician and a professor of medicine, Lewis Thomas recalls his early memories of Bellevue Hospital in New York City. One early morning in 1959, Thomas, just beginning his service as a medical school teacher, was hearing a report from a student, an intern at the hospital, about a patient who had spent two weeks on one of the wards with advanced pneumonia and ...

2. Loving Close-up

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... California for ten years -- now minister of First United Methodist Church in Pasadena -- provided a very helpful insight in a column he wrote for his church paper. He used the analogy of warts, and he quoted Lewis Thomas, the president of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Thomas talked about warts in this fashion: "Warts are wonderful structures. They can appear overnight on any part of the skin, like mushrooms on a damp lawn, full-blown and splendid in the complexity of their architecture ...

3. Easter: The Festival Of Joy

Isaiah 25:1-12

Sermon

Durwood L. Buchheim

... help us live - to live meaningfully and joyfully. This is the day of joy. We have something to live for. Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen. 1. Walter R. Wietzke, The Primacy of the Spoken Word, Augsburg, 1988, p. 159. 2. Lewis Thomas, The Lives of a Cell, Bantam, 1980, pp. 113-116. 3. "I Know That My Redeemer Lives," Lutheran Book of Worship, Augsburg, 1978, #352.

4. Absolute Perfection

Illustration

Staff

Lewis Thomas, the poet-philosopher of medicine, wrote the following in Harvard Magazine in 1981: I cannot make peace with the randomness doctrine; I cannot abide the notion of purposelessness and blind chance in nature. And yet I do not know what to put in its place for the quieting of my ...

5. The Lost And Found Collection

Luke 15:1-7

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... remember Lewis Grizzard, the author and columnist for the Atlanta Constitution? Lewis paved the way for people like Jeff Foxworthy and others who deal in redneck humor. Lewis grew up in Moreland, Georgia, attending the Moreland Methodist Church. Lewis ... my language has been shameful. I have despised a number of people. But God did not give up on me. He sought me just as the Thomas family sought for old Gris Gato. God did everything he could to show me his love, but he would not trap me. God did everything to ...

6. The Forgiven

Hebrews 10:1-18

Sermon

King Duncan

... would get counseling, never touch liquor again, and live a clean life for one year outside his home. His father gladly signed it, and his mother agreed to give her husband a second chance. A year later, a sober and responsible Thomas Lewis moved back into his home. The Lewis' marriage was restored. A few years later, Robert attended a conference where he learned the importance of honoring one's parents, even if they weren't perfect. The conference leader had suggested writing a tribute to one's parents, one ...

7. Great Joy

Isaiah 35:1-10

Sermon

John E. Harnish

... Isaiah uses graphic imagery to capture the feeling of darkness and destruction, the recompense for evil and sin. The Welsh poet R. S. Thomas died in 2000. He was a parish priest as well as a poet. He was not well known to me, but Peggy Rosenthal ... the harsh realities and the hard prose of our day to go to the soul and touch the heart. Perhaps that is why C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien have become so popular. Maybe that's why Christmas always touches us, every year, in new ways. We need fantasy, poetry ...

8. When Seeing is Not Believing

John 20:19-31

Sermon

John E. Harnish

... is true because something in this witness to God's way of working connects with your own experience in a way that says, "Yes, of course."[1] Jesus affirms Thomas's desire to see in order to believe, but Jesus also affirms belief which goes before and beyond sight. "Blessed are those who haven't seen and still believe." As you all know, C.S. Lewis was an incredible author of fantasy and science fiction, the Narnia series and all the rest. As a student at Oxford, however, he became a convinced atheist, a hard ...

9. Live Spelled Backward

Matthew 26:14-27:66

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

... Holy Spirit-less autopilot. His primary place of action today is within the church. In his The Screwtape Letters,[3] C.S. Lewis has the devil Screwtape instruct his nephew, Wormwood, the apprentice demon, that if he really wants to disrupt God's work on ... Thomas, and shaking him out of his sleep. "Wake up, Thomas," he whispers, "I want to talk with you. I have observed you, Thomas. You have a sharp mind. You are a thinker, Thomas. Thomas, don't you think Jesus has got this thing all wrong? I remember, Thomas ...

10. Follow Your Questions (Series: An Invitation to Christian Discipleship)

John 20:24-31

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... is desperate, when all other help is vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in you face, a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside, after that, silence!” Some of you know exactly what Lewis meant. Why should I believe in the Resurrection of the Dead? Of course we can identify with Thomas here. It takes a stretch for human minds to embrace immortality. Paul said, “If Christ has not been raised from the dead, our preaching is useless and your faith is futile. If only for this life we have ...

11. Historic: The Declaration of Independence

Illustration

Staff

... Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark Pennsylvania: ... and abroad especially in France, from which the new "United States" sought military assistance. Although Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Roger Sherman and Robert R. Livingston comprised the committee charged with drafting the Declaration, the task fell to ...

12. He's Everything I Need

Psalm 23:1

Sermon

James Merritt

... you will not lack one thing, then there is no need to worry. Steven Ambrose wrote a magnificent book entitled Undaunted Courage. It’s the story of the Lewis and Clark expedition that opened up the American West. Thomas Jefferson realized that when Lewis and Clark reached the Pacific Ocean they would be without money, clothes, or provisions. To deal with that situation, Thomas Jefferson did something never before done in the history of this country, and never done since. He provided a letter of credit for ...

13. The Angel's Message

Luke 1:26-38

Sermon

King Duncan

... And that’s true. Without Mary’s obedience to God, the Christmas story would be quite different. “Obedience,” wrote C. S. Lewis, “is the key to all doors.” I read recently about another remarkable young woman named Maria Dyer. Maria was born in ... Son . . .” There is no greater gift than that. Most of you will remember the late Dave Thomas, founder and long-time CEO of the Wendy’s fast food chain. Dave Thomas wrote a book in which he told about an incident out of his own experience. Dave was ...

14. Swimming With The Sharks

Mark 9:2-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... said, "Yes, Marcellus, I have changed; he changed me!" (4) To see Christ as he really is is to experience personal transformation. C. S. Lewis put it quite pointedly: "He (Jesus) never talked vague, idealistic gas. When he said, Be perfect, He meant it. He meant that we must go ... day. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. John C. Maxwell, DEVELOPING THE LEADERS AROUND YOU (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, Inc.). 2. Elliot Johnson and Al Schierbaum, OUR GREAT AND AWESOME ...

15. The Excitement of Meaningful Living

John 10:10 · Matthew 6:33 · Ephesians 3:20

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

... ’s life is full and exciting; but there are so many people in the world whose lives are not full and exciting. Thomas Merton wisely suggests, "The evil that is in the modern world ought to be sufficient indication that we do not know as ... this disease, not believing that God can handle every tissue in our bodies, then the body has a good chance of breaking down. Tommy Lewis tells of seeing a young lady in a retreat situation who looked, from her physical appearance, that she was going blind. As he spoke, ...

16. Hiding in Plain Sight

Matthew 2:13-18, Matthew 2:19-23, Exodus 2:1-10, Exodus 2:11-25

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... embedded with glimpses of the divine and hints of God’s holy and powerful presence just waiting to be discovered. Like Lewis’s wardrobe, the scriptures are relational conduits between the human quest for God and God’s outreached right hand. When we ... is your time. *The Blade, “Narnia Secret Unveiled” (June 19, 2008). **The Seraph Seal by Leonard Sweet and Lori Wagner, Thomas Nelson, 2011. Based on the Story Lectionary Major Text Moses’ Mother Hides Him and Moses Later Hides in Midian (Exodus ...

17. Surprise

Luke 1:26-38

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... joy. What a difference that one man's conversion made to the twentieth century. C.S. Lewis gave us Mere Christianity, the finest argument for faith in the 20th century. C.S. Lewis gave us the Chronicles of Narnia, which people of all ages are flocking to the ... of obedience. You remember what Mary said, “I am the Lord's servant. May it be to me as you have said." I keep a prayer of Thomas Merton on my desk. In part, it goes like this: “My Lord, God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ...

18. Sitting Shiva Behind Closed Doors

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... ll notice that you must situate the dialogue, gestures, images, and places in “real time.” If you are a fan of C.S. Lewis, you know that in the Chronicles of Narnia, by entering through the wardrobe doors, you become part of another story, one in which ... and to instead go to tell the others. Later in Jesus’ second appearance to the disciples in the locked room, Jesus bids Thomas to touch and see. In both cases, Jesus is breaking through boundaries that cannot contain Him, even while proving He is there ...

19. Adopted! (New)

Ephesians 1:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... research, Ian Lewis made a discovery that stopped him in his tracks. He discovered he had been adopted. By birth, he was not a Lewis at all. He was adopted when he was a month old and his real name was David Thornton. And so Ian Lewis, alias ... now heirs to life eternal. 1. Western Morning News, 1994. Cited at The Funny! List 2. Kay Marshall Strom, Seeking Christ (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1994), pp. 106-107. 3. George Dolan in Condensed Chicken Soup for the Soul, 1996 by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor ...

20. A Faith that Will Transform You

Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... self-righteous decrying those very acts. That brilliant thinker C. S. Lewis once dealt with the tendency of people to be self-righteousness. ... they are the least bad of all sins,” said Lewis. “All the worst pleasures are purely spiritual: the pleasure of putting ... of power, of hatred . . . That is why,” according to Lewis, “a cold, self-righteous prig who goes regularly to church ... love? 1. C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity 2. Edwin Orr, “Playing the Good News Off‑Key,” Christianity ...

21. God’s Saving Righteousness and the Restoration of Israel

Romans 3:21-31

Teach the Text

C. Marvin Pate

... how Paul uses the term in Romans 3:24. An issue with the word “redemption” is whether it involves a ransom price. Thomas Schreiner offers two decisive arguments that it does: (1) Paul does say that we are justified “freely” by God’s grace through ... giving. It boasteth not itself, but humbleth itself.6 Poetry: “The Apologist’s Evening Prayer,” by C. S. Lewis. In this poem Lewis asks to be delivered from all his “lame defeats,” from all his “victories,” from his “cleverness,” things ...

22. How Much Sin Is Too Much?

Matthew 5:13-16, Matthew 5:17-20

Sermon

William B. Kincaid, III

... do not want to be so recklessly sacrilegious that we forfeit completely the rewards of the hereafter. The late Southern humorist Lewis Grizzard said thinking about hell scared the you-know-what out of him. One day he received a questionnaire in the ... clutter in order to live more focused on the ways of God? What new things, O God, are you calling me to learn and do? Thomas Merton agreed that sometimes we are called not to receive the right answers, but to live the right questions. Merton wrote, My Lord God, ...

23. Show Us The Father, and We Shall Be Satisfied

John 14:5-14

Sermon

Larry Powell

... one of the Russian cosmonauts left his capsule and floated in space, remarking to the mission control that he did not "see" God anywhere. C. S. Lewis has said, "If a man never sees God on the earth, he will never see him in space; but if a man sees God here in ... the way for them to follow. He said confidently, "And you know the way where I am going (John 14:0." It was then that Thomas spoke up and said, "Lord, we don't even know where you are going; how can we know the way?" Jesus said something else about ...

24. The Language of the Heart

Psalm 100:1-5

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... that which is derived from the psalms. Admittedly, we do what we do (however we do it) with varying levels of skill. C. S. Lewis recounts that when he first started going to church he disliked the hymns, which he considered to be fifth-rate poems set to ... ."(9) In 1722, the Town Council of Leipzig was looking for a new cantor in the School of Saint Thomas and organist for the church of St. Thomas. The Council searched for this new person, and selected one who, three weeks later, turned them down. They then ...

25. Loving Like God Loves

Matthew 5:43-48

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

... only help I will give is help to become perfect. You may want something less: but I will give you nothing less.’”5 Lewis also wrote: “The command ‘be ye perfect’ is not idealistic gas. Nor is it a command to do the impossible. He is going ... week, Who are my enemies, and who do I feel justified in putting outside my circle of concern? I have found the words of the Thomas Merton most helpful: “Do not be too quick,” he wrote, “to assume that your enemy is a savage just because he is your enemy. ...

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