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Sermon
Brett Blair
Baptism is a powerful force in the life of a Christian for two reasons. It is something we share in common. Christians all over the world can say that they were baptized in Christ. You met a Catholic in Ireland. He was baptized. You met a Pentecostal in Nigeria. She was baptized. The second reason Baptism is a powerful force is that baptism takes us back to the basics. Now let me set these two ide...
Sermon
Richard A. Jensen
Tears streamed down Elmer Johnson’s cheeks as he watched pickup truck after pickup truck drive out of his farmyard ... filled with things he had treasured dearly. It was the day of his auction. Like many other American farmers, Elmer Johnson just could not make ends meet any longer. The farm had been in the family for three generations. First his grandfather and then his father had made their livi...
Sermon
Mark Trotter
I've just returned from a study break, which I spent in a cabin in northern California, back in the woods, all by myself. It was a wonderful time. Some of you have asked me, "Did you do any fishing?" I am really shocked that you would even ask that question. I was there for study, not for fishing. Besides, the river was too muddy to fish. Up there I listened to country western music, because in th...
4. Simple Faith?
Mark 1:9-15
Sermon
John Jamison
It all sounds so simple. It’s just so nice, so easy, and so straightforward; almost comfortable. And we’ve heard the story told so many times that many of us know it by heart. “This John the Baptist guy was standing in the middle of the Jordan River, yelling at people and baptizing them. He was yelling at some of the priests who didn’t like him, when suddenly Jesus stepped out of the crowd, walke...
Sermon
Thomas A. Pilgrim
I have always enjoyed that CBS News segment, "On The Road With Charles Kuralt." He takes us to out-of-the-way places like Bethlehem, Georgia; Farmington, Iowa; and Old Town, Maine. He shows us a piece of Americana, and helps us understand ourselves. So, on the Sundays between now and Easter I want us to go on the road with Jesus of Nazareth be on the roads Jesus traveled in order that we would se...
Sermon
Harry N. Huxhold
The Holy Gospel for this First Sunday in Lent is the evangelist Mark's very brief account of the temptation of Christ. The temptation account may bring to your mind the movie, The Last Temptation of Christ. That movie gained much attention, because many people protested the substance of what was purported to be a possible last temptation of our Lord. The suggested temptation was that on the cross ...
Sermon
Johnny Dean
It was a hot, muggy Friday evening, the last night of Vacation Bible School, and I stood in the parking lot of the church, cooking fish that my father-in-law and I had caught for the big celebration dinner scheduled to begin in just a short time. I didn’t notice the young man who had come up behind me until he spoke. "You the preacher?" he asked. After checking to see if he was armed and dangerou...
Sermon
J. Howard Olds
Christian theologian C.S. Lewis once said that Christianity is a religion that you could not have guessed. It is not the sort of thing that anyone would make up. That the Almighty would humble Himself and become a human being in order to suffer and die on a cross to bring new life to His own creation, well, who would have thought it? How odd of God. Yet, it is here that Christians are distinct fr...
Sermon
Donald B. Strobe
As soon as Jesus was told that He was the Son of God at His baptism, Mark says that “The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.  And he was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan.” (1:12-13) A strange and rather inauspicious way to begin one’s ministry!  And what about this “Satan” business?  Dr.  David Read of New York tells of the old Scottish lady who remarked about her m...
Sermon
Mark Trotter
We have all heard the news of the floods in the Pacific Northwest, and in Northern California. Some of you, I know, were up there and saw them. Floods can be terrible, dangerous and devastating, sweeping away houses and other structures. I understand that Sacramento, which is built at the confluence of two rivers, the Sacramento and the American, almost flooded this time. People anticipated what ...
Sermon
King Duncan
This morning we want to deal with a theme that applies to all of us. Temptation. None of us is too old or too young, too sophisticated or too naive, to escape the tempter. Temptation can lead us into all kinds of problems. For example, the newspapers recently carried a story about an Alabama man who planned to profit from a simple burglary. He entered a house and began clearing out the valuables....
Sermon
King Duncan
Harriett Beecher Stowe was a most successful writer. She achieved her first triumph as an author at the age of twelve. She was a student at Litchfield Academy. With the other Litchfield students she was required to submit an essay at the end of the term. Her essay was awarded first prize by the unanimous vote of the judges and was one of two read at the graduation exercises by the headmaster, John...
Sermon
In the novel Barabbas there is a scene where a woman who lives with the outcasts in the valley of Ge-Hinnom, outside the gates of the city of Jerusalem, waits for sleep at night. She hears the groanings of the sick. She thinks about Jesus and the kingdom he is always talking about. She thinks the next day will bring an end to suffering. Later on in the story, after the death of Jesus, many of his...
Sermon
Arley K. Fadness
"And just as He was coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens torn apart and the spirit descending like a dove on Him. And a voice came from heaven, 'You are my Son, the Beloved: with you I am well pleased.' " Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I tell you a tale of a little village in an isolated land where the people shared a boundless sense of happiness. The people in this village showed only...
15. I Am Sombody!!!
Mark 1:9-13, Mark 1:1-8
Sermon
David E. Leininger
I suspect that, having made it to mid-January, you would say that you have successfully survived the holidays. True? The celebration of our Savior's birth - Christmas; then the New Year; finally the Feast of the Three Kings on January 6th - Epiphany (which for many has become the Feast of Taking Down the Decorations!). This morning I want to suggest that there is one more holiday we should be obse...
16. Power
Mark 1:9-13, Mark 1:1-8
Sermon
David E. Leininger
The Baptism of the Lord. In a former congregation of mine, a Sunday School teacher told me of an incident that happened there some years ago. Two of the young girls in her class - both about nine years old - came to her and said they wanted to be baptized. She was understandably pleased at their desire and told them to go home and talk to their parents about it, then appropriate arrangements could...
Sermon
Maxie Dunnam
Any experience may be perceived differently by those involved. John was an old man and he lay dying. His wife of many years was sitting close by. He opened his eyes for a moment, and saw her and said, “There you are Agnes, at my side again.” She smiled faintly and fluttered her eyes and said, “Yes, dear, here I am.” Then John said, “Looking back, I remember all the times you were at my side. You...
Sermon
Maxie Dunnam
A woman had a weakness for beautiful clothes. She was unable to resist the temptation…to the point of outrageous, extravagant spending. She and her husband had worked on it, and he thought she was doing better. Every time she was drawn to a clothing boutique or a display in a department store window, she would talk to herself, “Don’t do it…don’t do it…remember how much you owe…you don’t need it…...
Sermon
Billy D. Strayhorn
Wasn't the rain last week great? It did so much to refresh the parched ground. It was great but I've got to tell you that it almost caused me to be in an accident. You see, the rain made me lose my focus. You know how it is when you're driving and the first drops hit your windshield. It's not enough to really turn on the wipers but just enough to make it hard to see. And you know if you turn on th...
Sermon
James Merritt
Jesus had a ministry that lasted a little more than three years. Of all the things He could have started His ministry with and ended His ministry with, He started it by being baptized and concluded it by commanding the church to make disciples and baptize others. Now, since baptism was the bookends of the ministry of the Son of God, that alone should tell us that baptism, is a big deal. It is but ...
Sermon
David T. Ball
Do you all have your compasses with you? What? You don’t have compasses? Well, I guess neither do I. How about your watch? Okay! A much better response that time. I have my watch, too — but don’t get your hopes up that I’m planning to keep a closer eye on how long my sermons are taking! I really just wanted to make a point about how much we rely on our watches in comparison to our compasses. And I...
Sermon
Richard Gribble
Once upon a time long ago a young man decided to become a saint. He left his home, family, and possessions and journeyed into the hot sands of the desert where he eventually found a dark cave. He thought, "I can find God here. I will be alone and nothing will disturb me." He prayed day and night in the cave, but God sent him many temptations. He imagined all the good things in life and wanted them...
Sermon
Mike Ripski
I. What Lent is for At his baptism, Jesus heard heaven’s Voice say, “You are my Son, my Beloved; I am very pleased with you.” The Holy Spirit descends upon him to empower Jesus to be who the Voice said he is. But what does it mean to be the Beloved Child of God? Answering that question and living the answer is why the Spirit has driven him into the desert. What does it mean for us to be beloved...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
The moment of our greatest success and achievement, when we are riding the crest of the wave, is also the moment we are most likely to be subjected to the severest temptations, gnawed by our most debilitating insecurities, and seduced into believing the most grandiose visions of our own abilities. In today's text Jesus celebrates perhaps the most exhilarating and confirming episode of his entire ...
Sermon
Billy D. Strayhorn
A kindergarten teacher was suddenly taken ill and a replacement was hastily found. The substitute teacher was at a loss as to what to do with the children. She decided to tell them stories. And always, at the end of each story, she would say, "And the moral of that story is..." After dozens of stories, the children had sat through dozens of morals. The regular teacher recovered from her illness a...
Showing 1 to 25 of 96 results