Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: disciple, evangelist, the 12, the twelve, son of Zebedee, fisherman, incarnation, word became flesh, I Am sayings, apostle, sons of thunder, eternal life, darkness and light, eyewitness

Showing 1526 to 1550 of 1652 results

1526. More Fully Understanding Christ

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... very well, so it frequently re-routed calls to the wrong person or department. This was according to Capt. John Dunn, who oversaw the Shreveport Police Department’s police communications, “In Louisiana,” he said, “we have a problem ... is my home church.” Samuel began attending this church regularly, studying the Bible and growing in his faith. At the age of 16, he began preaching. Over the years, Samuel Dzobo has pastored numerous churches in Zimbabwe, and in the United States. He has administered ...

1527. Mind Your Manners

Luke 14:1, 7-14

Sermon

Will Willimon

... know what to do. I'm supposed to be an expert on the Bible, theology, things like that, not good manners. My models are Martin Luther, John Wesley, Billy Graham, not Emily Post Or Amy Vanderbilt. What was I to do? Can you imagine my delighted surprise when I found that the ... the dinner table. Bread was important to Jesus. In fact, where some eat and some starve, Jesus says, God is mocked (Luke 16:19-31). In Luke's church, the real test of whether the church was faithful was the church's ability to break ...

1528. No Other Gods

Joshua 24:1-3a, 14-25

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... ? 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 ... , p. 45. 5. “Actions, not words, reveal our real values” from the book, Hell Yeah or No, by Derek Sivers online newsletter, June 16, 2017, https://sive.rs/arv. 6. “A Usable Instrument” by Joe Seremane, South Africa in Celebrating One World: A Worship Resource on Social ...

1529. A Courageous Leader

Judges 4:1-7

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... Ken Downer, https://www.rapidstartleadership.com/crutch-phrases/. 3. The Jesus Bible (Zondervan: Grand Rapids, MI), 2016, 2018. 4. John Ortberg, God Is Closer than You Think (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005). 5. Copyright © 1998 by Alderson Press ... . 7. “Rebekah Naylor plans to ‘simply adjust’ after 35-year missions career in India” by Ethan Leyton*, posted April 16, 2009, https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/news/rebekah-naylor-plans-to-simply-adjust-after-35-year-missions-career ...

1530. The Best Little Harlot's House in Jericho

Hebrews 11:31

Sermon

Will Willimon

... Madame Rahab had, she put them aside and went on about God's business. As one of her kin said to his own unlikely, ordinary, disciples years later, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit..." (John 15:16) He was complaining that he hadn't been able to sleep, that something was tugging at him, deep inside. He just couldn't get those pictures of people in South Africa out of his mind. It was as if he had to do something, say something. “Could the ...

1531. His Own Knew Him Not

Luke 4:14-30

Sermon

Will Willimon

... , dedicated. He is in the synagogue, “as his custom was,” says Luke. His chosen text--words from the prophet Isaiah--was as familiar to them as Luke 4:16-30 is to us. Here is no outsider or rebel, but one of their own. When the congregation exclaims, “Is not this the carpenter's son?” There is ... Sunday, that you didn't know Hebrew, he said he might be uncomfortable.” The Gospel of John says, “He came unto his own, but his own knew him not.” No, they knew him. Knowing him wasn't the problem.

1532. The Tale of the Widow and the Wolves

Mark 12:38-44

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... 7:15) “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore, be as shrewd as serpents and as innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16) “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the ... are not his own, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep, and flees: and the wolf catches them, and scatters the sheep” (John 10:12) "Blessed be the LORD, who hath not given us as a prey ("tereph") to their teeth" (Psalm 124:6) The wolf ...

1533. God Is Like...a Face

Genesis 33:1-11 · 2 Corinthians 4:5-6

Sermon

Kenneth L. Gibble

... of Genesis it says that Cain, after killing his brother Abel, “went away from the presence of the Lord” (4:16). That word “presence” could also be translated “face.” In the book of Exodus, there is a fascinating episode about Moses ... faces of those around us, we may see there the tracings of his face. And, said Jesus, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (1 John 14:9b). It helps me to believe, to trust, that God looks at every human face the way a loving mother or father looks at the ...

1534. John the Baptist

Matthew 3:1-12, Matthew 3:13-17

Sermon

David E. Leininger

A time to put your imagination to work this morning. The scene is a large, ornate room in the palace of Herod the king. In it, you and others who comprise the best and the brightest in all of Judea - religious leaders, politicians, courtiers. There is an air of expectation in the hall, for you are about to meet a man whose reputation has spread across the land. The king's men have arrested him after reports that he has denounced Herod's marriage to Herodias, until recently the wife of Herod's brother ...

1535. Ready or Not, Here He Comes!

Luke 3:1-20

Sermon

David E. Leininger

John is an amazing character, isn't he? Not what we would expect as we come up to Christmas. What if, riding atop the last float of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, there was not jolly old Saint Nick, but a wild-eyed John the Baptist dressed in a glorified burlap sack? Even the perpetually perky Katie Couric would wince as she offers parade commentary from her reviewing stand, not quite sure what to say. But this is not mid-town Manhattan and this is no Macy's extravaganza. It has been something of a ...

1536. The Incomparable Christ

Matthew 11:1-19

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Life was difficult. It always was for prisoners. Meager rations. Hard labor. Sometimes restrained and tortured by the stocks or collar. Left with festering wounds in damp, abandoned cisterns converted to maximum security dungeons. Why was he here? His only crime was criticizing the king for stealing his own brother's wife, Herodias. Herodias wanted John killed, but Herod Antipas was reluctant - he knew the people thought highly of John. John's ministry had begun in the wilderness where he subsisted on an ...

1537. Hope for Hurting Hearts

Isaiah 35:1-10

Sermon

David E. Leininger

"...Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away." Sure does sound like Christmas, doesn't it? I wish everyone could feel it. But the war in Afghanistan goes on. Families that lost loved ones on September 11th are preparing for a holiday that, a year ago, they could have never imagined. There is a certain dissonance to the season. Trips to malls and stores with the sacred Muzak in the air singing of "Joy to the World" or "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" mock the harsh realities ...

1538. The Bush Is Still Burning

Exodus 3:1-22

Sermon

David E. Leininger

There is an old story of a very long evening. The search committee for a new pastor had been going over resumé after resumé in hopes of finding the perfect minister. None so far. Tired of the whole process, they were about ready to call it a night when they came upon this letter of introduction from a candidate: To the Pulpit Nominating Committee: It is my understanding that you are in the process of searching for a new pastor, and I would like to apply for the position. I wish I could say that I am a ...

1539. A Gospel for Losers

Jonah 3:1-10

Sermon

David E. Leininger

A fellow is standing at a bar, just looking at his drink.(1) For a solid half-hour, he just stares at it. Suddenly, a big trouble-making truck driver steps up next to him, takes the drink and chugs it down. The poor schlemiel starts crying. The truck driver says, "Come on man, I was just joking. Here, I'll buy you another drink. I can't stand to see a man cry." "You don't understand," says the first fellow. "This day is the worst day of my life. First, I sleep through the alarm this morning and get into ...

1540. Nicodemus

John 3:1-21

Sermon

David E. Leininger

They say, "There is no fool like an old fool." And I am afraid that is exactly what I have been. I have been so busy protecting our religion that I have been missing our God. I should explain. My name is Nicodemus. I am a member of the Sanhedrin, one of the seventy men charged with the oversight and defense of our historic and honorable faith, the faith of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the faith of our fathers for hundreds and hundreds of years. Our task - one handed down from generation to generation since ...

1541. He Rose Again

Matthew 28:1-10

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Somewhere or other I heard of a Sunday School teacher who had just finished telling her third graders about how Jesus was crucified and placed in a tomb with a great stone sealing off the only way in or out. Then, wanting to share the excitement of the resurrection, and the surprise of Easter morning, she asked: "And what do you think were Jesus' first words when he came bursting out of that tomb alive." A hand shot up into the air from the rear of the classroom. It belonged to a most excited little girl. ...

1542. "Wow!"

Mark 9:2-13

Sermon

David E. Leininger

It starts off ordinary enough. Jesus and his three closest friends - Peter, James, and John - go up on a high mountain. Nothing unusual. Jesus often went off from the crowds to pray and rest. All very ordinary. But from here on, ordinary ends. No sooner do they arrive than Jesus is suddenly "transfigured." He "glowed." As the text has it, "his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them." Not only out of the ordinary, but absolutely out of this world - which, of course, is ...

1543. I'm On a Mission from God!

Jonah 1:1-17

Sermon

Did you happen to see the tribute to John Belushi on television this past week? (Or TRY until the cable went out?) John was an incredible comic talent who created fascinating characters. What brings him to mind this morning is the delightfully wacky pair that he and Saturday Night Live partner Dan Ackroyd teamed up to create - Jake and Elwood, the Blues Brothers. These two genial bozos are sent out on an ill-fated fund-raising mission for their old parochial school by a fierce old nun. As they blunder ...

1544. No Turning Back

John 6:56-69

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

At the dawn of the Space Age it looked like the United States was losing the Space Race — and soundly. The Soviet Union had launched the first artificial satellite in 1957. In response the Vanguard rocket blew up on the pad. Both nations then began to work on putting a human into space. The American Project Mercury was projected to put a man in orbit by late 1960, but delay after delay — sometimes out of caution and sometimes out of concerns for safety because the rockets continued to blow up, allowed the ...

1545. The Lord's Prayer: Thy Kingdom Come

Matthew 6:5-15

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Have you been watching the Olympics? I have...some. I am a sports fan. And even though these winter events do not have the same appeal for me as some others, I still watch. I am glad that Dan Jansen finally won a medal. After so many tries, on his last ever attempt, he came through. Strange, isn't it - here is a man who is recognized in speed skating as the best sprinter in the world, but just because he had never won an Olympic medal, people asked, "What's wrong with Dan?" Just three weeks ago, the most ...

1546. The Main Thing

Luke 12:32-40

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Luke 12:34 “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.”[1] The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. That’s important. You might want to write it down. I’ll say it again: The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing. It’s one of those seemingly self-evident rules that is absolutely essential if you want to succeed at anything. My Uncle John had a colorful way of illustrating the essential truth of it. Uncle ...

1547. I Am Sombody!!!

Mark 1:9-13, Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

David E. Leininger

I suspect that, having made it to mid-January, you would say that you have successfully survived the holidays. True? The celebration of our Savior's birth - Christmas; then the New Year; finally the Feast of the Three Kings on January 6th - Epiphany (which for many has become the Feast of Taking Down the Decorations!). This morning I want to suggest that there is one more holiday we should be observing - THIS day, the one the liturgical calendar designates to remember the Baptism of the Lord. If the ...

1548. Power

Mark 1:9-13, Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

David E. Leininger

The Baptism of the Lord. In a former congregation of mine, a Sunday School teacher told me of an incident that happened there some years ago. Two of the young girls in her class - both about nine years old - came to her and said they wanted to be baptized. She was understandably pleased at their desire and told them to go home and talk to their parents about it, then appropriate arrangements could be made. A week later the girls came back with the sad news that the parents thought they should wait until ...

1549. The Apostles' Creed: "Suffered, Dead, and Buried..."

Mark 15:1-15

Sermon

David E. Leininger

"I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried..." They killed him. They taunted him...tortured him. They killed him. Why? What had he done? The answer of our faith over the centuries has been NOTHING. He was the only perfect one who ever lived. Sinless. Yet the record remains and our affirmation is repeated: "...suffered ...

1550. Are Ye Able?

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

Although Christianity was an illegal religion during much of the first three centuries of the faith, there were both times when authorities turned a blind eye to their existence, and other times when persecution was intensified. During the reign of the Emperor Trajan (98-117AD) persecution intensified. In 108 AD, one of those arrested and condemned to be thrown to the wild beasts for the entertainment of the cheering crowds was Ignatius, the overseer of the church at Antioch. Antioch had been a center of ...

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