Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing all results

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... with only a rare few remaining, primarily in zoos. To see Jacob’s Sheep again populating the land of Israel symbolized for many a sign of a new time, or a new community, new hope. Like Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s “Black Swans” or Malcolm Gladwell’s “outliers,” “Jacob’s Sheep” represented a kind of anachronistic return to the past, even while signaling a maverick kind of hope for the future.** In “Jacob’s Sheep,” past and future are brought together in the brief bleat of a legendary ...

2. A Holy Kiss (Father's Day)

2 Corinthians 13:11-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... these guys have for each other.” (1) If that’s true of a professional football team, it’s certainly true of a local church. The difference between mediocrity and greatness is the feeling we have for each other. In his book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell tells the interesting story of Christopher Langan. Langan was a genius with a staggering IQ of 195. For some perspective, Einstein’s IQ was 150. During high school, Langan could ace any foreign language test by skimming the textbook 2-3 minutes before ...

3. The Eye of the Storm

Mark 11:1-11

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... and circumstance, hosannas and celebration, we all know that this is not the victory. It’s simply the eye of the storm. There is so much still to come. One of my favorite authors, Malcolm Gladwell, wrote a book about tipping point behaviors in his book called in fact The Tipping Point. In his book, Gladwell describes three major factors that drive phenomena toward a tipping point. The first is what he calls “The Law of the Few.” The second is the “Stickiness Factor,” and the third is the “Power ...

4. Time to Pull the Weeds

Matthew 13:24-30

Sermon

King Duncan

... Our relationships with our children, our spouse, our parents, and, most important of all, our relationship with God. Are there weeds growing in your garden? It's time to pull them out. Today. 1. http://www.trinitycrc.org/sermons/ps38v04.html 2. Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference (Boston: Little, Brown, 2000), pp. 133-168. 3. Bring 'Em Back Alive--A Healing Plan for Those Wounded by the Church, Dave Burchett, (WaterBrook Press, Colorado Springs, CO, 2004). 4. The ...

5. Dusted

Mark 6:7-13, Matthew 10:1-42, Luke 9:1-9, Luke 10:1-24

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... s voice? How aware and receptive are we of the Light of Jesus in our lives? It all depends upon the state of our dust. Our dust can either weigh us down or when we see it, it can allow us to recognize our relationship with God. As Malcolm Gladwell says, “To a worm in horseradish, the world is horseradish.” But the gospel tells us, Jesus can help us transcend that muck of the sandpit. Because we are inbreathed by the breath of God, we have the ability to look beyond our limitations, to believe, to have ...

6. Let 'Er Rip

Mark 13:1-31, Mark 13:32-37, 1 Thessalonians 5:12-28

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... coming in! Sound the message to everyone around you! “Awaken to the signs of the Spirit! Do not quench it. Do not hinder it. Do not harm it. When you see the time is right, get out of the way, and let ‘er rip!” In 2000, Malcolm Gladwell wrote a book called The Tipping Point. In it, he describes how contagions begin. All of us who are suffering in cold season this winter know that viruses seem to appear out of nowhere and can quickly spread throughout schools and churches and families and communities ...

7. Made For The Light

Isaiah 9:1-7

Sermon

King Duncan

... It is our responsibility. It is our joy. Go, share the good news that the Light of the world has come. 1. Reader's Digest, December 2003, p.133. 2. Things People Said: Anecdotes of Stupidity web site, http://rinkworks.com/said/ 3. Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point: (Boston: Little, Brown, 2000), pp. 133168. Cited in James Emery White, Your 10 Most Life-Defining Moments (Colorado Springs, CO: Waterbrook Press, 2001), pp. 90-91. 4. Ron Mehl, What God Whispers in the Night (Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers ...

8. The Broken Window Theory

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Illustration

King Duncan

Malcolm Gladwell in his book, The Tipping Point, tells about "the Broken Window" theory of crime. Many years ago, criminologists James Q. Wilson and George Kelling formulated this theory about how a neighborhood or community slowly gives into increasing crime rates. They called it the Broken Window theory. Wilson and Kelling said ...

9. Do You Know Your Name?

Luke 2:21-40

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... wisdom” and to find the “favor of God” resting upon him. 2) As you throw yourself into the needs of the world, throw yourself into your passion. For it is your passion connected to your compassion that will most likely reveal your “secret name.” Malcolm Gladwell has a new book out. The author of The Tipping Point and Blink has now authored Outliers: The Story of Success (2008). His major discovery is this: If you want to be a success in your passion, whatever your passion is, you must be willing ...

10. The Garden of Temptation

Genesis 3:1-24

Sermon

King Duncan

... one of these stories is a disaster! In a fallen world, people are estranged from one another husbands are estranged from their wives, parents are estranged from their children, neighbors are estranged from one another. In his bestselling book titled Blink, author Malcolm Gladwell tells the story of something that happened on the night of February 3, 1999. A 22-year‑old black immigrant from Guinea was standing in the doorway of his South Bronx apartment when four plainclothes policemen, all white, drove up ...

11. Jesus’ Recipe for a Kingdom Style Feast

Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... ? The kind that resonates, that will grow and expand their vision. The lesson? A little can be a lot. The size of the effort does not determine the size of the outcome. A little bit of effort can grow into a huge movement. Sounds like something from a Malcolm Gladwell book, doesn’t it? We all know that to change a recipe, all you need to do is add one small new ingredient, and the taste of the entire composition will be made new. One alteration can change a proven old recipe into an award-winning, new ...

12. Giving Our Best

Mark 7:24-37

Sermon

King Duncan

... of life? Chances are that person is somebody who knows what it is to give his or her very best. Giving your best means a radical commitment to doing the very best you know in everything you do. In his book, Outliers: The Story of Success, Malcolm Gladwell writes about what he calls the 10,000-hour rule. The rule basically says that it takes around 10,000 hours of practice before somebody becomes an expert at something. He found this to be true anywhere from professional hockey players to tech tycoon Bill ...

Showing 1 to 12 of 12all results