Showing 1 to 25 of 26 results
Sermon
Bill Bouknight
... gave us a motto that ought to be seized by the church. At that time his team was playing a great Philadelphia team for the championship. The LA star, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, was injured. The Lakers were given little or no chance to win. But Magic Johnson spurred the Lakers on to a spectacular victory with his favorite saying: "It’s winnin’ time!" It’s "winnin’ time" for those who call Jesus Lord. The Lord has sprinkled Holy Water on us and has declared, "Born sinners, raised sinners, but now forgiven ...
2. Where Is Your Citizenship?
Philippians 3:12-4:1
Sermon
King Duncan
... an obscenity? Even worse, perhaps, are those who flaunt moral law with no consciousness of any wrongdoing. Last fall two stories jumped from the sports sections to the front pages of newspapers all over this land. One was the revelation from Magic Johnson that he is infected with the AIDS virus. Johnson indeed should have the sympathy of every one of us. He is a warm man with a tremendous personality who has given basketball fans many years of pleasure. We would not want to demean in any way the courage he ...
3. Wade In The Water
2 Kings 5:1-27
Sermon
Frederick C. Edwards
... suicide. Howard Hughes, for all his intellect and inventive genius and money, spent the last years of his life shut off from the world in seclusion and semi darkness, with an obsession about germs. Handsome Rock Hudson died of AIDS, and the ever-cheerful Magic Johnson has the virus, too. John Belushi died of a drug overdose, as have so many others. Comedian Johnny Carson suffered the pain of failed marriages and the tragic death of a son he loved dearly. The storybook marriage of Prince Charles and Princess ...
4. This Adulterous Generation
Matthew 5:27-30, Exodus 20:1-21
Sermon
Bill Bouknight
... was quoted in Newsweek as saying, "Stealing food from the dorm refrigerator would be more condemned around here than having sex with someone on the living room couch." U.S. News and World Report in an article, "Teenage Sex, After Magic," had this to say: "In the weeks after Magic Johnson burst onto the AIDS scene, the nation's youth reacted first with shock, then with concern. Then from all indications, it was back to risky business as usual..." Now, take a look at America's harvest: There are now over ...
5. Naaman Is My Name!
2 Kings 5:1-27
Sermon
Barbara Brokhoff
... was simple: "You have leprosy, you die!" In our time we have a modern-day leprosy: AIDS. We know some of the ways you can get the virus. One prominent athlete brags of having 20,000 different sexual partners. The media report that Magic Johnson admits to getting the HIV virus through his own promiscuity. Some are infected with the virus through inoculating themselves with drugs, using dirty needles. Some who are infected are completely innocent: like the late Arthur Ashe who was infected from a bad blood ...
Sermon
R. Curtis Fussell
... Anita Hill? The music industry, both rock and roll and country/western, seems to thrive on the lyrics, "I want you, I need you, I love you!" as though all three meant the same thing, and of course they don't. There's the promiscuity of Magic Johnson and others who contribute to the spread of the AIDS virus. There's O. J. Simpson, whose jealous lust made him into a violent spouse abuser. People everywhere pay a terrible price for lust. "Lust is the parent of thousands of unwanted babies"2 and of thousands ...
Sermon
Bill Bouknight
... God. The Evil One is more subtle than that. He just suggests that the Bible's warnings are hysterical overreactions. "Don't worry," says the devil. "You are different from the common folks who are dumb enough to get caught. Do you think the basketball star Magic Johnson ever said to himself, "If I continue to be sexually promiscuous, I could catch some awful disease."? I doubt it. God hates sin. According to Archbishop William Temple, sin is "the self-will which prefers my way to God's, which puts me in the ...
Sermon
David E. Leininger
... upon for an errand. At best, the world manages a slight tip of the hat toward God as some sort of honorary Chairman of the Board. No glory though. No, the glory in our world goes to the Madonnas and the Michael Jacksons, the Magic Johnsons and Michael Jordans. The crowds cheer the gladiators, the Mike Tysons and Razor Ruddocks. Occasionally, there are hopeful signs - here and there a few new faces in the church, a new baby baptized, a confirmation class that unites with the congregation - small victories in ...
9. People Who Inspire Us
2 Thessalonians 1:1-12
Sermon
King Duncan
... . And basketball legend Larry Bird went to work as a garbage collector. A year later, he enrolled at Indiana State. And the rest, as they say, is history. Larry led Indiana State to the NCAA finals, where they lost to Michigan State, led by Magic Johnson. Larry went on to join the Boston Celtics and become a National Basketball Association and Olympic basketball champion. He was voted Most Valuable Player several times. Later he served as the head coach of the Indiana Pacers. (2) Sometimes we see people who ...
Sermon
Eric Ritz
... money away from the poor. Let us turn our attention to verse one. In this verse, James is testifying that wealth is never lasting. Wealth will not prevent you from experiencing many of the same adversities that others do. Just ask Mickey Mantle or Magic Johnson or Jerry Garcia if their wealth and fame prevented miseries and purposelessness from claiming parts of their lives. Maya Angelou, the black author from Arkansas, tells the revealing story of her Aunt Tee who worked as a maid for a wealthy family on a ...
11. Moving On Up
Mark 9:33-37
Sermon
King Duncan
... to ask who is the greatest. For example, since this is football season, who is the greater football quarterback, Tom Brady or Peyton Manning? Among golfers you might ask, how would Jack Nicolaus have done against Tiger Woods? To go back a few years, how about Magic Johnson and Larry Bird? I was reading recently about a Larry Bird fan named Eric Torpy. Let me tell you just how much Torpy admires Larry Bird. In 2005 when Torpy was sentenced to 30 years in prison for armed robbery and attempted murder, he said ...
Sermon
Donald B. Strobe
... poor and honest, which is recommendation enough to Johnson. He is now become miserable and that ensures the protection of Johnson.” He was friendless, and that ensured the friendship of Johnson. This man by the poolside was friendless, and ... is someone who is really in need of help. So, without entering into a lengthy theological debate, or arguing with the man about the supposed magical effect of the water in the pool, he told the fellow to get his eyes off of himself and onto Jesus. One reason that self- ...
13. Redrawing The Landscape
Multiple Scriptures
Sermon
Harold Warlick
... dollars a year, five world championship rings, a new wife, and a baby on the way. At age 46, football Hall of Famer O.J. Simpson had television and movie contracts and several million dollar properties. What more could a person want? Samson, David, Bathsheba, "Magic" Johnson and O.J. Simpson have some things in common - they did not do drugs and they were not gay. They were just somewhat naive about the importance of human relationships. If there is a common thread from the ancient world to ours it is the ...
Sermon
Siegfried S. Johnson
... interested only to tell the difference between them and us. Maybe you saw the Disney movie, Monsters, Inc. Like terrorism, Monsters Inc. makes fear a business. The movie magically opens the door to the dark closet in children's bedrooms, that place where kids imagine that monsters lurk. Lo and behold, in this movie, monsters DO lurk ... sermon, particularly in the area of drawing a comparison between bin Laden and the KKK. Siegfried S. Johnson is pastor of the First United Methodist Church, Fordyce, Arkansas.
15. Dark Shadows
Exodus 17:1-7
Sermon
King Duncan
... paralyzed by a stroke in the last years of his presidency. While he lay there, incapacitated within his shriveled body, Johnson dreamed he could hear his assistants in the next room debating about which parts of his powers they could divide among ... could go on forever. But God has given us a symbol of God's love for us and God's sustaining power. There is nothing magical about the cross. It won't keep away vampires. Carrying it in a dangerous neighborhood won't protect you unless, as in the joke, you ...
16. Welcoming Christ
Romans 14:1--15:13
Sermon
Frank Luchsinger
... before the scanner, I wonder if the prices rapidly displayed on the screen correspond to the discount I thought I was to pay. The magic total is announced and I reach for my checkbook, at which time the man behind me raises his voice. I turn, surprised, to ... No Room," and with Mary and Joseph are escorted to the place out back where the animals live. When he was in college Lyndon Johnson fell in love with a tall, blond 21-year-old with dark blue eyes. Carol Davis played the violin and wrote poetry, loved the ...
17. How Do We Forgive?
Matthew 18:21-35
Sermon
King Duncan
An elderly man wandering on a lonely beach found a magic lamp. Naturally he rubbed the lamp and a genie appeared. The genie told the old man he would ... if you can forgive me, but I’m sorry for what I have done.” To Mrs. Washington’s surprise, she heard herself saying, “I forgive you.” Later in an interview with Byron Johnson, Mrs. Washington confessed, “That was the moment I got my life back. A huge load was lifted the instant I forgave him.” Did you hear what she said? “That was the moment ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... is our hope, God is the Source of every good thing. There’s a wonderful illustration of this kind of awareness found in Dr. Spencer Johnson’s little book The Present. The Present is about a little boy and an old man an old man who appeared to be so happy ... once he found the present everything else would fall into perspective. The boy wondered if it was magic. The old man explained it wasn’t magic but it is magical and once you have the present you are content to be right where you are in that moment ...
Sermon
Billy D. Strayhorn
... he called and asked while I wasn't looking. I think pharmacists must take a special class in cryptography or they have a magic decoder ring or something that deciphers these prescriptions. I've got bad handwriting but not like my doctor. I heard that my doctor ... that God comes first. Is your wallet baptized? On the wall of President Lyndon Johnson's White House office hung a framed letter written by General Sam Houston to Johnson's great-grandfather Baines more than a hundred years earlier. Sam Houston's ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... every day that he couldn’t join. Finally, Will broke down and begged them to join their secret club. And then he said the magic words, “I’ll do anything to join!” Don’t you know Will’s older brother was just waiting to hear those words? Will’s ... ’ll only discover how poor they really are. The kingdom is about a different kind of life altogether. A young man named Kyle Johnson traveled to 11 countries in 11 months to serve as a missionary and share his faith in Jesus Christ. He traveled to some ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... fourth day, the bush was to be cut down, and a certain magical formula was pronounced, and thus the cure was supposed to be achieved. It is noteworthy that Jesus completely disregarded all the paraphernalia of popular magic, and with a gesture and a word of unique authority and ... story about former Secretary of State Dean Rusk. Rusk held his high office during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. Global tensions called for high level meetings between our government and other leading governments. The Cold ...
Sermon
King Duncan
... Madrid wearing a wonderful cape that kept him and his clothes dry. The superstitious folks thought this cape must be magic. Juan explained that such rubbercoated capes were widely used by the Indians in the New World. But his explanations did ... , if you will. But for those who believe in Christ it is a sunrisea beginning, the beginning of life with God. Black poet James Weldon Johnson wrote of Sister Caroline in "Go Down, Death": "She saw what we couldn't see/She saw Old Death/Coming like a falling star/But ...
Sermon
Donald B. Strobe
... person. He had to be everlastingly “at it.” He could never take time off without feeling guilty about it. Samuel Johnson was one of Wesley’s contemporaries, but he once complained that “his (Wesley’s) conversation is good, but he is ... the tension of my nerves and muscles with the soothing music of the singing streams that live in my memory. Help me to know the magical, restoring power of sleep. Teach me the art of taking minute vacations - of slowing down to look at a flower, to chat with a friend ...
Sermon
James Merritt
... English language instead of German. In 1845 one vote brought Texas into the union. In 1868 one vote saved President Andrew Johnson from impeachment. In 1876 one vote changed France from a monarchy to a republic. In 1876 one vote gave Rutherford B ... put Daniel into Babylon, but you could not get Babylon into Daniel. Do you know why Daniel kept his purity? Because he could say one magic word: "No." Do you know why he could say "No?" Because he had first said "Yes." He could say no to the world, because he had ...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
... , only 4% of the participants, stuck to their guns and refused to intentionally inflict pain upon another human being for cash. The magic monetary amount that changed peoples morals? Are you ready? 30 dollars. The predatory power of thirty pieces of silver. It makes “humanzees” ... T-shirt” protests of women organized by Leymah Gbowee, Tawakkul Karman, and now Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, brought true humanity into their world. I want to be a Jesus kind of human. Will you join me in ...
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