Sunday Soundbyte for During Your Pastoral Prayer

October 22, 2009 by admin

Some of our people are discouraged, Lord. Though they’ve worked hard, hard work doesn’t seem to get them where they want to go. They’re like Chicago working hard for a 2016 Olympics hosting nod, and their bid doesn’t even get them past the first round of voting. I need You, Lord, to encourage those in our congregation who have just had it with “trying harder” comments.

Soundbye for During Your Pastoral Prayer or Sunday Sermon. Use my Sunday Soundbytes in your Sunday sermons or church service to convey timeless biblical truths about modern day events. You have my permission.

Sermon Ideas from David Mains

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The “How Long?” Church Sermon Question

October 21, 2009 by admin

You are preaching from the Joseph story in Genesis, and your desired response is that your hearers will be captured by a God-given dream like he was. Too many Christians live “dreamless lives.” They have nothing spiritual that drives them. They fill their days with trivial pursuits.

So you have clearly in mind both your church sermon subject and response. These are two of the four questions you need to get the answers to very early on in your sermon outline preparation.

Question number three involves the “how to” of what you’re talking about. Do your listeners know how to go about discovering a God-given dream? Probably not. So your message also needs to provide these answers.

Opening your heart to the needs of others can play a part. Knowing what you are passionate about is certainly helpful. Then dreams often come from exposure to highly motivated people. Concerted prayer almost always plays a part in the process as well. You will no doubt have other ideas.

A fourth key question that helps pull the initial thoughts of your Bible sermons together relates to the how long. Ministers tend to assume people act faster than they normally do. It’s like, “I told you what you need to know; why haven’t you instantly changed?”

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Just a Reminder Sunday Soundbyte

October 20, 2009 by admin

The word is out that this year Social Security recipients won’t be getting a cost-of-living adjustment. Because inflation is so low, this will be the first time since the automatic cost-of-living hikes went into effect back in 1975 that there won’t be one. The law says that if prices drop the benefits still can’t. On the other hand, an automatic raise isn’t necessarily guaranteed.

Maybe some of the billions in bailout money that went to banks should have been put aside for our seniors, huh?

Are there ways you let seniors in our ranks know they are appreciated? And might this week be a good time to do that?

Sermon Ideas from David Mains

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Atonement Sermon Ideas

October 19, 2009 by admin

Ted Kennedy’s autobiography, True Compass, was completed just before his death from brain cancer. In it he writes about the 1969 accident on Chappaquiddick Island in which Mary Jo Kopechne was killed. Kennedy describes his own actions as “inexcusable” and notes that “atonement is a process that never ends.”

His thought is noble, but not biblical. The Apostle John writes these wonderful words in his First Epistle, chapter 4 verse 10:

“This is love; not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

Sermon Ideas from David Mains