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Sermon
Richard Patt
Sometimes you and I have to stoke up enough nerve to ask someone for a favor. We find it tough to ask for something -- for anything. I'm not thinking about asking someone for a large sum of money either. It can be as simple as asking for a ride when our own car is temporarily out of commission, or asking someone at a dinner table to pass us the potatoes. We are inclined to hesitate when it comes t...
Sermon
John G. Lynn
Jesus, at those critical times when he had momentous decisions to make, withdrew to the hills to pray. In the sixth chapter of Luke's gospel, when he had healed that man's withered hand in the synagogue on the sabbath, he threw the gauntlet at the rules and regulations that for so long had choked out the kingdom of God. To the scribes and the Pharisees he offered this challenging question: "I ask ...
3. Let Us Pray!
Luke 11:1-13
Sermon
W. Robert McClelland
In James Baldwin's Blues For Mister Charlie, there is an arresting scene in which a young boy announces before his grandmother and the world that he no longer believes in God. The wise and unperturbed woman replies, "Ain't no way you can't believe in God, boy. You just try holding your breath long enough to die." No less than breathing or the sucking of a newborn infant, prayer is instinctive huma...
Sermon
Thomas Slavens
•Pentecost • Pentecost • Pentecost • Pentecost • Christians are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. They are blessed with the benediction, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” (2 Corinthians 13:14) Christians know who God is and who the Christ is, but what of this Holy Spirit? The doctr...
Sermon
Wallace H. Kirby
There are two major ways of talking about the Christian gospel. One of them is a learned style, with terms and concepts forged by the scholar and the classroom. The second way of speaking theologically is to use the situations and relationships of everyday life. Every Christian works out his or her understanding of the gospel, using something of both of these approaches. Even the ordinary, uneduca...
Sermon
James W. Moore
Some years ago, when Leonard Griffith was pastor of the famous City Temple in London, he wrote a fascinating book entitled Barriers to Christian Belief. In that book he dealt with some problems that have over the years been real obstacles and stumbling blocks for people in their faith pilgrimage… specific problems that hinder people, that burden people, that disturb people… and keep them away from...
Sermon
King Duncan
A nationally known minister of the Gospel was involved in a question/answer session. He was on stage with several prominent church leaders in front of a large audience made up of pastors and lay persons. The minister had just responded to a question from one of the other leaders on the panel when he was shocked to see someone rise in the audience. The person who stood up seemed to be out of place...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
How can we stay spiritually fresh and alive and plugged into the power of the Spirit? We rely on being able to do some things automatically, without thinking our way through them. Some things like tying our shoelaces or riding a bike are the result of skills we have learned so well that our bodies perform them without fail. Other things like brushing our teeth or putting on the seat be...
9. Our Father...
Luke 11:1-13
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
If you’ve listened to fairy tales, or if you’ve watched early classic Disney cartoons, one thing becomes unsettlingly clear: a lot of “poor little” princes and princesses shared a common family tragedy. In an overwhelming number of these stories the mothers were gone, dying long before the child in question could be influenced by them or even remember them. The single dads in these tales almost al...
Sermon
Maurice A. Fetty
(A Dialogue Sermon) And he said to them, "When you pray, say: 'Father, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread; and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us; and lead us not into temptation.' " — Luke 11:2-4 Man: If two of the sacred idols of our nation are said to be motherhood and apple pie, no one has ever exalted fatherhood...
Sermon
Robert C. Cochran
When I was in junior high, I “inherited” a winter coat from my Uncle George (who is only three years older than I am). It was a very expensive coat and looked practically new, so I knew George hadn’t worn it. The reason was obvious: it was an extremely thick, long ski jacket that made the wearer look like a pregnant, black polar bear. The fur that covered the whole coat had to be four or five inch...
Sermon
Ron Lavin
The provoking incident for Jesus teaching his followers what to pray and how to pray is that the apostles watched Jesus and listened to his prayers. Nobody had ever prayed like this. His prayers were uniquely personal and profoundly humble. The apostles wanted to know more about prayer. So do we. "Lord, teach us to pray," they said (Luke 11:1). We have the same plea today. There is a vague sense ...
Sermon
King Duncan
I want to begin with a true but incredible story. Back in September 1996 a man named Edouardo Sierra, a citizen of Spain, was on a business trip to Sweden. He was driving through the Swedish countryside when he came upon a Catholic church. He decided to stop in for a few moments to say a prayer. The church was empty except for a coffin with a body lying at rest inside it. Edouardo decided to take ...
Sermon
King Duncan
If you worked in the post office, you would probably run into all kinds of people. One postal worker says she is used to dealing with moody people. She tells about an irate customer who stormed her desk one day. “What’s the trouble?” the postal employee responded in her calmest voice. “I went out this morning,” the customer began angrily, “and when I came home I found a card saying the mailman t...
Sermon
He (Jesus) was praying in a certain place, and when he ceased, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples." And he said to them, "When you pray, say: "Father, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread; and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive every one who is indebted to us; and lead us not into temptation." And...
Sermon
King Duncan
A mother had been teaching her three-year-old daughter the Lord’s Prayer. For several evenings at bedtime, the little girl would repeat the lines from the prayer after her mother. Finally, the little girl decided to go solo. Her Mom listened with pride as the child carefully enunciated each word right up to the end of the prayer: “Lead us not into temptation,” she prayed, “but deliver us some E-m...
Sermon
King Duncan
Pastor Tom Rietveld tells an interesting true story about prayer. He says that when he was pastoring in Missouri his church needed approximately $10,000 beyond what they were able to give to close out the year. And so, Pastor Rietveld asked the church family and their church leaders to pray for that amount, specifically—$10,000.  Unexpectantly, a few weeks before the end of the year, a gift came i...
Sermon
Brett Blair
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 tike: "Now you’re not going to get any chocolate chip cookies, so don’t even ask." She put him in the child's seat and off they went up and down the aisles. He was doing just fine until they came to the cookie section. Seeing the chocolate chip coo...
Sermon
King Duncan
A few years ago, Rabbi Wayne Dosick was at the airport when he witnessed an unusual scene. A police officer approached a mother and her small daughter. Someone had filed a missing-persons report on a little girl of the same age and appearance as the little girl in the airport. The officer was asking the mother to prove that the child was actually hers. First, the officer tried questioning the tod...
Sermon
King Duncan
A small boy, sitting on his grandfather's knee, noticed that Grandpa had a red mark on each side of his nose. After looking for some time, he asked, "What gave you those red marks on your nose?" "Glasses," was the reply. After further reflection, the little boy asked, "Glasses of what?" (1) Children can keep us off balance, can't they? One mother, writing about her toddler, was mystified that ...
Sermon
King Duncan
Mother Teresa appeared this Spring on Robert Schuller’s television program. Schuller reminded her that the show was being carried all over America and in 22 foreign countries including her native Yugoslavia. He asked her if there was one message that she would like to convey to all those viewers. Her response was, "Yes, tell them to pray. And tell them to teach their children to pray." Prayer prec...
Sermon
King Duncan
Father Barry Foster, a priest in Dublin, Ireland, parked his car on a rather steep slope close to his church. His little cairn terrier was lying on the rear seat and could not be seen by anyone outside the vehicle. Father Foster got out of the car and turned to lock the door with his usual parting command to the dog. "Stay!" he ordered loudly, to an apparently empty car. "Stay!" An elderly man was...
Sermon
King Duncan
"Is anybody listening? Is anybody listening? Please somebody help me! My husband has collapsed and I do not know how to fly a plane!" These are the words of a desperate North Carolina woman whose husband, an accomplished pilot, had just died suddenly of a heart attack at the controls of their tiny aircraft. She had not been very enthusiastic about flying in the first place, but it was the great j...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
One of my favorite chairs in our admittedly strange and eclectic collection of antique furniture is a piece known as "The Bishop's Chair." If anyone ever needed a reason NOT to seek that high office, this chair offers some revealing insight into the episcopacy. [If your church has a bishop's chair, or can find a bishop's chair, or an antique chair that fits the description, you might ask some peop...
Sermon
J. Howard Olds
At a small dinner party in the home of a member, a pastor was invited to ask the blessing for the meal. Turning to the talkative six year old in the house, the pastor suggested she might like to do the blessing instead. The outgoing youngster now suddenly shy replied, “I wouldn’t know what to say!” “Just say what you hear your Mommy say,” said the pastor assuredly. With that the little girl folded...
Showing 1 to 25 of 40 results