Sermon and Worship Resources

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1. The Advance Miner

Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

The following story was told by Robert Hughes from the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia. Dr. Hughes' father was a coal miner in northeastern Pennsylvania. His job was to check ... and there would be all the miners gathered around expectantly waiting for him to announce, "It's OK; it's safe; you can now go down into the mine." And as Dr. Hughes used the illustration, he said, "That's what Christ has done for us. Coming up out of the depths of death, he has announced to all who are gathered here in ...

2. Epiphany 4

Psalm 71:1-24, 1 Corinthians 14:1-25, 1 Corinthians 13:1-13, 1 Corinthians 12:12-31, Jeremiah 1:1-19, Luke 4:14-30

Sermon Aid

George Bass

... turn him to all people of the world, whom he has come to save. SERMON SUGGESTIONS Luke 4:21-30 (RC, C); 4:21-32 (E, L) - "How To Turn A Congregation Into A Mob." In one of the chapters of Journeys Toward Narrative Preaching, Dr. Robert Hughes, of the Lutheran School of Theology at Philadelphia, writes about a pastor - Pastor Gilbert Martin - who made a deep impression upon him as a child. He says that "Moose" Martin (a 245-pound former college football tackle) ' 'was a key figure in my years at Vacation ...

3. Marked For Death

Genesis 3:1-24

Sermon

George Bass

... our mortality and God’s immortality, as well as his judgment upon us as sinners. Down deep and when we face up to our sin, we know that we deserve only death and separation from him and each other, instead of life and eternal companionship in the Lord. Dr. Robert Hughes reminds us of that in one of his sermons. Real ashes were a fact of life for him as he grew up in the coal regions of northeastern Pennsylvania; it was his task to remove the ashes from the coal-burning furnace and dump them over a bank at ...

4. Words As Images

Sermon

Michael Rogness

... . The memory of that image will help the person reflect back to the text, then to the theme and the explanation of the sermon. For a person conditioned by television the impact is made by the imagery of the language. A "Controlling Image" Robert Hughes, president of Lutheran Seminary of Philadelphia and long-time teacher of preachers, recommends what he calls a "controlling image" as the heart of a sermon. These images, usually introduced at the outset of the sermon, come back again and again and give unity ...

5. The Source Of Joy

John 3:22-36

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... . . One of the most gifted Christian writers today is Max Lucado of San Antonio, Texas. Max tells about meeting a gentleman called Robert Reed. Robert's hands are twisted and his feet are useless. He can't bathe himself. He can't feed himself. He can't ... and Saviour he imparts a deep inner strength for us to continue on when the journey in life is difficult. St. Paul, like Hugh Crocker, discovered that the joyful vitality of life is found in a daily appreciation and thankfulness for what God has done for us ...

6. The Lenten License to Steal, Drink, Lie and Swear

Romans 4:1-25

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... . . The world is divided into two kinds of people. Those who finish what they start and so on…(Thanks! Robert Byrne) The world is divided into two kinds of people. Those who divide the world into two kinds of people ... Hughes. Before he died in 2006, he left behind a little “Wisdom for Living” daily devotional book based on the book of Proverbs. (Selwyn Hughes, Wisdom for Living [Surrey, UK, 2010]). While Hughes’ focus is on Proverbs, his advice easily encompasses the whole of scripture. What Hughes ...

7. Lessons from a Fool

Luke 12:13-21

Sermon

King Duncan

... of Jesus have much to say about our obligations to those who are not as blessed as we are. In one of his writings Gerard Hughes, a Roman Catholic priest, asks what you would do if, one evening, there were a knock on the door and, when you went to open ... as it can be said: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (12:34). Many years ago, missionary Bob Roberts was a guest speaker in a church. In this service he was sharing his burden for hungry children in the Philippines. Afterwards a ...

8. When We Don't Know God

Philippians 3:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... bigger than oneself. “His Dream,” says Bruce Wilkinson, “was not significant enough to bring meaning to his life.” And so, in his old age, Hughes became withdrawn. News reports portray him at the end of his life as drug addicted, emaciated and unkempt with decaying teeth and long, twisted fingernails ... Rev. Dr. M. Craig Barnes, http://day1.org/669-could_you_be_wrong_about_god. 4. Godspell, Stephen Schwartz, 1973. Cited in Robert Schnase, Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations (Kindle Edition).

9. How Many of Us Does It Take to Screw in a Light Bulb?

Mark 7:1-23

Sermon

King Duncan

... or what hobby we may have. Of course, traditions play a bigger role in some communities more than others. Dr. G. Carswell Hughs, a Presbyterian pastor, says that people in Charleston, South Carolina pay more attention to tradition that any place he has ever seen. ... The Power of a Positive Attitude (Grand Rapids: Revell, 2004). 5. http://www.fpcknox.org/sermons/25may2003.htm. 6. Robert H. Schuller, Don’t Throw Away Tomorrow (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 2005), p. 67. 7. “Show no Partiality ...

10. Timing Is Everything

Matthew 11:2-11

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... and said of them, they were just ahead of their time. Then the times changed. The next person to come along was Robert Fulton. It was not so much that Fulton invented the steamboat, but that he just happened to be there when the ... when God is at work. Sometime, in the "fullness of time," there will be a time of fulfillment and realization that I was being led. Hugh Redwood was a British journalist. He described a time when he was under a terrific strain and pressure because of terrible decisions that he had ...

11. Get Up

Mark 5:21-43

Sermon

Will Willimon

... prayed. 'O Death, where is thy sting?' Norval Tawes called out, and his little black eyes glittered on Hugh. ''Hugh thought, 'Just about everywhere, since you ask.''' And it is. Death stings just about everywhere. In today's ... to be wise. You don't have to be wonderful. You don't have to be anything...you just have to be dead. That's it." (Robert Farrar Capon). Prayer: Lord, on this bright, summer morning, with all the world fresh and green, and everything full of promise and summer contentment, we appear ...

12. "Wow!"

Mark 9:2-13

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... , tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.(6) WOW! Amen! 1. Robert Fulghum, Everything I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten, (New York: Villard Books, 1988) p. 139 2. Ellen Madison, Weldona, CO, via PresbyNet, "The View from the Mountain," 1994 3. Brice Hughes via Ecunet, "Sermonshop 1996 02 21," #22, 2/17/96 4. Donn Brammer, West Palm Beach, FL via Ecunet, "Sermonshop Discussion," #1748, 2/7/97 5. Brian Stoffregen ...

13. In the Wrong Place At the Right Time

Mark 15:21-32

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... it always is. We go down one way rather than another, and our whole career is colored thereby. That is what the poet, Robert Frost, was saying, “Two roads diverged into a wood, and I took the one less traveled by and that has made all the ... is at work. Sometime, in the “fullness of time,” there will be a time of fulfillment and realization that we are being led. Hugh Redwood was a British journalist. He described a time when he was under a terrific strain and pressure because of terrible decisions that ...

14. Attics, Basements, Closets

Psalm 130:1-8

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... of chivalry championed by so many who look at our present-day leaders with highbrow disdain. In the 14th century Robert Erdeswick of Stafford was the first English gentlemen (according to Maurice Keen, Origins of the English Gentleman: Heraldry, Chivalry and ... is called sin. The best definition of sin I've ever encountered is this one from Gerard W. Hughes: sin means our refusal to let God be God in us." Or in Gerard W. Hughes' words, "Sin is the refusal to let God be God. Repentance is letting God be God in ...

15. When Christians Pray

Acts 1:12-26

Sermon

King Duncan

There is a story by Hugh Price Hughes titled, “The City of Everywhere.” In this story a man arrives in a city one cold morning. As he gets off ... there to hear the man in charge tell about shoes and how wonderful they are.” “Then why don’t you wear shoes?” asks the stranger. “Ah, that’s the question,” says the man. Dr. Robert E. Goodrich told this story in his book, What’s It All About? Then he asks, “Don’t we believe in prayer? Don’t we know what it could mean to our lives? . . . Of ...

16. Life Is What Happens When You've Made Other Plans

Genesis 37:1-11

Sermon

Dr. Robert E. Lair

... while back the editor of Theology Today chronicled his family's misfortunes one winter. Dr. Hugh Kerr told about two emergency hospitalizations: one in Tucson, Arizona -- the other in Princeton, New Jersey ... other plans." We have all had such unsettling experiences. Who among us has not experienced some unexpected event that made us remember the oft-quoted Robert Burns' famous line about "the best laid schemes of mice and men . . . ?" The intrusion of the unexpected is familiar to all of us. Such intrusions ...

17. What Ever Happened to Wisdom?

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... Job, which is part of the so-called wisdom literature of the Old Testament. A renowned commentator, the late Hugh Anderson of Scotland, called this chapter “one of the most magnificent poetical pieces in the whole range of the ... good is to be in the image of God. An illustration of how doing so much good can crowd out evil comes from the life of Robert Louis Stevenson. This nineteenth-century author of Treasure Island could not continue to live in England because its damp, cool climate was bad for his health ...

18. The Deal Of A Lifetime

Mark 10:17-31

Sermon

King Duncan

... of his day. He could have spread circles of influence that would still be rippling to this daybut he turned away. Robert Schuller once asked Coretta Scott King where she got the dream that kept her going. Mrs. King responded, "It was while I ... had no money with him with which to pay the fare, Carnegie was once put off a London tram. Did money solve the problems of Howard Hughes or Aristotle Onassis? They died two of the world's most miserable men. Why invest your life in something that will only rot or rust? ...

19. Spiritual Blindness and the Way to Overcome It

Mark 8:22-26, Mark 8:14-21

Teach the Text

Grant R. Osborne

... Jesus is incapable or inept, perhaps with insufficient strength at the outset. No, Jesus has power over the situation throughout. Hugh Anderson states that in Jewish thought a two-stage miracle stresses even more the power of the healer.1Perhaps the ... new ones, why don’t you just keep the ones you got now?” (Jane). “Dear God, I’m an American. What are you?” (Robert).5The perspectives of these kids are cute, but childish perspectives are not so cute when we are adults. The reason is that what we ...

20. Behold The Man Who Tried To Be King

Matthew 21:1-10

Sermon

Thomas A. Pilgrim

... this Palm Sunday? 1. James W. Moore, Yes Lord I Have Sinned, Abingdon Press, Nashville, 1991, p. 70. 2. James S. Stewart, The Life And Teaching Of Jesus Christ, Abingdon Press, Nashville, 1957, p. 182. 3. Hugh H. Drennan, Emphasis, CSS Publishing Co., Lima, Ohio. September-October, 1992, p. 55. 4. Robert W. Spain, How To Stay Alive As Long As You Live, Dimensions For Living, Nashville, 1992, p. 135. 5. Wallace W. Kirby, Emphasis, op. cit., p. 15. 6. Edwin McNeill Poteat, "Palm Sunday And Monday," Over The ...

21. A Larger Design For Living

Matthew 7:24-29

Sermon

Clement E. Lewis

... people resent necessitous change so much that they will pretend that they are 39 for as long as they can. You may recall that Robert Louis Stevenson, the poet, was a very unwell man. As he was approaching the latter days of his life, a clergyman sent him a ... him "as one in danger of living." Stevenson believed in the larger design of living. In the early pages of his book, Fortitude, Hugh Walpole wrote, "'Tisn't life that matters! 'Tis the courage you bring to it!" Yes, it takes courage not to go along with ...

22. The Awesome Power Of Believing

John 1:1-18

Sermon

King Duncan

... this poor man. What you believe is more important than what you have or who you are. You can be the richest man in the world, like Howard Hughes, and be a recluse hidden away in a dark and lonely hotel room obsessed by fears that terrify you and will not set you free. You can ... inside our cells responds positively when we feel love. Love appears capable of sparking healthy biological reactions. "Dr. Robert Taylor, a psychiatrist from California, thinks it may boil down to love's potential for being a great ...

23. Help For Troubled Hearts

John 14:15-31

Sermon

King Duncan

... are driven. Driven to acquire-driven to achieve-driven to be. And this "driven-ness" is taking its toll. A physician, Dr. Robert Anderson, who has researched the subject of stress extensively, says that he used to think that 35 to 40 percent of the ... s sunny today, don’t enjoy it too much. We’ll pay for it tomorrow. Some of you may be married to somebody like that. Hugh Missildine says that fear is one of the earliest emotions that a baby experiences, and that all fears tend to be variations of three basic ...

24. While It Was Still Dark

John 20:1-9

Sermon

King Duncan

... tomb, empty. What was going on here? she wondered. What had they done with him? I'm reminded of something humorous that happened to Robert Rankin while he was a student at the Junior College of Mason City, Iowa. Rankin aspired to a theatrical career. He was only a ... but the darkness did not remain. The dawn broke. God's Son had risen. 1. John H. Westerhoff and Caroline A. Hughes, ON THE THRESHOLD OF GOD'S FUTURE, (San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1986), p. 21. 2. Philip Mooney, BELONGING ALWAYS ...

25. More Than Skin Deep

Joel 2:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... for you to draw closer to God than you have ever been before? It can happen if you are ready for a new heart and mind. 1. Vance Havner, In Times Like These (Grand Rapids, MI: Fleming H. Revell, 1969), pp. 71-76. Found in Robert J. Morgan. From This Verse (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1998). 2. "One From the Heart" by Victoria Dawson, Smithsonian, Feb. 2003, pp. 25-26. 3. William Temple, "Christian Faith and Life," Library of Anglican Spirituality, 1931, p. 67, The Clergy Journal, Feb. 2002, p. 32 ...

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