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Sermon
Barbara Brokhoff
Next to "love," the word "new" is one of the most overworked words in our world. If it isn't new, we immediately consign it to ancient history. A minister friend, tells of speaking to a group of seventh grade confirmands. They were at a rather rustic retreat center. One boy came up to him, saying, "Boy! Is this place old! In the bathroom you have to turn on two faucets to get hot and cold water!" ...
Sermon
Carl Hoefler
Praise fills the pages of the Bible and dominates our hymnals; but, it is often difficult to find it in us as Christians. Praise is not easy to define. Most Bible dictionaries include it under the general classification of prayer, and it is frequently associated with the act of thanksgiving. In our First Lesson today, the author of Second Isaiah presents praise as the only response that a faithful...
Sermon
Frederick C. Edwards
At the end of a week-long retreat in a mountain camp setting a somewhat different kind of worship service was taking place. It was at the end of a day that had been set aside for introspection and talking about feelings of self-worth. There had been some discussion about how to deal with feelings of guilt and the need to feel forgiven, and how it is often easier to forgive someone else than to for...
Sermon
Carlyle Fielding Stewart
The woman whose heart is broken because her husband cheated on her cannot get past that experience and has vowed never to love again. Two brothers have not spoken to each other in years because a business they built together failed due to the skimming of profits by the older brother. The young man who has not visited or spoken to his mother and father in ten years because of an abusive childhood c...
5. I Was There
Isaiah 43:14-28
Sermon
Gary Whitbeck
If I told you my name you wouldn't know me. There's not enough room in historical documents to record everything and everybody. History merely tries to capture the important events that chronicle our progression as a people. Individuals who are on the scene are rarely known (much like the background characters who fill in your movies). However, I have been allowed, by the grace of the Almighty, to...
Sermon
David J. Kalas
In December of every year, the Downtown Athletic Club in New York City awards the coveted Heisman Trophy. Voted on by over 800 media members, the Heisman is awarded to the most out­standing college football player during that season. Past recipients have included such notables as Roger Staubach, Marcus Allen, and Barry Sanders. It is a great honor, and it represents the broad and non-partisan reco...
7. Become an Ant
Isaiah 43:14-28
Sermon
Jon L. Joyce
This message to the Hebrews in exile suggests a gospel proclamation to us in exile today. Although ours is not geographical or, generally, physical, it is spiritual and it is relational. The loneliness of a great number of humans in 1977 is a horror to them. Witness: most of us are never alone without a radio or television going. We tend to feel that, if we have something around us, we can forget ...
8. A Chosen People
Isaiah 43:14-28
Sermon
King Duncan
A major university experienced an amazing turnaround in its football program a few years ago. The next spring, at the opening of spring training, the coach gathered his players together for a team meeting. As the players found their seats, the coach announced he was going to hand out awards that many of the players had earned in the fall. As the coach called players forward and handed them their a...
9. Endings
Isaiah 43:14-28
Sermon
Elizabeth Achtemeier
Endings can be sad. Your son calls you unexpectedly from college and wants nothing more than to tell you about his studies and his new girlfriend, and you're sad when the call has to end. Or you attend the symphony and are swept up by the glorious music and are very sorry when the finale comes. But of course, those are temporary endings. Other endings are much more permanent. I just retired from ...
10. Dying To Live
Isaiah 43:16-21
Sermon
Charley Reeb
In his book The Mustard Seed Conspiracy, Tom Sine shares the story of his parents’ friends and their love for gathering wild mushrooms. One weekend this couple came home with several baskets of mushrooms. Realizing the impossibility of being able to consume all the mushrooms by themselves, they decided to invite others over to their house for a mushroom party. The turn-out was terrific, and they h...
11. Doing a New Thing
Isaiah 43:18-25
Sermon
Schuyler Rhodes
Robert liked new things. He was one of those personalities who sought out new experiences and new approaches to life. He thrived on things different and new. He really couldn't help it. It was just the way he was. He was amazing. He would buy tickets to concerts by musicians he had never heard of, just so he could hear something new. If there was a new restaurant in town, particularly of an ethnic...
Sermon
Richard Gribble
There once was a tree that lived happily in a big forest with many other trees. Occasionally, some of his brother and sister trees were cut down and the tree grieved, but when he discovered that his friends were reborn into some beautiful object that helped human beings, he no longer wept but actually looked forward to his turn to become something beautiful. Before long, a woodcarver came and exam...
13. What's Your Drink?
Isaiah 43:16-21
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
What do we thirst for? What is our drink? Jesus offers his disciples deep drinks of "living waters." Draughts of the “Living Waters" must be our signature sip, our desired drink. Civilized behavior the world over demands that a proper host or hostess offers some sort of sustenance when welcoming visitors into their homes. Who among us doesn't feel compelled to quiz their guests, even before they ...
Sermon
Frank Ramirez
We have a great history as a nation, but many of us are content with the pious stories we learned as children and shy away from learning more about the great events that shaped America. For instance, most people would prefer the story that, as a child, George Washington said, "I cannot tell a lie," in admitting he had cut down a cherry tree with his axe. The true story, according to Henry Wiencek ...
Sermon
King Duncan
A story appeared in the newspapers on January second of this year. It was about a seventy-one-year old man in Evansville, Indiana who had his life saved in a most unusual way. A truck smashed into his house.  It was 2:35 a.m. when a driver lost control of his truck on wet pavement, struck the curb and sailed on to the porch of Lee Roy Book's house. Later, a utility crew sought to restore electrici...
16. A New Thing
Isaiah 43:14-28
Sermon
Richard A. Jensen
I'm telling you it's just not possible that he is the Messiah. If anything he's an imposter. No one should be saying and doing the kinds of things he says and does. It's blasphemy. The man should be killed." Those were Eliezer's heartfelt convictions. Eliezer and his friend, Amos, were teachers of the law in the days that Jesus walked this earth. They were terribly puzzled by the appearance of th...
Sermon
Rodney Thomas Smothe
"I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert" (Isaiah 43:19). What a bold proclamation! Much of the book of Isaiah is devoted to stern warnings and the coming judgment of God. In this 43rd chapter the tone changes from judgment to redemption and restoration of Israel. Was this redemption earned because of...
Sermon
Curtis Lewis
All of us have heard of the absent-minded professor. I have a friend who is the full embodiment of the absent-minded professor. On one occasion he became so absorbed in a chess game that he failed to show up for his Contemporary Theology class. This professor's wife told of asking him to get her a couple of aspirin because of a splitting headache. He left to go retrieve the aspirin and water so sh...
Sermon
Thomas D. Peterson
We know that if an arm is tied down to the body for a long period of time, when the binding is removed, the arm is unusable. The muscles have begun to waste away until the arm is in a state of atrophy.  A recent event in our community attracted wide news coverage. Someone had tied a young dog to a tree by a ten-inch leash. The act outraged people. With ten inches for movin’ around, the dog was doo...
20. Old and New
Mk 2:22 · 2 Cor 5:17 · Is 43:19
Sermon
Robert Noblett
Something old, something new; Something borrowed, something blue. That’s what the old rhyme suggests every new bride ought to have on her person come the wedding day. We’re not going to spend any time talking about "borrowed" and "blue," but we do want to spend some time on "old" and "new." Those words have a way of cropping up more than just occasionally. Nearly every day we hear them used. They...
Sermon
Douglas J. Deuel
There was a pilot with three passengers -- a boy scout, a priest, and an atomic scientist -- and a plane that developed engine trouble in mid-flight. The pilot rushed back to the passenger compartment and exclaimed, "The plane is going down! We have only three parachutes, and there are four of us! I have a family waiting for me at home. I must survive!" With that, he grabbed one of the parachutes ...
Showing 1 to 21 of 21 results