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Sermon
Lee Griess
There is a road in southern Italy that begins in the city of Eboli and ends in the mountain village of Gagliano. To anyone who makes that journey, it is an ascent to hell. Gagliano is no more than a scattered cluster of fallen down whitewashed old buildings, hanging desperately to barren slopes near a rocky cliff. The village has been there for centuries and for as far back as the oldest person...
Sermon
Thomas Long
Stashed away in a drawer somewhere around my house, now nearly forgotten, is a batch of old 45 rpm records from the '50s and early '60s. Worn and scratchy, long since outmoded by the flashy digital technology of compact discs, these primitive vinyls were once the jewels of a great treasure trove. Elvis' grinding out "Hound Dog," Buddy Holly and the Crickets' hiccuping "Peggy Sue," Chuck Berry's jo...
3. A Farewell Gift
John 14:15-31
Sermon
John M. Braaten
I have never liked saying "goodbye," it always elicits feelings of finality. So I say other things like, "See you!" or "Hope to see you sometime." Most of the time I like quick goodbyes. However, when a loved one leaves there are no formalities. We embrace, sometimes through tears. It is not uncommon to cast out cliches, often with a bit of humor, to lighten the atmosphere. But in the end the word...
Sermon
Mark Ellingsen
Jesus was still in the middle of his farewell discourse to his disciples. He was trying to comfort the despair that they were feeling when they had first heard the news (during the last supper) that Jesus would be leaving them (John 13:21, 33; 14:1). He had comforted them with the good news that he was on the way to God the Father, that in associating with Jesus, the disciples had been in fellowsh...
Sermon
Carl Jech
But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. (John 14:26) If you have visited the Kremlin in Moscow, one of the things that probably sticks in your memory is the tomb of Lenin. I have heard visitors comment that the emphasis on tombs and monuments in the Soviet Union almost makes i...
Sermon
Kendall McCabe
"Sometimes I feel like a motherless chile," the weary black slave would sing to the hot southern night, giving expression to the condition of having been taken from home and family and subjected to the power of death. Although none of us has known the bitterness of that dehumanizing experience, the sung lament has surely expressed our own agony of soul from time to time, as we confront isolation a...
Sermon
Thomas Long
Many of you probably have stashed away in a drawer somewhere around your home the old 45 rpm records. If you have some from the 50s and early 60s you will have Elvis' grinding out "Hound Dog," Buddy Holly and the Crickets' hiccupping "Peggy Sue," Chuck Berry's joyful hot licks in "Maybellene," the Coasters' slapstick tour de force "Charlie Brown," the mournful "Tears On My Pillow" by Little Anthon...
Sermon
Text - John 14:31a ... "I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father." Billy Graham, preaching in Australia, told the story of a Baptist who wandered into an Episcopalian church for worship. He was amazed at all the standing up, kneeling, and sitting down that went on during the service. But he was so pleased that the sermon was the same joyful gospel. Thr...
Sermon
O. Garfield Beckstrand, II
This week two thoughts were foremost in my mind. One thought was quite normal for a preacher as well as a basic necessity. What shall I emphasize Sunday morning when I am using for my text the words of Jesus which he spoke on his last night upon earth to his disciples? "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you ..." The other thought was quite different. I remembered that 31 years ago last We...
Sermon
O. Garfield Beckstrand, II
Easter is the greatest of all holidays. It is the greatest because it celebrates the most outstanding event which ever happened in this world. There has been nothing in all history which has been more significant, more meaningful to people than Christ’s victory over death. Today marks the birthday of our eternal hope. Today is the anniversary of the victory of the human soul over death. It was on ...
Sermon
Donald B. Strobe
English mystery writer Dorothy Sayers was also a lay theologian in the Church of England. In one of her books she discussed the difficulty a missionary to the Orient had in trying to explain the Trinity. As you know, one of the symbols for the Holy Spirit is a descending dove. The Oriental gentleman, lost in the maze of theology, said: "Honorable Father I understand. Honorable Son I understand. Ho...
Sermon
Maxie Dunnam
Preaching is an awesome responsibility - to mount a pulpit and proclaim God’s word.  I remember my first visit to China in 1979. The Bamboo Curtain was just being drawn a bit. Miraculous things have happened since then, as you very well know. But back then you couldn’t meet publicly with Christians - so, on my trip we met in secret. I remember being with three couples in a hotel room in Beijing. I...
Sermon
Maxie Dunnam
Introduction to Scripture: In Chapters 14, 15, and 16 of John’s Gospel, there are telling and descriptive words of Jesus about the Holy Spirit. Since this is Pentecost Sunday, the occasion on our Christian calendar when we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the Church, I’m again leaping ahead in my preaching through this Gospel to consider these power-packed words of John conce...
Sermon
Frank Ramirez
Imagine the wind rushing through an open door while the roar of the propeller in an aging old Ford Trimotor airplane rattles in your ears. You can smell the smoke from a raging fire hundreds of feet below. You are dressed in thick, padded clothing, wearing an old-fashioned football helmet with a jury-rigged grille in front of your face making it hard to breathe — that is, if it weren't alread...
Sermon
Robert Leslie Holmes
These words were spoken just hours before the greatest act of love in world history, the death on a cross of God's incarnate Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He died in our place so that everyone who believes on him (Mark you, not in, but on him -- and there is a difference. To believe in something can be seen as nothing more than an exercise of intellectual assent for we remember that we are told, "Ev...
Sermon
Mark Trotter
The reason the title of this sermon is, "The Paraclete Is Not a Bird," is because I never met a pun I didn't use. But it needs explanation. A parakeet, you know. It's a cute, little bird. But the word "paraclete" is probably a word you are not familiar with. It is a rather esoteric word. It is a technical term found mostly in the 14th chapter of the Gospel of John. We read only a portion of that c...
Sermon
Richard Gribble
The name Robert Stroud is not one commonly heard in ordinary conversation, but this man's contribution to humanity will live on in the minds of many under a different title, "The Birdman of Alcatraz." By nature, Robert Stroud was not a congenial man. As a youth he was always getting into fights, disagreements, and various altercations. When he was only nineteen he killed a man in a barroom brawl, ...
18. The S-factor
John 14:23-29
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
It is not as the world gives that Christ gives to us. The Holy Spirit is the difference that makes all the difference in the world. Thursday nights just haven't been the same. Ever since "Cheers" finally died and went to TV-heaven (syndicated reruns), Thursday nights have been different. For 11 wonderful years, "Cheers" captured the imagination of an entire country. Why was "Cheers" one of the g...
Sermon
Maurice A. Fetty
And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another counselor, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him; you know him, for he dwells with you, and will be in you. — John 14:16-17 The truth is hard to find these days. Perhaps it has been hard to find in any day. Do you remember ancient Diogenes who walked about ...
Sermon
Robert C. Cochran
This is the day of Pentecost, when we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit. In honor of this, I decided to not prepare a sermon today. Instead, I’m just going to stand here and let the Holy Spirit tell me what to say. Uh.... As Christians, we are not to become empty-headed ventriloquist dummies sitting on the Holy Spirit’s lap: we need to continue to use our God-given minds. Some would disagree ...
21. Close Enough For Comfort
Psalm 23:4, John 14:15-18
Sermon
Billy D. Strayhorn
A little girl asked her father if he was afraid of the dark. He told her no. She asked if he was afraid of snakes. He said "No." The little girl asked if he was afraid of long, slimy worms. Her father again told her he wasn't afraid, not even of long, slimy worms. The girl thought for a moment and then concluded, "So, then, the only thing you're afraid of is Mom!" (1) We laugh but there are certa...
Sermon
Mike Ripski
Mary Ann Bird has writes this story from her childhood. It’s entitled, “The Whisper Test.” I grew up knowing I was different, and I hated it. I was born with a cleft palate, and when I started school, my classmates made it clear to me how I must look to others: a girl with a misshapen lip, crooked nose, lopsided teeth and garbled speech. “When schoolmates would ask, ‘What happened to your lip?’ ...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
A good rule of thumb, as you go through life, is this: vow never to eat anything that calls itself "processed." When I was a kid we used to refer to those staples of mom's lunch box meals as "plastic meat and rubber cheese" sandwiches. You know, mysterious paper-thin "processed" meat slices combined with those perfectly square, individually wrapped "processed" cheese slices. Remember them? It is ...
24. The Legacy of Jesus
John 14:8-17 (25-27)
Sermon
David E. Leininger
A certain widow expected to inherit all her late husband's wealth. Instead, she learned from the lawyer that her husband had left her $5. Everything else went to his secretary. Naturally the widow was furious. She drove to the tombstone establishment and ordered that the inscription on her husband's monument be changed. "I'm sorry," said the man doing the chiseling, "you told me to inscribe ‘Rest...
Sermon
Arley K. Fadness
On this Pentecost Sunday, as we celebrate the birthday of the church, I want to teach you a simple and yet potentially powerful prayer. It goes like this ... "Veni, Spiritus Sanctus, Veni," or as the Germans would say it, "Komm Heiliger Geist, Herre Gott." In English it is simply, "Come, Holy Spirit, come." There is no prayer in German, Greek, English, Swahilli, or Latin more powerful than this —...
Showing 1 to 25 of 73 results