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Sermon
Richard Patt
There was a beautiful lake that lost its zesty freshness. The water formerly had been clear. It was alluring to animals and people alike. But it became covered with a green scum. The farm animals became ill from drinking the water. Finally someone came by the lake who understood the problem. Debris collecting from the hard spring rains had stopped up the dam and prevented the free flow of water, n...
Sermon
John G. Lynch
An old man died in a Manhattan brownstone some years ago. No one in the neighborhood knew much about him. Some neighbors thought he was odd and eccentric. Most ignored him altogther. Just a silly recluse, they said. When he died the newspapers sent a reporter to his brownstone home. Inside they found newspapers and magazines stacked to the ceilings. Narrow corridors wound in a maze throughout the ...
Sermon
W. Robert McClelland
This parable reminds me of the time I attended an evangelism workshop offered by my denomination and which was intended to demonstrate the latest techniques for saving souls. A team of experts had come to town intent on training us to make cold calls in the community - door to door - seeking converts for Christ. I was assigned to one of the experts as an observer. I was to watch and, thereby, lear...
Sermon
Wallace H. Kirby
Dives, if we can take tradition’s name for him, first wanted personal relief from his eternal torments. But when Father Abraham, God’s stand-in, refused, Dives asked for a weekend pass to return and warn his brothers. Request denied! Abraham simply said that Moses and the prophets were sufficient. And even if Abraham should go himself, it would not lead Dives’ brothers to repentance. They would on...
5. ...More...
Luke 16:19-31
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
The world's philosophy is a four-letter word: More. The church's theology is also a four-letter word, but it often means more's opposite: Love. Will the church be a force and a forum for love? The problem with our world, our nation and our church can be summed up in one word: More. "More" has become, as Laurence Shames has put it, America's "unofficial national motto." We want more of everyt...
6. Drawing Lines
Luke 16:19-31
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
The chasm between heaven and hell is a line that has been crossed by the cross of Christ, a line that has been turned into a circle by our risen and regnant Lord. Each of the various disciplines within the social sciences likes to believe that it has its finger on what makes human beings "tick." For Freudian psychologists, sex is the driving force behind all we do. Disciples of Eugene Skinn...
Sermon
Carveth Mitchell
A woman once said to her pastor, "I enjoy your Bible classes very much. You get so much out of the text that isn’t there." What she meant, of course, was that he saw and explained things that were not evident to her. Let’s take her literally for a moment. As we study the Gospel for today, let’s get out of it some of the things that are not there in order to see clearly the things that are there. ...
Sermon
George Reed
The story of the rich man, often called Dives, and Lazarus is a heartrending tale of suffering on the part of the poor man and indifference on the part of the rich one. If that was all the story was about it would be dreadful enough but it also shows us the horrors of society when it is divided into classes. We see this clearly in the attitude of the rich man. While the rich man is comfortably si...
9. The Great Divide
Luke 16:19-31
Sermon
James Merritt
One of the most fun trips I have ever taken in my life was years ago when my wife and three sons went out west to Colorado, and spent a week in a part of the country we had never been in before. We did everything from horseback riding to white water rafting, to just exploring the great outdoors. But one of the highlights for me, strangely enough, was driving up to a top of one of the Rocky Mounta...
Sermon
King Duncan
Dr. James Dobson tells about a friend of his, a specialist in obstetrics and gynecology. One day this friend telephoned another specialist in the same field and asked him for a favor. “My wife has been having some abdominal problems and she’s in particular discomfort this afternoon,” he said. “I don’t want to treat my own wife and wonder if you’d see her for me?” The other specialist invited the...
Sermon
King Duncan
Jesus told a story about a rich man named Dives and a very poor man named Lazarus. Dives drove a Mercedes, lived in a fifteen-room mansion, ordered his suits tailor-made from Europe. Poor Lazarus was a street person. The Public Library, where he tried to rest during the day—particularly on cold days—threw him out. Even the police turned their heads when they drove by. They were tired of giving him...
Sermon
King Duncan
“I used to think I was poor,” says one comedian. “Then they told me I wasn’t poor, I was needy. Then they told me it was self‑defeating to think of myself as needy. I was deprived. (Oh, not deprived but rather underprivileged.) Then they told me that underprivileged was overused. I was disadvantaged. “I still don’t have a dime,” this comedian concludes, “But I have a great vocabulary.” Maybe that...
Sermon
King Duncan
Imagine you are a race car driver in the Indianapolis 500 automobile race. How would you deal with the inherent risks associated with this sport? How would you deal with the possibility of crashing, even dying, on that track? According to one driver, you don’t. “[If a fatal accident occurs,] you don’t go look at where it happened. You don’t watch the films of it on television. You don’t deal with...
Sermon
"There was a rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, full of sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table; moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried; and in Hades, being ...
Sermon
Brett Blair
We continue to gauge how our lives are effected by all this. It has been difficult taking in all the things happening over these past three weeks, much less make sense of it all. Occasionally you read something in the paper or you see something on TV which helps you put things in perspective. I remember Thursday September 13th all of the sporting events that weekend had been cancelled. One of the ...
16. Entitlements
Luke 16:19-31
Sermon
King Duncan
Did you read about that Arab sheik out in California who has a limousine that is 66 ½ feet long? True story. It's a white Lincoln Town Car that can carry 36 passengers. It's in two pieces with a hitch in the middle like a tractortrailer so it can bend around corners. It has five axles. A normal Town Car is 18 feet long; most city buses are only 40 feet but this baby is 66 ½ feet long. It has two...
Sermon
King Duncan
A judge in New York City was mugged. Later he called a press conference. He made the following statement to reporters, "This mugging will in no way affect my decisions in adjudicating matters of this kind." An elderly woman stood up in the back of the room and said, "Then mug him again!" She wanted to make sure the judge got the message about what is happening in the streets of our cities. An old...
Sermon
David E. Leininger
This is a question to which almost all of those reading this book already have an answer. Whether that answer is truly reflective of the biblical witness is what we will deal with. Would a loving God really let anyone go to hell? Our text seems to indicate the answer is "Yes." The righteous will be rewarded with an eternity of comfort and peace and the sinners are going to burn. Some of you, I am...
19. The Great Divide
Luke 16:19-31
Sermon
Some of us are old enough to remember the old Cat Stevens' tune, "Father And Son." That song, as you might recall, is in the form of a dialogue. The father speaks first and tries to share with his son some of the wisdom he's gained from his years of living. He says that it's not yet time to make a change, relax, and take it easy. Perhaps the son ought to look for a wife. The son, in the next vers...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
Any of you know a hoarder? I don’t mean somebody who can’t throw anything away. I mean somebody who keeps to himself everything he has and can’t let go of anything. In today’s gospel parable the un-named “rich man” lives a hoarder’s life of prosperity and extravagance. He luxuriated in exhibiting the power of his wealth by hosting exquisite banquets every day. He demonstrated his wealth by dressi...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
We are all about family. The truth is, the problem is, we are all about OTHER people’s families. The most popular show on television today? “Duck Dynasty.” After that there are the programs about “The Kardashians,” “Housewives,” of various zip codes, and “Hoarders.” We like to spy-glass at the inner-workings of family relationships that we can keep at arm’s length — or TIVO for a later, more conv...
Sermon
James Merritt
A well-to-do man and his family of five lived in a plush, gated neighborhood in a wealthy urban community. He was a righteous man, by all accounts. A volunteer worker in the student, faithful to his wife, never missed one of his son’s baseball games. “I’ve never met a better man than that one,” someone was overheard saying of him at church. “It’s amazing how the Lord has blessed him.” At night, w...
Sermon
Edward Inabinet
Today I want to talk with you about one of the hardest subjects in all the world to talk about as a pastor. In fact, experts in church growth tell pastors and church leaders to steer away from this topic because even church people don''t want to hear about it. If you don''t want to lose your congregation, they tell us, don''t talk about this particular topic. But we are duty-bound, we are under co...
Sermon
Timothy J. Smith
"Grandfather's Corner," is the story of an old man who lived with his son and his son's wife and children. The man was almost deaf and blind and had difficulty eating without spilling his food. Occasionally, he would drop a bowl and break it. His son and his wife thought it was disgusting and made the old man eat in a corner behind the stove. They gave him a wooden bowl which could not be broken. ...
Sermon
Brett Blair
What parable would make a man with three doctoral degrees (one in medicine, one in theology, one in philosophy) leave civilization with all of its culture and amenities and depart for the jungles of darkest Africa? What parable could induce a man, who was recognized as one of the best concert organists in all of Europe, go to a place where there were no organs to play. What parable would so intens...
Showing 1 to 25 of 31 results