Sermon and Worship Resources

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Mark 9:33-37

Sermon

King Duncan

... for melike I will owe my son if I ever have another." We may not like his tone of voice, but essentially Dr. Prentice is correct. The apostle Paul put it like this, "For children are not responsible to save up for their parents, but parents for their children." Robert Raines tells a beautiful story about a young man named David who left home for the first time. From the age of seven he had lived with his uncle and aunt, who sold fruit at a peddler's stand. They had loved and cared for him. He stood on the ...

2. The Waiting Father

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

King Duncan

... many forms. We have amazing minds. We can use them or we can waste them. We have remarkable bodies. We can keep them healthy or we can abuse them. We have the gift of life, of time, of precious relationships. All are at our disposal. We are free! Robert Raines tells about walking along a road some years ago with his son when the boy asked, "Dad, do you suppose anywhere in the world there is a sign that says `trespassing'?" His dad asked what he meant and he said, "Well, see that sign over there that says ...

3. Dealing with Stress Creatively

Matthew 11:25-30

Sermon

James W. Moore

... mountains were quietly beginning a new day. The beautiful colors of autumn were splashed all over the trees. It was a magnificent and glorious sight as the early morning sun glistened upon the wonders of the mountains and the valleys below. And then it happened… Robert Raines saw one of the most beautiful things he had ever witnessed in his life. Right there at the very edge of that great mountain peak and facing the gorgeous valley below… was a young man in his early twenties with a trumpet pressed to ...

4. The Gift of Peace

Sermon

Alan Bacon Bond

... impossible to live in the world on the terms of peace suggested by the Psalmist. In Pennsylvania there is a retreat center known as Kirkridge, which for years has been a vital place of helping people become more contemplative and spiritually centered. Robert Raines, a former Methodist bishop and director of the center said, in an interview about the role of Kirkridge in peace-making, Obviously hostile people can't make a peaceful world. So we have got to work both the inward and outward dimensions. So ...

5. Fresh Every Morning - A Token and a Truth

Exodus 16:1-36

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... only for today, and everyday, but for eternity. Let me illustrate it and I’ll close. A man in prison wrote to Robert A. Rains. He described his setting. “There’s a high chain-link fence below my second story window, and on the top of the ... cell For sparrows play outside my wall And flit from fence to tree I know He grieves their every fall, And He is here with me. (Robert Rains, To Kiss the Joy, Word Books, 1973, p. 88-89) If a prisoner can feel it in a cold, stone, tomb-cell, behind barbed wire, can ...

6. A Beautiful Doxology

Matthew 11:25-30

Illustration

James W. Moore

7. Where Are the Nine?

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

Richard Hasler

... about it! You want me to be an unmarried mother? I’m a decent girl, you know. Sorry, try next door.” [4] Fortunately, we know Mary did not respond this way. Our gratitude may be as simple as the privilege of watching the birds. Robert Raines, the director of Kirkridge, a retreat center in the heart of the resplendent Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania has this explanation: “I delight in a daily blessedness that visits me each morning in the wild birds at our feeders. Since 1978 we have had a bird ...

8. Are We Living In The Last Days?

Luke 21:5-19

Sermon

Richard Hasler

... realize that in the end God would be victorious no matter how dark the day seems now. For us today, the same message holds true, Luke is convinced at the right time all things will be made right. We can count on it. Amen. [1]. Robert Raines, A Time to Live: Seven Tasks of Creative Aging, 160-161. [2]. Ernest Lee Tuveson, Redeemer Nation: The Idea of America’s Millennial Role (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1968), 200. [3]. Sydney E. Ahlstrom, A Religious History of the American People, Volume 2 ...

9. A Last Appeal

Luke 23:33-43

Sermon

Richard Hasler

... of Luke is a favorite of mine. Luke sees Jesus as one who is not taken back by the “unclean” person in Israel or anywhere, but as his watchword says: “For the Son of Man came to seek out and save the lost” (19:10). Amen. [1]. Robert Raines, A Time To Live: Seven Tasks of Creative Aging, 187. [2]. William Barclay: The Gospel of Luke: The Daily Bible Study (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1956), 297. [3]. Rob Bell, Love Wins: A Book about Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person, 128. [4]. Adam ...

10. Who Knows?

Jonah 3:1-10

Sermon

Thomas D. Peterson

... prospect of prediction or control. Feeling we were in charge, we find that outside currents carry us along as they will. Robert Raines in A Faithing Oak quotes Albert Camus who was profoundly aware of this mystery of life. "Let us not look for ... the door and the way out anywhere but in the wall against which we are living" (New York, The Crossroad Publishing Co., 1982, p. 17). Raines builds on Camus from a Christian perspective and writes, "The Word is as near to you as the wall against which you are now ...

11. The God Of Peace

Philippians 4:2-9

Sermon

King Duncan

... us are tortured by the demon of discontent. Many, many people long for personal peace. We long for peace in our hearts and we long for peace in our families. Robert McAfee Brown in his autobiography describes a family snapshot. It is of his family gathered at Christmas time. "There we all are," says Brown, "gathered around the crÃ¨che on ... with you. 1. Dr. John Bardsley 2. SUNDAY SERMONS 3. Ernest J. Lewis 4. Eric Ritz 5 J. Robert Raines, CREATIVE BROODING, (New York: Macmillan Company, 1977), pp. 345-346.

12. Out On A Sycamore Limb

Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

Richard Hasler

... Craddock, Interpretation: Luke, A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching, 218. [3]. Peter J. Gomes, The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart (New York: William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1996), 286. [4]. J. Lynne Hinton, Meditation for Walking (Macon, Georgia: Smyth & Helwys Publishing Inc., 1999), 43. [5]. Robert L. Short, The Gospel According to Peanuts, (Richmond, Virginia: John Knox Press, 1965), 122. [6]. Peter Gomes,The Good Book: Reading the Bible with Mind and Heart, 96 -101. [7 ...

13. Faith-Filled Living

Luke 17:1-10

Sermon

... than the Monster that mysterious power which would hurt or scare him but even the Monster’s power fades when he is with me, for I am his father Can I be like my son and trust You and not be afraid1 Through this experience with his son, Robert Raines helps us to focus on faith which is something most of us desire to experience. Like this author, we want it. In this Scripture passage, the disciples of Christ ask him for faith, What Is Faith? Faith is trust. To have faith in another person, including God, is ...

14. God Is a Mystery

Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

... . There is a necessary gap between the creator and the created. There is no way to diagram God’s love and mercy. God is beyond us. Embrace the mystery, and live in the joy of knowing that God is able to do far more than we ever ask or think. Robert Raines says it beautifully: "Lo, I tell you a mystery but the mystery is larger than the telling it eludes our boundaries it escapes our taming and naming hove the mystery.2 Once you and I claim to have full knowledge of God and the ability to predict God’s ...

15. The Greatness Of John The Baptist

John 1:19-28

Sermon

King Duncan

... path that you and I would do well to follow. Humility. Courage. And a commitment to bear witness to the light of God. 1. Scriptural quotations in this sermon are taken from THE NEW TESTAMENT IN MODERN ENGLISH, Translated by J. B. Phillips (New York: The MacMillan Co., 1960). 2. Robert Raines, THE SECULAR CONGREGATION.

16. Dealing with Our Doubts

Mark 9:14-32

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... , when the devil dared him to jump off a cliff and trust God to save Him. The God of Jesus Christ doesn’t do parlor tricks. Jesus rejected that temptation, and by implication, rejected it for His disciples. Jesus did not even save Himself from suffering. Robert Raines writes of the problem of suffering: “There is no answer to that question in any philosophy or religion under the sun, in nothing but Jesus Christ nailed to the cross, and he is the answer, the flesh-and-blood proof that God cares, cares so ...

17. God's Hello People

1 John 1:5--2:14

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... goodbye than hello. With hello you are wary and cool...hello? You don't want to get involved. You are suspicious. You open the door just a chink. But when you say goodbye, you are warm and palsy. So long -- see ya, Buddy -- Take care -- Keep the faith -- Goodbye. Robert Raines from whom I got the image and the title of this sermon, "God's Hello People", says much of the time, we are the goodbye people, fending off intruders from our privacy. We don't want people to get too close. We don't want to be bugged ...

18. A Rod For The Back Of Fools

Proverbs 25:1-28

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... to the world the true meaning and purpose of his life. And through the final disposition of his fortune, he established the most valued and prestigious prizes given to those who have done most for the cause of world peace, the arts and sciences. (Quoted from Robert Raines' "Creative Brooding" in a Sermon by Donald Shelby, "Final Evaluation", November 25, 1990) "Like a dog that returns to its vomit is a fool who reverts to his folly." We are fools we do not learn from our mistakes. It's a vivid image: "rod ...

19. A Not So Simple Story of Demons and Pigs

Luke 8:26-39

Sermon

... ." Her name is legion. A crusading preacher mobilizes an entire community to enact an anti-pornography ordinance, which is why no one is prepared for his arrest on charges of photographing young boys in compromising positions. His name? Rev. Legion. Robert Raines, a marvelous preacher (turned retreat leader), writes: "Remember the medieval method of torture known as `quartering,' wherein a man's arms and legs were tied to four different horses, with each horse commanded to gallop in a different direction ...

20. Like a Good Neighbor, Jesus Is There

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

James Merritt

... is the crooked businessman, who sees customers as dollar signs rather than human beings. Let me give you this definition of a thief. God has given us things to use and people to love. But when you start loving things and using people, you become a thief. Robert Raines, once prayed this prayer that sums up the philosophy of a thief: Lord, I size up other people in terms of what they can do for me; how they can further my program, feed my ego, satisfy my needs, give me strategic advantage. I exploit people ...

21. Climbing the Right Ladder

Genesis 28:10-19a

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

How do you define success? I would like to talk about that today. Robert Raines says, “Success is a moving target. Every time I make my mark, somebody paints the wall,” go the lyrics of a country song. Oliver Wendell Holmes at age 90 said, “The secret to my success is that at an early age, I discovered I was not God.” Ralph Waldo Emerson ...

22. Thanks-Giving Is Good for Everyone

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

David G. Rogne

... at the hills in rapt awe and saying: "Dear God, it's more than we deserve! It's more than we deserve." Those words, I take it, were sincere expressions of gratitude to God. In his inspirational book To Kiss the Joy (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1983, p. 145), Robert Raines tells of a surprise he got when he rounded a bend on a mountain road on a trip to the West. He was enthralled to see a deep blue lake with ranges of pyramid pines stretching for miles beyond. He was taken aback with the beauty of the ...

23. Blow Your Trumpet of Thanksgiving

Illustration

Maxie Dunnam

It was a spectacular fall day when the leaves in the Pennsylvania mountains were at their zenith of color. Robert Raines drove up the mountain road higher and higher with the scenery becoming ever more vast and spectacular. Just as he reached the top of the mountain, he spotted a car parked just off the road. Curious, he stopped. A man was standing about two hundred yards away on the side ...

24. God and the Weather

Matthew 5:45; 16:2-3 · Psalm 18:7-11; 46:1-3, 11

Sermon

Robert Noblett

... is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. (Psalm 46:1-3, 11, KJV) 1. Henry David Thoreau, America the Beautiful in the Words of Henry David Thoreau (Waukesha, Wisconsin: Country Beautiful Corporation, 1966), p. 24. 2. Robert Loveman, "April Rain," Morrison, op. cit., p. 20. 3. Robert Wallace, quoted by Ehrenfeld, op. cit., p. 15. 4. For an excellent discussion of God and the weather, see Leslie Weatherhead, When the Lamp Flickers (New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury, 1948), Chapter XV. 5. Nels F. S. Ferre, Evil ...

25. We Do Not Have To Stay The Way We Are!

Joel 2:1-11

Sermon

Durwood L. Buchheim

... not return to me," says the Lord. "And I also withheld the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest; I would send rain upon another city; one field would be rained upon, and the field on which it did not rain withered; so two or three cities wandered to one city to drink ... in Elie Wiesel’s novel, The Oath, these words, "With every approaching Easter, the Jews tremble." Robert McAfee Brown, professor emeritus at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California, makes these comments ...

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