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1. What Really Matters
Philippians 3:1-11
Sermon
Maxie Dunnam
The big issue in life is to settle what really matters.  If we can decide that, what really matters.  If we can be clear about that, then the rest of life will either fall into place or we will be able to cope with it with grace and overcoming strength.  My father and mother-in-law have been with us for a few days, they left early this morning.  It’s been a good time, and my father-in-law shared w...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
In every culture there are radically different standards that define beauty. For some its a neck elongated by brass rings feet bound up into crippling smallness pumped up biceps and six-pack abs cinched up, hour-glass waists Yet across the world researchers have found there's one standard, one constant that universally defines beauty: symmetry. When individuals from dozens of different countries a...
3. The Blessing Complex
Philippians 3:1-11
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
I know of someone who would have understood the stock market these past few weeks. I don’t mean The Great American Taxpayer Robbery by the Boardroom Bandits. No one I know can understand that 700 billion Main Street bailout of Wall Street. Is there any other word than “hypocrisy” when fat-cats want to privatize profits but socialize losses? By the way, did you know that every child born into the w...
4. Praising Our Savior
Philippians 3:7-11
Sermon
J. Howard Olds
One of the real perks of being a pastor lies in the privilege of getting to know people. It has been my joy through the years not to just know about people, but to know people—to be invited into their homes and into their lives. Also, it has been a joy to share their victories and defeats, their joys and their sorrows, their lives and yes, sometimes their deaths. These relationships have grea...
5. All Is New in Christ
John 11:4-6, Philippians 3:4-11
Sermon
Richard Gribble
Running as fast as his feet would carry him, Androclus raced into the forest. He hoped he could survive there, finding roots and berries to eat and avoiding all wild animals. He had few other choices; people were always looking for runaway slaves. He wondered, however, how it would be to live in terror of being discovered. Every pine cone that fell onto the mossy surface of the forest made him jum...
6. Just Say Know
Philippians 3:4b-11
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
We are living in a world of informational overload and relational anorexia. The call of the church must be to "know Christ" and to "make Christ known." Thus, "Just Say Know" may be a better addiction strategy than "Just Say No." Is there anyone here immune to the "Great American Dream"? The American "pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps" Dream lures us into believing that if we somehow just knew m...
7. What Would It Take?
Philippians 3:1-11
Sermon
King Duncan
One fellow was bragging to another about his grandfather: "My grandfather," he said, "knew the exact day of the exact year when he was going to die. Not only that, he knew the time he would die that day as well." His friend said, "Wow, that's incredible. How did he know all of that?" The first fellow said: "Because a judge told him." An old man looks out from prison bars. This is a view he's seen...
Sermon
King Duncan
"There have been a lot of changes around here," said the old man proudly, "and I want you to know I've been against every one of them." Have you ever noticed that some people have a difficult time with change? Some people would rather fight than switch. Their motto seems to be "Don't rock the boat even if it's the Titanic!" Of course, some changes are difficult to accept. As someone has said, "It...
9. The Look Of Eagles
Philippians 3:1-11
Sermon
King Duncan
Peter Goodwin was a lover of horses. Uncle Peter, as he was called by his friends, was once given the opportunity to select a colt from a herd of twoyearolds. Uncle Peter chose a somewhat ordinary looking colt named Bluegrass. No one else saw the potential in this young horse that Uncle Peter saw. "He will never run in the Kentucky Derby," his friends laughingly told Uncle Peter. But they were wro...
Sermon
King Duncan
In Operation Desert Storm a few years ago, for camouflage purposes, a division of soldiers had to repaint their Humvees to the color of the surrounding sand. The result was that the Humvees suddenly acquired a distinctly pinkish cast. As you can imagine, this became quite a source of humor for the soldiers. Someone even made a bumper sticker for one of these Humvees. It read, "Ask me about Mary Ka...
Sermon
King Duncan
An old story comes to us from Alexander the Great's conquest of the Persian Empire. In that conquest Alexander's soldiers overran the palace of Darius the king. Looking for things to steal, one soldier came upon a leather bag containing the crown jewels of Persia. The stones were worth millions. However, the ignorant soldier dumped them on a rubbish heap, saving only the leather bag. He ran around...
12. When We Don't Know God
Philippians 3:1-11
Sermon
King Duncan
In one of his books, writer Bruce Wilkinson reminds us of the story of the late Howard Hughes. Wilkinson says that, if there was one word that would describe Hughes’ ambition, it was the word more. “He wanted more money, so he invested his enormous inheritance and increased it in just a few years to a billion dollars. He wanted more fame, so he went to Hollywood and became a filmmaker and a star. ...
Sermon
King Duncan
Years ago the Florida State University football team recruited a place kicker named Scott Brantley. Brantley lived in Colorado and was considered the premier high school place kicker in the country at the time. According to a report in Sports Illustrated one of the Florida State coaches asked Brantley how he would react if, in the biggest game of the year on the opening kickoff against Miami the ...
14. Messies Anonymous
Philippians 3:1-11
Sermon
King Duncan
Mary couldn't get her leaky faucet fixed because she was ashamed to let a plumber see the inside of her cluttered home. Jane was pregnant and didn't know where she would put her new baby because she had so much "stuff" piled in every room of her apartment. Lorene's house was so messy she couldn't bring her terminally ill husband home from the hospital to die. These people (whose names have been ch...
15. A Vision Vanished
Philippians 3:4-14
Sermon
Larry Lange
Arnold Toivonen was headed to work at 5:06 a.m. Monday morning on a wet highway winding east through the dark pines that came crowding up close to the road from out of the spring fog. Arnold worked at the Caterpillar shop in town, crawling into the iron bellies of enormous Caterpillar tractors, scraping his knuckles on their cold, sharp innards, dropping heavy wrenches on the concrete with that sa...
16. With The End In Mind
Philippians 3:7-11
Sermon
James Merritt
One of the best selling books written in the twentieth century and one that made a tremendous impact on my life is a book by Stephen Covey, called The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People. That book has sold millions of copies and even to this day sells extremely well. One of the seven habits Covey says of an effective person is beginning with the end in mind. He begins this chapter with this ...
17. Repeat After Me
Philippians 3:1-11
Sermon
James Merritt
One thing a good teacher knows is that repetition is one of the best ways to teach, as well as one of the best ways to learn. If you think about it, we learn the alphabet by repetition, by saying the letters over and over. We learn how to count the same way. We learn the multiplication tables by repeating them over and over again until we could do them in our sleep. Paul begins this chapter by sa...
18. Uses of the Past
Philippians 3:4b-16
Sermon
Mark Trotter
There is a man in New York who has gained notoriety because he refuses to join the 20th century. In a few months he will refuse to join the 21st century. He wears high button shoes, and Prince Albert coats. He has mutton chop sideburns, and a handlebar mustache. He lives in a garret in Greenwich Village. He reads Dickens and Jane Eyre, only 19th century novels, and shuns all the things he can that...
19. Can You Tell Time?
Philippians 3:7-11
Sermon
James W. Moore
We have a young couple in our church family who are outstanding in every way. Both the husband and the wife are highly successful business executives. They are devoted to each other, devoted to the church, and devoted to their two beautiful daughters. Their daily schedule is hectic to say the least… and Saturday morning is the only time they have to sleep in. So they have a house rule that the ch...
20. Abysmal Heights
Philippians 3:1-11
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
Sometime in life we have all had to endure a “know it all.” Maybe it was that annoying kid in class who read the dictionary for fun and whose hand was always waving wildly in the air while claiming “Oh, I know, I know.” Know-it-alls plague us later in life as well. The co-worker who always has a “better way” to do things. The naysayer who “just knows” that your new idea is doomed to failure. Th...
21. Going For the Gold
Philippians 3:4-14
Sermon
David E. Leininger
The apostle Paul must have been a sports junkie. He was always using sports metaphors to make his point. For example, our text: "... I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 3:14). Paul is "going for the gold" in these long-running Olympics that we call the Christian life. Have you ever wished you could be a spiritual giant l...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
In every cliffhanger action movie, at some point in the chase scene an enormous chasm suddenly appears before the hero as he flees the bad guys. The only way across is an incredibly narrow, rickety, mostly-rotten bridge. The way forward looks terrible. But the way back is certain death. So, of course, our hero bravely steps or drives forward and steels himself to cross the abyss on the frail and s...
Sermon
J. Howard Olds
Sing with all the Saints of Glory; Sing the resurrection song. Death and sorrow, earth’s dark story, To the former days belong. For over forty years now, I have been trying to preach that sermon and sing that song. Today I would like to try once more. I take for a text the words of Paul who said, “I want to know Christ, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his suffer...
24. Philippians 3:4b-14
Philippians 3:1-11
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
As kids we brag most about the stuff we’ve been born to or gifted with — a bigger house, a cooler bike, a taller stack of video games, the latest model computer, the newest cell phone. As adults we brag most about the stuff we feel we’ve earned — a bigger paycheck, a better college, a successful career, a position of power and influence, how far we’ve climbed from where we started. In today’s ep...
25. Bragging Rights
Philippians 3:4b-14
Sermon
Jeff Wedge
A mouse was once riding on the back of an elephant, and the pair went across a rickety bridge. As might be expected, the bridge shook and rattled. When the duo had successfully navigated the bridge, the mouse exclaimed, "My, oh my, we certainly made that bridge shake, didn't we?" It is all too common an experience to meet people who sound as if they are somehow related to that mouse. People who b...
Showing 1 to 25 of 66 results