Sermon and Worship Resources

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John 18:33-37

Sermon

Thomas C. Willadsen

Today is the last day of the church year. The church year starts four Sundays before Christmas, so next week when I wish you all a happy new year, I hope to get a better response than blank stares. The last Sunday of the church is called both “Christ the King” Sunday, and “Reign of Christ” Sunday. This festival goes all the way back to 1925, when Pope Pius XI added it to the calendar. It was set as the last Sunday of the church year in 1970. When I learned this I was a little surprised. I love looking into ...

2. The Big Influence of Small Things

Matthew 13:31-35

Children's Sermon

Brett Blair

... plants and becomes a tree, so that birds of the air come and perch in its branches.” Imagine that. A little seed smaller than a BB grows up to be a ten foot high tree. How does that happen? (response) Can you name something else that’s small but has a lot ... very important? (response) Jesus said the kingdom of heaven is like a small seed from a mustard plant. It’s smaller than a BB but when it grows it becomes like a tree. The kingdom of Heaven may seem small and unimportant but the kingdom of heaven ...

3. Wondering Wonder

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... is A Christmas Story. This is the tale of one boy's 1940's Christmas when his biggest dream was to get a Red Ryder BB gun. Yet since this movie is told from the child's perspective the most remarkable, memorable events of that magical time are seemingly small and ... the flag pole, a new decoder ring, Christmas dinner in a Chinese restaurant, and of course, getting that longed-for BB gun. These childish things that created an atmosphere of wonder around the entire Christmas season transformed every common event ...

4. The Right Connection

John 15:1-8

Sermon

James Merritt

... how to get down. Well eventually, Larry drifted into the approach corridor for the Los Angeles International Airport. A Pan Am pilot radioed the tower and said, "You won't believe this, but I've just passed a guy in a lawn chair at eleven thousand feet with a BB gun in his lap." Now LAX is right on the ocean, and at nightfall the winds along the coast begin to change. Those winds began to carry Larry out to sea. Well, at that point, the Navy dispatched a helicopter to rescue him, but the rescue team had a ...

5. A New Perspective

Illustration

Staff

... of his friends tied the now helium-filled balloons. He took along a six-pack of beer, a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich, and a BB gun, figuring he could shoot the balloons one at a time when he was ready to land. Walters, who assumed the balloons would lift him ... Mickelson said after he stopped laughing. "The guy just filled up the balloons with helium, strapped on a parachute, grabbed a BB gun and took off." The man was identified as Larry Walters, 33 years old, of North Hollywood. He was not injured. ...

6. Communion Is Realizing Forgiveness

Matthew 26:17-30

Sermon

... therefore God is no longer seeking to even the score. He is no longer seeking vengeance. Now he's seeking to help us realize forgiveness! Let me illustrate: An elderly pastor was watching several children play in his yard when he noticed one of them with a BB gun pointed toward his livingroom window. The next thing he heard was the shattering of glass; then all the children ran away. Pastor Jamison had the window replaced the very next day. It wasn't long before he learned the identity of the child who had ...

7. Past / Future

Mark 1:35-39, Mark 1:29-34

Drama

Robert F. Crowley

... . Always trying to get out of work. I never saw anyone as lazy as you. Why, if you worked for me I'd fire you. Now get that job done. LEO: I'll do it. I said I'd do it and I'll do it, all right? POPPA: Listen, BB brain, I said stick to a job until it's finished. Why, when I was a boy I was working two jobs by the Time I was your age. At least you can do one job right. JOEL: I think it must be the new responsibility, Leo. Now, we all ...

8. A Theology of Work - Labor Day

Deuteronomy 5:1-33

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... . ENJOY THEM, and glorify God in the process...especially on a holiday called Labor Day. Amen! 1. Quoted by Samuel Trumbore, http://www.cyberstreet.com/trumbore/sermons/s891.htm 2. Historical background courtesy of the Online Newshour, http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/business/september96/labor_day_9-2.html 3. Genesis 2:15 4. Genesis 3:16-19a 5. M. Eugene Boring, "The Gospel of Matthew," The New Interpreter's Bible, CD-ROM, (Nashville: Abingdon, 1998) 6. Deuteronomy 23:25 7. William Barclay, The Daily Study ...

9. "Wow!"

Mark 9:2-13

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... with the webbing and the rivets, the kind most of us have. One day Larry hooked 45 helium-filled surplus weather balloons to his chair, put a CB radio in his lap, tied a paper bag full of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to his leg, and slung a BB-gun over his shoulder to pop the balloons when he wanted to come down. He lifted off in his lawn chair expecting to climb a couple of hundred feet over his neighborhood. But instead he shot up 11,000 feet right through the approach corridor to the Los Angeles ...

10. The Big Influence of Small Things

Matthew 13:31-35

Children's Sermon

Brett Blair

... planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all the seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that birds of the air come and perch in its branches." Imagine that. A little seed smaller than a BB grows up to be a ten-foot high tree. How does that happen? (response) Can you name something else that's small but has a lot of power? (response) I have here in my hand a glass with some kind of drink. What kind of drink is it? (response) And ...

11. The Empire Strikes Back

Jude 1:14-15

Sermon

James Merritt

... botched a robbery in California; came out of that bank with AK-47s blazing; they were covered with body armor from the top of their neck to the soles of their feet. The nine millimeter bullets fired by the police officers were bouncing off of them like BBs. It took over an hour, seven wounded policemen, and three wounded civilians, before these men were finally shot and killed. Just this past summer there was a fight at Madison Square Garden and a boxing match broke out. If a verdict doesn’t go a certain ...

12. Stumbling in Darkness, Looking for Light

Isaiah 9:1-7, John 1:5

Sermon

John E. Harnish

... old enough to remember with me growing up in the 50's. If you don't remember it, just watch one of the favorite movies of the season, The Christmas Story, and you will pretty much know what it was like. By the way, I never had a Red Ranger BB gun. I am sure my mother thought I would blow my eye out. I remember the first Christmas we had a television set. As I remember, the picture was always "snowy"—fuzzy figures in black and white on simple stage sets. Someone who remembers those days with me will ...

13. Temptation Can Ruin You

Mark 1:9-15; Luke 4:1-13

Illustration

... but notice, however, that a competitor's bid was on the purchasing agent's desk. Unfortunately, the actual figure was covered by a can of juice. The temptation to see the amount quoted became too much, so the salesman lifted the can. His heart sank as he watched thousands of BB's pour from the bottomless can and scatter across the floor.

14. I’M with the I AM

1 John 5:14-15

Sermon

James Merritt

... a couple of Christmases that I asked my dad for a gun, so I could go hunting with him. Now my dad always intended to give me a gun, but he loved enough not to give me the gun until I was ready for it, so first I got a bb gun and then I got a small bore 22 caliber rifle. It wasn't until later I was able to use the shot gun. You see, God not only knows what is best, God knows when it is best. Sometimes God's answer may be different. How true it is ...

15. Working Together with One Heart and One Mind

Illustration

Staff

I've never lifted a barn, but Herman Ostry, a farmer in Bruno, Nebraska has. Shortly after buying a piece of land and a barn, a nearby creek rose, and the barn was under twenty nine inches of water. He half-jokingly said to his family, "I bet if we had enough people, we could pick up that barn and carry it to higher ground." To his surprise, one of his sons, Mike, started thinking about it, and by counting the number of boards, timbers, and nails, he estimated that the barn weighed about 19,000 pounds. ...

16. Discover the Promise of Christmas

Matthew 3:1-12

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... is forget. So we come to worship, we come to the programs at Church and in our families, we watch old movies like It's A Wonderful Life, Scrooged, A Christmas Carol, National Lampoon's Family Christmas Vacation and A Christmas Story with Ralphie and the Red Ryder BB Gun. We even watch some the TV specials trying to recapture that elusive feeling. We come with longing. We come to the Advent season hoping that God will once again meet us face to face while we're bent over the manger cradle making goo goo eyes ...

17. Follow Your Mission (Series: An Invitation to Christian Discipleship)

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... 45 helium-filled, surplus, weather balloons to his old lawn chair. He tied a 6-pack of beer to one leg, some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to the other, put on a parachute, hung a CB radio to his belt, and sat down in his lawn chair with a BB gun in his lap so he could pop the balloons when he wanted to come down. Larry thought he would go up about 200 feet. Instead, he shot up 11,000 feet, right through an approach corridor of the Los Angeles International Airport. When Larry finally shot out enough ...

18. Are You Paying Too Much For Your Whistle?

Galatians 1:11-24

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... make me happy forever. I never got it. But the things we did save up for and get as a kid? How’d that work for you? Did life’s earliest purchases always work out well? The ninja warrior “action figure” doesn’t actually DO anything. Bummer. The BB gun jams and never fires again after the first six shots. Bummer. The sea monkeys float in the water for a minute then sink into the silt never to be seen again. Bummer. Benjamin Franklin never forgot the first purchase he ever made. It was a tin whistle ...

19. Loving Our Enemies, Christian or Crazy?

Matthew 5:43-47

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... us have seen the enemy. They are the people we have hurt. The enemy is us. Regrets, I have had a few. How about you? Sometimes I slip and fall, give in to some temptation and people get hurt. For a long time I used bombs to settle conflicts when BB guns would have been sufficient. Ambition can blind me to the needs of others. While I believe in forgiving and being forgiven, I have had to realize that I am not in charge of other people's forgiveness of me. When I have practiced Matthew 18 to the best of ...

20. Set Apart at Christmas

Romans 1:1-7

Sermon

John N. Brittain

... not sure whether Baby Jesus was much on my mind the Christmas right after I turned six, but that Lionel HO gauge double-diesel locomotive electric train with realistic horn was on my mind quite a bit. I am happy to report that, like Ralphie's Red Ryder BB gun, the train was there on Christmas morning. (I am also happy to report that unlike the Parkers in that 1983 film, we were never reduced to having Christmas dinner in a Chinese restaurant.) The truth is, I would have to be really old to remember such a ...

21. Have a Jolly Imperfect Christmas This Year!

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Some Christmas’s stay forever in our hearts and minds because they were so beautiful, so magical, so perfect. You got your Red Ryder BB gun or Malibu Barbie. The time the Christmas pageant went off without a hitch. The year when everyone got to come home. A blanket of snow on Christmas Eve draped everything in white and wonder. But other Christmas’s are forever etched in our memories because they were so IMPERFECT. ...

22. Glimpses of God

Matthew 17:1-13

Illustration

John Bedingfield

... make me want to hold them and to tell them how beautiful they are. But when I saw my own children as babies, they made me want to be a better person, so that I could be what they deserved as a father. These glimpses of God, whether Chet Atkins, BB King, or babies, call us to alter our lives and to begin to see and do things differently.

23. The Really Big Sale

Matthew 4:1-11

Illustration

Mickey Anders

... it out in plain sight, almost. After wrestling with himself a while, he finally decided to take a peek. As he lifted the soda can, he discovered that the can wasn't filled with soda at all. Instead it was a bottomless can filled with 1,000 BBs which gushed out, and ran all over the desk and cascaded onto the carpet. His attempt to short cut the competition was exposed. Not every temptation is so obvious. Not every failure is so embarrassing. But every temptation is a challenge. Not even Jesus was spared the ...

24. The Bridge at Sychar

John 4:1-26

Sermon

David O. Bales

... that humans need a sense of dignity. We’re created with it, and without it we feel, if not act, like we and others are without value. Pulitzer Prize winning author Alice Walker tells that, when she was eight, she was shot in the eye with a BB gun and that eye was blinded. Besides being blind, the injury caused a permanent, messy scar in her eye. She instantly went from being a bright, happy child to a miserable one, taunted by other children and feeling wretched. For the next six years, she says, she ...

25. Something is About to Happen!

John 1:1-14

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... for Christmas to happen, what are we expecting to happen? Some of you here tonight are expecting to receive that one gift that you have been bugging your parents for since September. Like the boy in the movie, “A Christmas Story” who yearns for a Red Rider BB gun, you have done everything in your power to influence, connive, and manipulate your parents to get you that one gift that is essential to your health and growth as a human being. And if you don’t get it, your parents will just have to live ...

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