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1. He Abides In Us
John 15:1-17
Sermon
Harry N. Huxhold
John Updike once more revealed his remarkably brilliant powers of description in the novel Brazil. Updike shares his uncanny ability to portray the setting and landscape that surround his characters in order to highlight their nature and their roles. However, Updike's greatest gift is the manner in which he is able to crawl inside the characters to reveal their restless and frantic struggles to ...
Sermon
Jerry L. Schmalemberger
Jesus had just told the disciples that “he is the vine and they are the branches.” To disciples Jesus is speaking. The very people he chose to be with him those three years of his ministry are the ones who hear these words. While they are wondering how they got into this mess, our Lord assures them they didn’t choose him, he chose them! “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in yo...
Sermon
Jerry L. Schmalemberger
Just outside Nazareth where Jesus grew up you can see them on both sides of the road. They grow everywhere out of that dry, rocky soil. They are the grapevines mentioned in John 15. When I stepped off the tourist bus to take pictures, I was amazed to see these short stumps of vines lying over close to the ground and propped up with a rock to keep them off the hot red soil. I had pictured in my min...
4. Abide In Me
John 15:1-17
Sermon
Richard A. Jensen
Once upon a time there lived a man whose nickname was Mr. Will Power. As you might expect, Mr. Will Power had an iron will. He could do anything he set his mind to. He was the champion of mind over matter. People loved to challenge his powers of will. One of the ways he first caught people’s attention was his ability to withstand hot and cold. They dared him to walk through a bed of fiery coals. T...
Sermon
Richard A. Jensen
"Remember who you are, Dick," my Dad would say. "You are a Jensen. You have a family name to live up to." I did not get that speech too often when I was young. I got it often enough, however. It usually came at very strategic times like when I went out on my first date, or got the family car, or left home for the first time. "Remember who you are." My Dad believed, and I think he was right, that h...
Sermon
Eric Ritz
Today, we bring to a close our series on the seven "I am . . ." statements found in the gospel according to Saint John. As we have learned, these claims were deeply rooted in the Old Testament. As a matter of fact John uses the name of God revealed to Moses at the burning bush. When Moses was on the mountain, God spoke to him from the bush and said, "I am who I am. This is what you are to say to t...
Sermon
Robert Noblett
Jesus describes the community gathered in his name -- and that would be all of us -- using the imagery of the vine. We, individually, are the various branches of the vine. Jesus is, as John describes him, "the true vine." And God is the vinegrower. Jesus is shaped and empowered by God, and we -- as branches -- are shaped, empowered, and nourished by the presence of the risen Christ. We are strong...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
Disciples of Jesus are "commanded" to build grace-based communities of joy, forgiveness and love. The ability of Madison Avenue to make the profound seem trivial while transforming the trivial into the profound is wickedly wondrous. Of course, that really is the whole goal of advertising to make whatever you are selling, no matter how trivial, appear at that moment to be the most important conside...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
William Shakespeare may be the second most quoted source in the history of English literature. You know what the most quoted source still is . .. The Bible. What you may not know is that every day Shakespeare scholarship adds to the pile an average of 8.8 articles and books. I don’t know what biblical scholarship adds every day to the pile of knowledge, but I suspect it’s much, much more than that...
Sermon
Billy D. Strayhorn
I don't remember where I found this quote but Bishop Fulton J. Sheen once asked a missionary from one of the islands in the Pacific which was the greatest virtue of the people whom he helped there. The Missionary answered, "I can tell you their greatest virtue in terms of what they regard as their greatest vice, namely 'Kai-Po,' which is the sin of eating alone." According to the missionary,...
Sermon
Maxie Dunnam
Back in 1981, the attention of the world was focused on the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana. My wife, an almost hopeless romantic, (I really praise God for that) became tremendously involved in that event. We were traveling when the wedding took place, and I remember she stayed up almost all night in a hotel room where we were, watching the live television presentation. She also read all ...
Sermon
Maxie Dunnam
A certain society matron took a course in First Aid. A few days after completing the course, she was an on-the-spot witness of a bad auto accident. Occupants of the car were thrown out by the impact and lay seriously wounded on the street. Later, describing the accident to a friend, the matron said, “It was awful, awful — and it happened so fast, right there in front of me. Tires squealed, breaks...
Sermon
James Merritt
It is amazing how valuable a vine can be. The vines, like the ones we saw here at Chateau Elan bring in $40 billion of business a year in the United States. Americans this past year bought 267 million cases and drank 800 million gallons of its fruit and that number increases every year. Wineries and vineyards are the second most popular tourist attraction in California after Disneyland. The Un...
14. What a Friend
John 15:9-17
Sermon
John Jamison
In your mind, I’d like you to picture a good friend. It may be a current friend or one from the past. Just take a moment, think of a good friend, and picture them in your mind’s eye. Can you see them? When did you first meet them? How did they become a friend? Let’s leave your friend hanging around for a few minutes; we’ll come back to them later. They are going to help us make sense of the scrip...
15. Chosen
John 15:1-17
Sermon
David G. Rogne
It is a difficult thing not to be chosen. I can still remember what a relief it was to be appointed by the teacher as one of the two captains who would choose team members when our class would be divided for softball. It meant that I would be, in effect, the first one to be chosen. What agony it was, however, when others were doing the choosing. As an uncoordinated youngster, with very little to o...
16. Easter Joy
John 15:1-17
Sermon
Harry N. Huxhold
A remarkable feature of Dwight D. Eisenhower's memoirs is the composure with which he greeted crises. He titled his autobiography At Ease, an appropriate description for not only his retirement, but the manner in which he appeared to be on top of life. Colleagues, of course, could recall how excited he could get in revealing his impatience with mediocrity and the failures of the people in his comm...
Sermon
King Duncan
Welcome on this Mother’s Day. For Mother’s Day I ran across a list of suggestions for improving communication in the family that I thought you might enjoy: 1. If you have tiny children who won’t give you their attention, simply place a long‑distance telephone call to somebody important, preferably their grandmother. Your toddlers will immediately climb up on your lap and become all ears. 2. If y...
Sermon
King Duncan
Today we honor our moms. Not everybody can be a mom, but everyone at some time in their life has had a mom, and at that time our mom was the most important person in our world. Some of us had moms who made great sacrifices in our behalf. We are profoundly grateful for that. So today we honor our moms. It’s not easy being a mom. Here are some examples of some mothers and things they could have sai...
Sermon
King Duncan
It helps to have connections. Everybody knows it’s true. It’s not what you know, the cynic says, but WHO you know that makes a difference. Unfortunately in some regards that’s true. In this competitive world where it is so difficult to land a job, it does pay to know somebody who can help you on your way. Oh, your mother’s friend is president of a company? Good for you. Being connected may not hel...
Sermon
King Duncan
A little boy watched, fascinated, as his mother gently rubbed cold cream on her face. “Why are you rubbing cold cream on your face, mommy?” he asked. “To make myself beautiful,” said his mother. A few minutes later, she began removing the cream with a tissue. “What’s the matter?” he asked. “Are you giving up?” Welcome on this Mother’s Day. It’s not easy being a Mom. Those of you who have childr...
21. Bearing Fruit
John 15:1-17
Sermon
King Duncan
The Associated Press carried a story from New York sometime back that I thought was interesting. Let me read part of it. "The author of the best-selling book How to Make Love to a Woman pleaded guilty to punching his former girlfriend in the face. `We had a heated argument and for one second I lost control,' Michael Morgenstern said of the incident in which he hit his former girlfriend, 22-year-o...
Sermon
King Duncan
Some of you may know the story of Dawson Trotman, founder of the Navigators, an organization originally begun with the goal of reaching men serving in the Navy. Trotman began to meet with a Navy man named Les Spencer, teaching him basic truths from the Bible. After a while, Spencer brought a friend from the ship to Trotman and said, "Dawson, I want you to teach him all you have taught me." Trotman...
Sermon
King Duncan
There are many legends in many cultures concerning how certain flowers came into existence. Germany has a legend which tells about the origin of the primrose. Apparently Saint Peter once heard a rumor that some wayward souls were trying to slip into the back door of heaven rather than entering through the Pearly Gates. Saint Peter got so upset by this that he dropped his keys; whereupon they fell ...
Sermon
King Duncan
In one of the PEANUTS cartoons, a little girl calls Charlie Brown on the telephone. "Marcie and I are about to leave for camp, Chuck," she says. "We're going to be swimming instructors." Marcie takes the phone and adds: "We just called to say goodbye, Charles. We are going to miss you. We love you." The perennial loser Charlie Brown stands by the phone with a grin on his face. One little friend ...
Sermon
James W. Moore
Rosemary Brown is a highly respected minister in Tennessee. She has been featured a number of times on The Protestant Hour National Radio Broadcast. She tells a story about a little girl in her church named Mickey. Mickey is four years old. She is a precious, adorable, out-going little girl who loves to sing. One Sunday morning, Mickey ran down to the front of the Sanctuary just before the start ...
Showing 1 to 25 of 87 results