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Acts 2:42-47

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

Have you ever been part of a team-building exercise? A lot of businesses invest in team-building exercises as a way to encourage cooperation and problem-solving skills among their employees. But sometimes the team-building exercise is a problem in itself. According to one study done by the multinational firm Citirix, 1/3 of U.S. employees surveyed dislike team-building exercises. Yet companies spe...

27. Living at Cross-Purposes

Matthew 10:24-39

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

Have you ever committed yourself to a project or a goal, and then changed your mind? Have you ever thought, “Maybe I bit off more than I can chew. This is going to take more time, more energy, more of me than I expected”? And then anxiety steps in. And regret. And we have two choices at this point: double-down on our commitment to that project or goal or walk away and admit that we weren’t prepare...

28. More Fully Understanding Christ

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

I don’t know if you have noticed all the news stories this year about new technologies designed to help us all communicate better. Many of these stories proclaim that artificial intelligence, or AI as it is popularly known, will revolutionize the way we communicate, whether through writing emails or articles or using social media or simply texting or talking on the phone. And all of that is well a...

29. More Than Just Image

Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

Would you agree that we are an image-conscious society? Appearances are important to us. And not just our personal appearances. We want the things in our environment—our homes and cars and sneakers and even our lunches—to look Instagram-ready. The problem with living in an image-conscious society is that we are easy to deceive. Too often, appearance wins out over substance. If something looks good...

30. No Other Gods

Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

Have you ever thrown something away and later regretted it? I read a news report recently about a grand piano that was going up for auction. This piano once belonged to John Lennon, the lead singer and songwriter for the Beatles. Before his death, he gave it to a friend. The friend loaned the piano to a local school. Someone at the school—who obviously didn’t know the piano’s famous first owner—so...

31. Out of the Darkness

Matthew 5:13-20

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

Does anybody else have a tough time with winter darkness at this time of year? We’re still six weeks away from the start of spring, and most of the U.S. is experiencing short days and long nights. Medical studies show that people have less initiative and are more likely to get the blues during the darker winter months. It seems that most of us don’t function well without light. There’s a small to...

32. Overcoming Envy

Matthew 20:1-16

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

There was a British woman, Marion Webster of Solihull, England, who woke up one morning and found her beautiful garden absolutely decimated. Someone or something had torn it to shreds. The first thing Marion did after finding her garden in such a condition was to march over to her neighbor’s flower bed and pull out all the pansies and roses and anything remotely resembling a beautiful plant. Her ...

33. Places That Have a Memory

Matthew 21:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

Do you believe places have a memory? I know that seems like a strange question this morning. Don’t worry, I drank my coffee. I’m firing on all cylinders. But are there places in your life that evoke such strong memories that when you go back to them, you can almost see and feel and smell past experiences there? Or have you ever stood in a place and felt the stories emanating from its walls? I feel...

34. Remember...

Deuteronomy 8:7-18

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

Recently a man was released from prison at the age of 65. Why was he released? Because the DNA and the investigators assigned to his case found him innocent of all charges. In prison for something he didn’t do. Sixteen thousand days in jail. What were the first words he spoke when he stepped outside the prison walls? He lifted his hands and he said, “God is so good. God is so good. God is so good...

35. Rule Breakers

Matthew 5:21-37

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

Have you ever noticed how many rules we unconsciously follow each day? Most of us were raised with a list of rules that help us to get along with others or to achieve some goal: Share your toys. Pick up after yourself. Don’t run with scissors. Kids often get frustrated because they have so many rules to follow. Because nobody is perfect. We all bend the rules occasionally. Yes, rules can keep us s...

36. Seeing the Truth of Jesus

Matthew 16:13-20

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

Have you ever met someone who claims they’re not the competitive type? I personally don’t believe anyone who says this. I think we all have a competitive streak in some area whether it’s in having the nicest yard in our neighborhood, or making good grades, or baking the flakiest pie crust or having the best-behaved dog. We all want to be the best at something. We all want to be number one. It is ...

37. Seize the Now

Philippians 2:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

I want to ask you a question this morning: where would you eat if you didn’t have long to live? That was the title of a 2019 newspaper article written by Jay Rayner, the food critic for The Guardian newspaper in the UK. Back in May 2019, Jay received a letter from a reader named Hugh Paton. Hugh had just received a diagnosis of terminal cancer. He thought that the advice to “eat, drink and be merr...

38. Sharing God's Vision

Acts 2:1-21

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

When was the last time you had trouble communicating with someone? It happens to all of us at some time. Maybe it’s because you didn’t understand the other person’s language or culture. Maybe it’s because a word can mean different things to different people. There’s an old joke that used to be popular around the Pentagon that the different branches of the Armed Forces have trouble operating joint...

39. Shiny Objects

Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

Have you ever heard of Shiny Object Syndrome? Many of us may suffer from this syndrome and we don’t even know what it is. Shiny Object Syndrome is the desire to constantly chase new trends, to try whatever new thing comes along in technology, or management techniques, or fashion or food. There’s nothing wrong with jumping on new trends. It’s good to be open to change. But you know you have Shiny O...

40. Stop in the Name of Love

Matthew 3:13-17

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

A few years ago, the mayor of Oak Lawn, a suburb in Chicago, got tired of people rolling through stop signs, or ignoring them completely, as they passed through his community. So he thought he’d get people to pay a little more attention. Underneath each stop sign in Oak Lawn, he placed a smaller sign that created a phrase. Soon, people passing through Oak Lawn saw traffic signs that read “. . . ST...

41. The Complete Picture

John 11:1-45

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

Quick quiz for you this morning: whose portrait is on the front of the one-dollar bill? That’s right, George Washington, first President of the United States. If you have a one-dollar bill on you, I’d encourage you to take it out right now and look at it. Don’t worry, this isn’t my sneaky way of taking up a special offering. If you don’t have one on you, you may want to look up an image of one on ...

42. The Cost of Commitment

Genesis 22:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

What is the longest distance you have ever walked? Try to picture that journey in your mind. What mental and physical reserves were required for you to keep going when you wanted to quit? More importantly, how did you feel when you finally stopped? Most of us are fortunate to have some form of transportation, whether it’s a bicycle, car, bus or Uber to take us where we want to go. Long journeys no...

43. The Debt of Love

Romans 13:8-14

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

Let me ask you what for some of us might be a painful question. How genuine is your commitment to Christ? Is it primarily a Sunday morning exercise or does it encompass your whole life? I’m not asking this to make you feel guilty. My goal is to help each of us discover the full joy of our commitment to Christ. Our lesson today from St. Paul’s letter to the church at Rome gets right at the heart ...

44. The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning

Deuteronomy 34:1-12

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

Let me ask you an odd question: If you died tomorrow, how hard would it be for your loved ones to sort through your belongings? I stole that question from Ashley Hamer, a science writer and podcaster, in an article she wrote about the practice of Swedish death cleaning. Have you heard about this? It sounds morbid, but it’s actually a good idea. Swedish death cleaning is the practice of going throu...

45. The Gift of Forgiveness

Matthew 18:21-35

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

Jim Talley and Terry Benner in their book True Colors tell the story of a man named Joe who decided to take an afternoon walk through the foothills just above a lake where he had been fishing. Joe was comfortably dressed in shorts, a T-shirt, and tennis shoes. Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in his leg as he stepped over a small log. It was then he noticed a large diamondback rattler slithering int...

46. The Just-In-Case God

Acts 17:22-31

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

Everyone likes a good compliment, don’t they? So long as it’s sincere and not overdone. We like it when people notice good things about us. A compliment can instantly improve your mood, give you energy, make your whole day brighter. But have you ever been the recipient of a backhanded compliment? That refers to a compliment that somehow seems more like an insult when you think about it. The edito...

47. The Power of One Passion and One Prayer

Acts 1:6-14

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

Have you ever heard a story that was so exciting and tense that you were practically sitting on the edge of your seat waiting to find out the ending? Rev. Harry B. Parrott Jr. tells of listening to a radio broadcast of a pastor who also piloted his own small plane. The pastor had been in Detroit for some meetings, then he jumped in his plane and headed back toward his home in Escanaba, Michigan. ...

48. The Sound of Silence

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

I want to ask everyone this morning to take a moment and listen to the sounds around you. Do you notice that there are sounds going on all around us that we ordinarily block out? We can hear our own breathing. We can hear the church heating system, or the sounds of traffic outside, or our neighbor tapping their foot on the floor. We are constantly surrounded by some kind of noise, whether we reali...

49. The Way of a Saint

Revelation 7:9-17 · Luke 6:20-31

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

The way of a saint has never been easy. In today’s lesson from Luke’s Gospel, Jesus is speaking to people who knew what it was to be rejected, persecuted, discriminated against, held down. And the interesting thing is that he calls them “blessed.” Listen to his words: Looking at his disciples, he said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now,...

50. Therefore Go

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

If you’ve ever worked as a team, then you know there are certain behaviors and attitudes that increase productivity, and just as many behaviors and attitudes that decrease it too. Good managers, good coaches, good leaders know how to correct unproductive behaviors and improve the performance of their whole team. But what if your aim is to make your team less productive? Some of you might be mutte...

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