Sermons on Close Encounter:

For The Love Of Christ

Contributed by Bruce Ball on Dec 7, 2005

A sermon that reminds us to keep our focus on the destination: The eternal life in worshiping the Lord in Heaven.

We have all heard that Jesus is coming back. That should be the best news we will ever hear, but for many Christians, it is just a story. A story from a book that is more like fantasy than reality. A story they hear, but do not really believe. And because they do not believe it, they have missed ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 24:42-51

Denomination: *other

Narnia: Merry Easter (And Happy Christmas)

Contributed by Todd Anderson on Dec 8, 2005

A Christmas Eve or Christmas Day sermon or homily using an extended illustration from "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe" to show how many miss(ed) Christ’s first coming and how we need to be ready for his Second Coming in power.

Title: Merry Easter! (a Christmas eve or Christmas day homily) While bagging groceries years ago in a supermarket during highschool I found it fun to mess with customers minds and say things like: “Have a Day! And hear them automatically respond: “You Too!” It was especially fun around the ...read more

Scripture: Luke 2:1-20

Denomination: Lutheran

Defender Of The Weak

Contributed by Timothy Cooley, Sr. on Dec 9, 2005

The Woman taken in Adultery: Jesus is the Defender of the Weak, the Healer of the Bruised, and the Mender of the Broken.

The Feast of Tabernacles was a grand celebration. Food! Reunions! Parties! According as the Lord had commanded, families constructed special temporary shelters and camped out in them — to remind them of the travels of their forefathers through the Wilderness. Along with the great feasting came ...read more

Scripture: John 8:2-11, Exodus 15:2

Denomination: Holiness

Narnia: Aslan's Roar/Aslan's Purr Series

Contributed by Dwight Hires on Dec 12, 2005

Message using the Narnia theme as a hook for a salvation message.

Aslan’s Roar/Aslan’s Purr Selected Texts HOT TOPICS: NARNIA December 18, 2005 Don’t hesitate to contact me at lacenterchurch@yahoo.com Disney just released a movie they have bet $100 million on becoming a great hit. “Narnia” is based on C.S. Lewis’ children’s tale, The Lion, ...read more

Denomination: Evangelical/Non-Denominational

Waiting For Christmas

Contributed by Erik Estep on Dec 15, 2005

What is it you’re looking forward to this Christmas? What kind of gift would you like to get? There’s a gift just waiting for you that can transform your life.

Intro: It’s always exciting thinking @ X-mas. For me, one of the fun parts of X-mas is just watching my kids get excited @ it. Let me share w/you some letters kids wrote to Santa Claus. -“Dear Santa Claus, when you come to my house there will be cookies for you. But if you are real hungry ...read more

Scripture: Luke 2:25-32

Denomination: Baptist

Get Rid Of Stinking Thinking Series

Contributed by Rick Duncan on Aug 31, 2005

When our attitude in life is negative, the gears are grinding the wrong way. When the gears in our minds are turning in the wrong way, we call it stinkin’ thinkin’.

Some of you walked in here this morning carrying a heavy load. Some of you are up against the wall in your business. Some of you are in the middle of family conflict that seems almost impossible to resolve. Others are battling personal illness. Still others face problems that I can’t even begin ...read more

Scripture: Philippians 4:8

Denomination: Baptist

Do You Know The Holy Spirit?

Contributed by Bruce Ball on Sep 1, 2005

A sermon showing that God’s Spirit is holy; an attribute we so often fail to remember. We discuss the absolute need to rely upon the Spirit or we will be powerless as Christians.

A man who was raised in the city bought a farm and moved to the country. He soon bought a cow. When he went to buy the feed for the cow, he was told the best way to use it for maximum milk. Several weeks later, the man came back to the store and said there was something wrong with the feed ...read more

Scripture: John 3:5-6

Denomination: *other

The Immeasurable Difference Between Our 'deservings' And Our 'receivings' Series

Contributed by Peter Bines on Sep 10, 2005

What is written in big letters all over the book of Jonah is God’s great grace and patience; His amazing mercy and kindness. How little we deserve it; in fact we don’t deserve it at all. As Richard Baxter put it: “What an astonishing thought it will be to

JONAH CHAPTER THREE INTRODUCTION During the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge over San Francisco Bay, the work fell badly behind schedule because a number of workers had accidentally fallen from the scaffold to their deaths. The engineers and administrators couldn’t come up with a solution ...read more

Scripture: Jonah 3:1-10

Denomination: Independent/Bible

When Your Resources Are Running Low Series

Contributed by Brian Atwood on Sep 10, 2005

How Christ’s miracle of feeding the 5,000 teaches you where to find the means to live by when your resources are running low.

We’re in the series on the seven conversations with Jesus that preceded His "sign" miracles in John’s Good News account. The setting for this week’s conversation between Christ and his disciples and the performance of his miracle is simple. Thousands of people had been listening to Christ’s ...read more

Scripture: John 6:1-13

Denomination: Baptist

Hiding Places

Contributed by James May on Sep 11, 2005

Elijah found his hiding places, but God found Elijah and brought him out to a place of victory. He will do the same for you and I.

HIDING PLACES By Pastor Jim May After Nazi Germany invaded the Netherlands in 1940, increasingly severe anti-Jewish measures began. A Jewish family by the name of Frank tried to escape by going into hiding. On July 1942, Otto, Edith and their daughters Margot and Anne hid in this building at 263 ...read more

Scripture: 1 Kings 19:1-21

Denomination: Independent/Bible

A Winnable War Series

Contributed by Dan Jackson on Sep 11, 2005

9th in James series. The history of the world is a war history. James brings it even closer home when he makes it clear that our personal stories are war stories as well, James shows how we can acheive victory over the world!

World War II had ended. On September 2, 1945 General Douglas MacArthur spoke to a waiting world from the Battleship Missouri anchored in Tokyo Bay, “Today the guns are silent...the skies no longer rain death...the seas bear only commerce...men everywhere walk upright in the sunlight. The entire ...read more

Scripture: James 4:1-10, James 4:1-4

Creation Vs. Evolution: You Don't Have To Be A Monkey To Believe Creation Series

Contributed by Jeff Francis on Sep 12, 2005

Message 1 of a Sunday AM series on the book of Genesis.

Sunday AM—7/3/05 SERIES: Genesis—The First Soap Opera MESSAGE 1: Creation Vs. Evolution—You Don’t Have To Be A Monkey To Believe In A Creator Felt Need Intro: Good morning! I hope you are doing great this morning. We’re going to begin a message series this morning that’s a little different ...read more

Denomination: Pentecostal

El Elyon Series

Contributed by Ewen Huffman on Sep 16, 2005

Names of God 4: El Elyon. God is SPOKEN of as El Elyon, God Most High- but He is KNOWN when He is revealed as ’God most personal’. This sermon looks at God’s sovereignty, our ’smallness’ and how you only know God’s nature as His Names are experienced in

Names of God 4: El Elyon Dan 4:2,3, 13-17, 33-34 WBC 18/9/05am A true story - a woman entered a Haagen-Dazs store on the Kansas City Plaza for an ice-cream cone. After making her selection, she turned and found herself face to face with Paul Newman. He was in town filming the movie Mr. and Mrs. ...read more

Scripture: Daniel 4:2-34

Denomination: Baptist

Samson: Saint Or Sinnner?

Contributed by Richard Tow on Sep 21, 2005

Explores Samson’s life and ministry: the mystery of his calling, sinning, prolonged anointing, and restoration

Samson: Saint or Sinner? Judges 13-16 6-1-03 Richard Tow Grace Chapel Foursquare Church Springfield, MO www.gracechapelchurch.org Intro: Judg 13:1-5 13:1Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, so the LORD delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years. 2A ...read more

Denomination: Charismatic

The Beauty Of Grace Verses The Beast Of Sin Series

Contributed by Peter Bines on Sep 22, 2005

After all that’s happened so far – Jonah’s initial disobedience; God’s humbling of Jonah; Jonah’s going to Nineveh at the second time of asking; the Ninevites’ believing the message and being spared – surely you’d expect there to be a happy ending!

JONAH CHAPTER FOUR INTRODUCTION Most of us love happy endings! My girls when they were little loved Disney’s, ‘Beauty and the Beast.’ In the closing scenes the beast lies dying from a wound inflicted during combat with Gaston his enemy. Belle the beauty finally confesses her love for the beast ...read more

Scripture: Jonah 4:1-11

Denomination: Independent/Bible