Zoom
Showing 1 to 25 of 40 results
Sermon
Donald Macleod
First Series Up-Dating Out-Dated "Holy"After this Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, which is the Sea of Tiberias. And a multitude followed him, because they saw the signs which he did on those who were diseased. Jesus went up on the mountain, and there sat down with his disciples. Now the Passover, the feast of the Jews, was at hand. Lifting up his eyes, then, and seeing that a m...
Sermon
Richard Patt
"Where can we buy enough food to feed all these people?" (v. 5b) A minister was making a home visit to one of the younger families in his parish. A five-year-old boy answered the front door and told the minister his mother would be there shortly. To make some conversation, the minister asked the little guy what he would like to be when he grows up. The boy immediately answered, "I’d like to be pos...
Sermon
Stephen M. Crotts
There is a certain rock known as a geode. From the outside it is but a dull-looking stone. Yet crack it open and one discovers a breathtaking array of crystals in a hollow core.  I feel like I'm holding an uncracked geode in my hands when I look at a Bible text. I know there is a powerful blessing in the passage. It must simply be opened to the light by preaching.  So to the text, the story of the...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
A child saved the day for Jesus. Could it be that our children save the day for us? Is it time for us to sit at the feet of our children? Meet a 5-year-old girl named Megan. Like many kids her age for generations before her, Megan was terrified of a monster that lived under her bed. What to do? But unlike any previous generation before her, Megan did something about the monster under her bed...
5. Small Saves
John 6:1-15
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
A box came in the mail the other day. It was a surprise free gift from the local power company. Or I should say two free gifts. The power company sent every one of their customers a new “low flow” showerhead, designed to cut down on water usage, but still feel like a real shower. The second free gift was four of those new curly-q fluorescent light bulbs, the kind that last longer and use less elec...
6. King By Force
John 6:1-15
Sermon
Robert Salzgeber
"A large crowd followed (Jesus), because they had seen his miracles of healing the sick." Notice the crowd's condition for following Jesus. There is an angel. He was able to heal sick people, therefore they followed. There was one more reason why Jesus would have been somewhat reticent about openly sharing miracles, signs and wonders. He did not wish people to follow him simply because he was able...
Sermon
George W. Hoyer
The crowd gathered because they saw the signs Jesus was doing for the sick. Another sign was the meal for the thousands. But among the thousands there were different interpretations of that sign. Some said it showed that Jesus was the long-awaited prophet God had promised Israel. Others said it showed that in any election Jesus would be a shoe-in for king. Outdated political bumper stickers are, ...
Sermon
Eric Ritz
Some children wrote letters to their pastor: Dear Pastor, I know God loves everybody but He never met my sister. Yours sincerely, Arnold. Age 8, Nashville. Dear Pastor, Please say in your sermon that Peter Peterson has been a good boy all week. I am Peter Peterson. Sincerely, Pete. Age 9, Phoenix Dear Pastor, My father should be a minister. Every day he gives us a sermon about something. Robert...
Sermon
King Duncan
One Saturday Ken Erickson’s wife cleaned out leftovers from the refrigerator. She gave the one remaining portion of tortellini to their 6-year-old son, Jeremy. Their 8-year-old son, Matthew, also wanted some, so bickering ensued. After several unsuccessful attempts to mediate the dispute, Ken decided on a theological approach. Hoping to convince Jeremy to share his portion with Matthew, he said, “...
Sermon
James Merritt
I heard about a young preacher who was going to preach his very first sermon, and he was going to preach from the text that I will be preaching on this morning. As he introduced it he said, "I want to talk to you about how Jesus fed five men with five thousand loaves of bread and two thousand fish." Well, there was a man in the church that loved to intimidate preachers and he jumped up and said, ...
Sermon
King Duncan
Approaching 40, Bill yearned for a boat. Frugality won out until the day he came across the obituary of an old high-school classmate named Ted. Ted had been the same age as Bill and now he was dead. Bill was certain this was a sign that life was too short. So he went out and purchased a boat that very weekend. Days later, a former classmate called Bill. "Sure was a sad thing, wasn't it?" the clas...
Sermon
King Duncan
The Rev. Thomas Bandy tells about a meeting his wife Lynne, also a pastor, once attended. The meeting was sponsored by a group in their denomination. To begin this meeting, they had a customary sharing time. Each person answered the question: “How did you experience God this summer?” “Several people in the room told how they had experienced God in nature. At the cottage, in the woods, or on the l...
Sermon
King Duncan
I heard about a man recently in Minnesota who clearly needs to choose another profession. His name is Rafiq Abdul Mortland. Mortland had committed a string of robberies, and fortunately for him, he was eventually caught. I say fortunately, because during his crime spree, Mortland received the nickname, “The Rolaids Robber.” The reason he received this nickname was that, while he was robbing their ...
Sermon
King Duncan
An old prospector came into a saloon in frontier California and ordered a glass of milk with a shot of whiskey in it. While the bartender was fixing his drink, the old prospector wandered over to speak to some of his friends. Before he came back, a man came in wearing a black threadbare coat. He walked up to the bartender and timidly said, "Sir, I'm a poor traveling Methodist circuit rider. I've ...
Sermon
Billy D. Strayhorn
Out in the Holston Conference of the United Methodist Church in Tennessee, there is a young man by the name of Matthew LeSage. He is now in college but for two years he was the President of the CCYM. What makes Matthew so remarkable is that when he was a fifth-grader, he decided he wanted to do something to help the hungry in his city. So, he started a program, Hams for the Hungry. In 2003, Hams f...
Sermon
James Merritt
Is there anybody here under pressure? Do you ever feel like you live in a pressure cooker? Did you know that it takes longer to cook food at high altitudes, because at high altitudes the air pressure is much lower than in the lower plains? Because of that the boiling point of water is lower, and therefore it takes much longer to cook food. But in a pressure cooker high pressures are built up with...
Sermon
Billy D. Strayhorn
Paul Harvey told about a 3-year-old boy who went to the grocery store with his mother. Before they entered she had certain instructions for the little boy: "Now you're not going to get any chocolate chip cookies, today, so don't even ask." She put him in the cart and off they went up and down the aisles. He was doing just fine until they came to the cookie section. Seeing all those chocolate chip...
Sermon
Robert Leslie Holmes
Apart from the resurrection, this miracle of the feeding of the multitude alone excites all the gospel writers so that none of them feels the gospel story is complete without it. An exciting missionary adventure is crushed by John the Baptist's death, and Jesus and his disciples retired across Galilee. It was the backdrop for an incredibly timeless human story. Of all the gospel writers, only John...
Sermon
Ron Lavin
There are two stories in John 6:1-21 -- the feeding of the 5,000 and Jesus walking on water during a storm on the Sea of Galilee. These two stories answer two important questions. First, when does 5 + 2 x 1 = 12? Mathematically, never. But in the story of the feeding of the 5,000, the multiplication formula works just like that: five loaves of barley bread, plus two small fish, times Jesus, the o...
Sermon
King Duncan
Father Jerry Fuller once told a story about a young couple in North Carolina who were set to open their own restaurant. All that was needed was the final health inspection and the issuing of their business permit. They were scheduled to receive the permit the next day. This occurred in September, 1989. The couple named their little restaurant “Our Place” and they were excited--as you might imagine...
Sermon
The Rev. Paul Brunner tells a wonderful story about a young man named Jeff. Jeff learned one Sunday morning that his church was holding a picnic that afternoon. He hurried home from church to pack his lunch and get to the picnic grounds. But, lo and behold, when he opened the refrigerator door, he discovered only a single piece of dried up bologna and two stale pieces of bread (one of them a heel)...
Sermon
James Merritt
Without question, I can tell you what my absolute, all time, favorite meal is. It is so special that I only get to eat it once a year. It is so special, and so good, and so tasty that it is worth the wait. It is not just what I get to eat that makes it the most special meal of the year, but who I get to eat it with. It is the time of year I get to eat it and it is the occasion that brings me to th...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
Want to attract young, floundering, post-high school people to a life of faith, fulfillment, and commitment? Would your first thought be to offer that age group a solid set of "divine directives" aka "Four Spiritual Laws?" Probably not. Unless you were Bill Bright in 1952, when he offered that gleaming, golden nugget of insight to a new generation of spiritual seekers. But the "laws" Bill Bright ...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
I confess. . . . I'm a big Martha Stewart fan. My favorite image of Martha Stewart? It's the American Express Card commercial where she pokes fun at herself. She's sitting on the bottom of a drained pool, counseling us on how to use all our cutup, no-longer-needed other credit cards. Martha suggests re-tiling the bottom of a swimming pool with them, as she carefully places credit card fragments...
Sermon
Brett Blair
Lance Armstrong. Going for his eighth Tour de France. His heart is nearly one-third larger than that of the average man. At resting, it beats an average of 32 times per minute, during peak performance, 200. He burns up about 6,500 calories every day for three weeks while in the race. One of the stages of the race is 120 miles long-that day he will burn 10,000 calories. You and I burn 3,500 and tha...
Showing 1 to 25 of 40 results