Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: Levi, disciple, evangelist, tax collector, the 12, the twelve, apostle, sermon on the mount, jewish audience, beatitudes, lord's prayer, great commission, parables, olivet discourse, mount of olives, olivet, synoptic

Showing 226 to 250 of 339 results

226. Money Matters

Amos 5:18-27

Sermon

King Duncan

... thee. Then whose will these things be?" One thinks of the passage in our Scripture lesson for today from the gospel: "It is easier for a camel to go through the end of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God." Then in the beatitudes Jesus does not say, "Blessed are the rich," does he? No, very decidedly he says,"Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." It is very difficult to find anything that Jesus said that was good about money. With a little thought we can understand ...

227. MONEY MATTERS

Amos 5:18-27

Sermon

Edward Inabinet

... thee. Then whose will these things be?" One thinks of the passage in our Scripture lesson for today from the Gospel: "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God." Then in the Beatitudes Jesus does not say, "Blessed are the rich," does he? No, very decidedly he says, "Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." It is very difficult to find anything that Jesus said that was good about money. With a little thought we can understand ...

228. Three Words America Needs to Hear

Acts 24:1-27

Sermon

Edward Inabinet

... It means to tell the truth; it means to be a just and honest person, to be one who acts in responsible love toward others. It means sticking by those principles which God has given, those divine principles such as we find in the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes and the other standards that God has laid out before us. Righteousness always deals with morality. It reflects a sense of obligation to God and to humanity to do that which is right, that which is upright, that which is just and honest and pure. The ...

229. Doors Are for Entering

John 10:1-21

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... he set out for his father’s house.” Years ago an old-time preacher preached on this story of the lost boy, and divided his sermon into three parts: “Sick of home”; “Homesick”; “Home.” The great German preacher Helmut Thielicke once suggested a Tenth Beatitude for us: “Blessed are the homesick, for they shall come home.” There seems to be a homesickness in the human heart, a God-shaped void that can only be filled by God. This homesickness in the heart is more than merely nostalgia for a ...

230. Food for the Fed-up

John 6:25-59

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... way dependent upon our recognizing it as such. Our hearts are restless until we find rest in God. But is there really any food for the fed-up? Is the Bread of Life available to us? Jesus says emphatically, “Yes!” In one of His most famous “Beatitudes” He said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” (Matthew 5:6) Not may be filled, but will be filled! No ifs, ands, or buts about it. Our hunger for God can be satisfied with nothing less than God, in ...

231. An Unpopular Profession

Matthew 9:9-13

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... and followed. But he didn’t leave everything behind. He took his pen and ink with him. How lucky we are that he did, for the Church learned its Lord’s Prayer and the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew. Matthew gives us the fullest form of the Beatitudes as well as many of the things that are most precious to the Christian’s heart. He gives us so much material that Mark never knew about. Only Matthew uses Wise Men to open the story of Jesus’ life, and the parable of the Last Judgment to bring ...

232. Where Is My Guest Room?

Mark 14:12-26

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... folk and wash the bathrooms and do the dishes really hold the world together. It certainly isn’t held together by the rest of us.” (P. 29) There is no limit to the good persons may do if they don’t care who gets the credit. There are nine Beatitudes in the Sermon on the Mount. There ought to be a tenth. “Blessed are those who volunteer.” III. “WHERE IS MY GUEST ROOM?” The Greek word here is the same as was used in Luke’s Christmas story. That is why we surmise that it was an “institutional ...

233. Paths of Righteousness

Psalm 23:1-6

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... four-letter word--SELF. We are never righteous because of what we have done but rather because of what Christ has done for us on the Cross. After ten years in the ministry it finally dawned on me that the teachings of the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes were not negative laws that God dreamed up to make us unhappy, negative and legalistic people--but to really set us free to enjoy life and to enable a community of faith to enjoy life. Let us remember that Christ spoke some of his harshest words with ...

234. People See Through Us

James 2:1-13

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... in his opinion, oppress the poor, take them to account, and blaspheme the name of Christ. People see through us! What we have here is a direct, hard-hitting teaching about the seriousness of discrimination and neglect of the poor. If the Lukan beatitude, "Blessed are the poor; woe to the rich" (Luke 6:20), and Paul's condemnation of the Corinthians for their distinctions within the fellowship based on socioeconomic status were not enough, we now have to encounter James. The scriptures cannot leave us alone ...

235. Servants Of The Servant Who Was Lord

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... serve now and then, when we please. Now I must close. Let’s return to where we began – to Jesus. It is the paradox of the Christian gospel that the last become first, the humble are exalted, the servant becomes Lord, the poor becomes rich. The Beatitudes of Jesus, which express all that, is a catalogue of the way things are turned upside down and inside out in the economy of God’s kingdom. So Jesus’ enunciation of the humble being exalted, was gloriously fulfilled in his own case. He ascended after ...

236. Obedience Really Matters

Matthew 7:15-23

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

... final judgment are his favorite motivating themes. Matthew is clear: how we respond to Jesus and his teaching determines life now and destiny later. It’s more than just good advice. If you remember, the Sermon on the Mount opens with a series of kingdom blessings called Beatitudes; it ends in the text before us this morning with a parallel series of warnings. The bookends of the Sermon on the Mount are blessing and cursing. In terms of this life we are told to enter by the narrow gate in verse 13 and to ...

237. A Fool and His Money

Luke 12:13-21

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... to call Luke, "the gospel for the poor." There is so much evidence of this in the gospel itself. The poor are the heroes in the gospel, and we are to be concerned about the poor. It is here, after all, where Jesus says, "Blessed are the poor." The beatitude in Matthew is, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." But Luke edits it, and says, "Blessed are the poor." There is other evidence that Luke's gospel is for the poor. In spite of that, I have another theory. I believe that Luke wrote his gospel for the rich ...

238. Lighten Up

Matthew 5:13-16

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... the fifth chapter of Matthew, the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount is chapters five to seven in Matthew. This comes right at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. It is the twelfth verse. The first eleven verses are the Beatitudes, the summary of Jesus' teachings to us: Blessed are the humble... Blessed are the merciful... Blessed are the peacemakers... Blessed are you when they say all manner of evil against you... Blessed are those who are persecuted for my sake and for the gospels. Then ...

239. Prayer

Psalm 42:1-11

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... reason a big part of prayer is dealing with our prideful self. We will talk about this more when we talk about naming ourselves and allowing God to name us, and when we consider confession as a primary ingredient of prayer. Prayer is a hunger. The first beatitude of Jesus (Matthew 5:3) in the Sermon on the Mount speaks to this issue. “Blessed are the poor in spirit” is the traditional translation of this word. “How blest are those who know their need of God” is the way the New English Bible renders ...

240. Stirring Things Up

Mark 13:1-8, Hebrews 10:11-25

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... much trouble as the other kid. People now call me a wimp. It really isn't easy being a Christian. That's what might happen to you if you get "stirred up" to do good works and to love your neighbor. Jesus warned us about it. It's in the Beatitudes. "Blessed are you when they revile you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake." It's tough out there, so we are to encourage one another. We started by pointing out that in the Bible, there were cultic practices and there were ethical teachings ...

241. Million Dollar Christmas

Matthew 19:21

Drama

Matthew Powell

... cleaning other people's houses. But that was what little Maria said her mother wanted most of all. Edgar 1: The Mexican woman would probably put them in a box and keep them until the moths ate them, but in the meantime, every morning she woke she would feel the beatitude of the possession of those furs as a kind of "glory in a box" before she slipped out into the dark to wash floors until it grew dark again. It was great fun going over the pile of essays on the table. Essay Reader 3: My mother would like ...

242. In Our Pastor's Success, So Is Our Own!

Matthew 10:40-42

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... -ending. So were the politics. After four years of patience, I shook the dust off my feet and moved on. The next church was so kind, so receptive. I kept wondering why they liked me and the other did not. Then I understood. It's in the first four beatitudes of Matthew 5. The one church was not poor in spirit, mournful, meek, or hungry and thirsty. The other, however, was all these things. And the conflict is as old as the Pharisees and the disciples. For the both are still in our world. Over the years I've ...

243. Faith's Curious Dynamic

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... contradictions, too. There is, for example, Jesus' enigmatic comment, "He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it" (Matthew 10:39). There is also that part of his Sermon on the Mount we call the Beatitudes. They are filled with contradictions. Consider just a couple of them: * "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." * "Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account." And now ...

244. The Naked Christian

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... holiness, that Versace virtuousness, that Kate Spade superiority, that Donna Karan dominance, that Anne Klein/Ann Taylor ascendance, that Nicole Miller niceness, that Bulgari botoxed smoothness, that Christian Dior Christianity. The naked faith Jesus introduced in the Beatitudes is this: keep faith fresh enliven faith with the barest of spices and sauces (e.g. Baptist spices, Methodist sauces, Presbyterian gravy, etc.). The condiments aren't the contents of faith. live missionally with simplicity and speed ...

245. Ash Wednesday

Mt 6:1-6, 16-21 · 2 Cor 5:20b--6:10 · Ps 51:1-17 · Jl 2:1-2, 12-17

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

... eyes of the present age, if done in faithful service to God's will, is "everything"—because of God's righteousness. Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 - "The Nature of True Piety" Setting. We encounter another portion of the Sermon on the Mount. Following the Beatitudes, Matthew collects a series of Jesus' teachings on a range of topics. We examined the sections on "salt and light," the Law, anger, and piety and human relations during the weeks between the celebration of the Baptism of the Lord and the Transfiguration ...

246. Epiphany 5

Psalm 112:1-10, Isaiah 58:1-14, 1 Corinthians 2:6-16, Matthew 5:13-16, Matthew 5:17-20

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

... are almost deliberately oblivious to such standing. "The rulers of this age" did not recognize Christ because God's Spirit did not reveal God's ways to them. Matthew 5:13-20 - "Christians as Salt and Light" Setting. In the wake of the Beatitudes, Matthew offers a collection of the sayings of Jesus to explicate the meaning of discipleship. Mark contains similar statements (salt [9:49-50] and light [4:21]) in widely separated contexts, but the sayings are made as riddle-parables, not pronouncements, to guide ...

247. Proper 15

Genesis 45:1-28, Matthew 15:21-28, Romans 11:1-10, Romans 11:25-32, Psalm 133:1-3

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

... ). In this context of worship, Zion is exalted throughout the Psalms of Ascent. Structure. It is probably best not to break the short psalm into any smaller units. The psalm consists of two similes (oil and dew), which are enveloped by a beatitude about family unity. Significance. Psalm 133 is undoubtedly chosen to provide commentary on the ending of Genesis 45, where the family is reunited. It puts into liturgical (priestly) language the same theme as the story. The blessing of God makes community possible ...

248. Don't Look Back, Remember Lot's Wife

Genesis 19:24-26

Sermon

James W. Moore

... prideful, prima donnas… whereas those who are “hungry” are those in any field who are striving, stretching, struggling, working, dreaming, reaching, sacrificing… willing to pay the price. As I thought of this, my mind darted back to one of the Beatitudes of Jesus. “Blessed are those who keep on hungering and thirsting after righteousness.” And, also back to Paul’s words to the Philippians: “Forgetting what lies behind, I press on…” The point is clear: As individual Christians… and as a ...

249. Our Greatest Enemy

Illustration

Richard Rohr

... ; the greatest enemy of faith is fear. Most of the world is controlled by fear, petty and big. Petty fears control people; great fears control nations. We could feed all the people in this world if we would stop building arms, but we are afraid. In the Beatitudes (Sermon on the Mount) Jesus said, "Those of you who make peace will he happy. You will be God's own." Yet even Christians are preoccupied with fear and protecting ourselves because we don't believe what Jesus said. The Sermon on the Mount is an ...

250. Easter Dreams

Luke 24:1-12

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... doing something great for God. Easter dreaming isn't about "happiness." Christians have no "right to happiness." Christians may or may not be more "happy" than non-Christians. Joy, on the other hand, is a condition of "gladness," "delight," "exultation of spirit" or "the beatitude of heaven." Happiness is not a fundamental category for the Christian. Joy is. Joy is the stuff Easter dreams are made of. That "O Happy Day" we sing about teaches us how to "live rejoicing every day," not how to live happily. God ...

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