Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 2551 to 2575 of 4490 results

2551. Proclaiming Jesus Christ

2 Corinthians 4:3-6

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

It is not easy to promote someone else. Human nature rises up against it. If we believe in our self-worth and capabilities, why should we try to sell someone else? Yes, and why should we seek to gain acceptance of a religious leader, who will eventually cause us trouble. For example, Jesus for some was not only an irritant; he was an anathema as well. As usual, Saint Paul is not much interested in whether you like or accept him as a person. His driving mission is to proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord. He and ...

2552. Birthpangs of the New Age

Romans 8:22-23

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

2553. Sadness in the Heart of God

Matthew 20:1-16

Illustration

John Claypool

There is a Jewish parable that both parallels and illumines Jesus' story, and it has helped to clarify my understanding greatly. This one is about a "farmer who lived in Poland. For generations before him, his family had been very poor. One night he was awakened by an angel of the Lord, who said: "You have found favor in the eyes of your Maker. He wants to do for you what he did for your ancestor Abraham. He wants to bless you. Therefore, make any three requests that you will of God, and he will be pleased ...

2554. Christ’s Twin

Philippians 2:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

I want to begin by stating categorically that Christ did not have a twin brother, in case you were misled by today’s sermon title. There are so many people around who are conspiracy theory buffs that you can’t be too careful. I can see the author of The Da Vinci Code weaving a complete novel out of the idea that Jesus secretly had a twin. So let me state categorically that Jesus did not have a twin. However, today’s lesson from Philippians provokes an interesting question. If Christ had a twin what would ...

2555. The Blessing Complex

Philippians 3:1-11

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

I know of someone who would have understood the stock market these past few weeks. I don’t mean The Great American Taxpayer Robbery by the Boardroom Bandits. No one I know can understand that 700 billion Main Street bailout of Wall Street. Is there any other word than “hypocrisy” when fat-cats want to privatize profits but socialize losses? By the way, did you know that every child born into the world begins life saddled with a $175,000 debt? And that was before the 1 trillion hijacking of Main Street by ...

2556. Following a God Who Flip Flops ...

Jonah 3:1-5, 10

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

I'd like to share an observation that I've made over the past couple of decades. Perhaps you haven't noticed this, but it seems to me that one of the standards of judgment that we hold for our political leaders is that they must be consistent. We want leaders, it appears to me, who never budge, who never change, and are resolutely the same no matter what happens. Does this ring true for you? A few years back, during a terrible international situation in Africa, the sitting president of the time set a ...

2557. Great Expectations

2 Kings 5:1-14

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

I suspect that if pressed, we would all be able to list at least one person we could name as a hero. Mine is Martin Luther King, Jr. His ministry, his life, and his death have had a profound influence on me. He is, in my life, a giant. I read and reread his works and have made a point of finding people who knew him so they could tell me about his work. As part of my exploration of the life of one of our greatest saints, I planned and took a pilgrimage to Atlanta, Georgia, where Reverend King is buried. I ...

2558. Healing in His Wings

Acts 14:8-18

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Jesus spent his entire ministry doing three things: preaching, teaching and healing. This sermon explores the three steps to a healing ministry and healing church. The reign of modernism in our culture has been shored up by a very powerful myth we long to believe: that we can be in control through technological manipulation and mastery. The quest to control nature has led to an explosion in scientific knowledge - allowing us to splice genes, wipe out pathogens and multiply our food supply. Likewise our ...

2559. O Holy Nightmare

Matthew 24:36-44

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

How have we managed to transform the Christmas season from an awe-filled consideration of "O Holy Night" into an awful "O holy nightmare"? Isn''t it time we rediscovered the real Christ of Christmas, the Christ who came (as that old revival saying put it) not to "see through you," but to "see you through"? "Be prepared." Jesus said it, Paul emphasized it, Matthew reiterated it, and eventually even the Boy Scouts picked it up as their own mantra. The season of Advent begins today with its own admonition for ...

2560. A Concert of Prayer

1 Corinthians 1:10-18

Drama

Leonard Sweet

Christ is not and cannot be divided if the church is to stand. Yet upon that single foundation of Christ, a multitude of diverse structures may be constructed. Paul preferred the beauty and complexity of a choir to the elegance of a solo. He celebrated the diversity he saw in the churches he founded and attended, seeing their differences as potential for greater strength - not weakness. Our own preference today, however, seems to be for creating a cream-of-wheat church. Smooth, bland, tasteless and benign ...

2561. Genesis 12:1-4a

Genesis 12:1-4a

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

In a mere four verses, we have described the creation of an entire people and the establishment of a radically new kind of relationship between humanity and divinity. The "call of Abram" does more than separate a lone herdsman from his ancestral family. This "call" separates the old animistic, anthropocentric notions of the universe from a remarkably new way of viewing the divine/human or creator/creation relationship. In the other popular, ancient Near Eastern religions, the numerous "gods" behaved in ...

2562. Remember Me

Luke 22:7-38, John 13:18-30

Sermon

King Duncan

There is an absolutely corny joke that I picked up somewhere. It’s about a bill collector in Georgia who knocked on the door of a client who lived out in a rural area. This client owed the bill collector’s company money. “Is Fred home?” he asked the woman who answered the door. “Sorry,” the woman replied. “Fred’s gone for cotton.” The next day the collector tried again. “Is Fred here today?” “No, sir,” she said, “I’m afraid Fred has gone for cotton.” When he returned the third day, he said sarcastically, “ ...

2563. A Time for Opportunity

Ephesians 4:17--5:21

Sermon

King Duncan

Some of you are familiar with a 26-year-old blogger in Montreal, Canada named Kyle MacDonald. Kyle is the ultimate modern day horse trader. He has become famous for trading a red paper clip for a house. Yes, you heard right. A paper clip for a house. How did he accomplish this remarkable exchange? Well, he didn’t have a job, but one day he looked at a red paper clip on his desk and decided to trade it on the barter section of the popular website Craigslist. He asked people to trade with him anything of ...

2564. Did You Know You Can Know You Have Eternal Life?

1 John 5:11-13

Sermon

James Merritt

Did you know, you can KNOW you have eternal life? Even if you are the oldest person on earth, at some point you are going to die. Let's see how you did on the question I asked earlier… The average human life span is 82 years with women living 6-7 years longer then men on average. Did you know that the oldest people in the modern era live in the Dominican Republic? The oldest person died last October. Do you know how old she was? The answer is 128 years. Born January 27, 1875, Elizabeth "Ma Pompo" Israel, ...

2565. It’s Humble or the Umbles

Ephesians 6:10-20

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

You know you’ve crossed into some new station in your life when you visit the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art and realize as you are leaving that you completely skipped all the paintings. That’s right, the entire Renaissance wing just was not on the agenda. Suddenly it hits you: You are no longer a student, or a tourist, or an art lover. No, you are a parent of small, squirming children who need to see something big, and strong, and hard-hitting. So your museum tour was through the pyramids. Your ...

2566. Be Reconciled — To Christ and Others

2 Corinthians 5:16-21

Sermon

Richard Gribble

The train clanked and rattled down the tracks one lazy summer afternoon as I traveled from Kyoto to Tokyo. My car was relatively empty — a few housewives with children in tow and a few older folks going to or returning from shopping. At one station the doors opened and suddenly the quiet of the afternoon was shattered by a man who began to bellow violence and incomprehensible curses. The man was big, drunk, and filthy. As he yelled, he swung at a woman carrying a baby. The blow sent the woman into the lap ...

2567. Something to Whistle About

Colossians 1:1-14

Sermon

John Jamison

It was back in the days when the railroad was the most common mode of transportation. There were automobiles, and some airplanes, but the steam locomotive was the way most folks traveled and the way that most of the goods were distributed around the country. After dinner, people sat in the drawing room and listened to the radio programs, fading in and out from some faraway location, over the magical broadcasting signal. Later at night, as they lay in bed, they listened to the roar and squeal of the old ...

2568. Developing a Glad Attitude

1 Timothy 6:3-10

Sermon

Clayton A. Lord

It always amazes me when I read about a sports figure who decides to hold out for more money. With salaries that are often in the millions, they feel underpaid unless they are at the next level. I heard one player say to a reporter on SportsCenter, "It's not about the money. It is about respect." A few moments later, the host of the show made the comment, "When they say it isn't about the money, it's always about the money." This attitude of grabbing all you can get is not limited to the world of sports. ...

2569. Jumping through Hoops

Acts 11:1-18

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, is a place where the old ways matter. The Amish still ride their buggies up and down the green hills. Most churches have spires, and they frame the landscape with the proclaimed piety of their people. Change comes slowly. Sometimes that's good, especially when we're talking about the basics of the faith. Sometimes that's bad. Like when people refuse to change the little things. A lot of the churches, especially the Plain People like the Amish, Brethren, and Mennonite, ...

2570. The Hard Task of Truth-telling

Jeremiah 1:4-10

Sermon

Lee Ann Dunlap

Carrie's[1] high school guidance counselor noticed she had been acting out a bit in school recently. She had appeared depressed and had been having some authority issues over rules and such. The guidance counselor set Carrie up with a local pastor who had been volunteering a few hours each Friday after a teen suicide a few months before. Most of the other students who came to see the pastor just needed someone to listen to their usual teen issues and heartaches. But, shortly into their time together, ...

2571. Small Towns

Luke 2:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

Today on this final Sunday of Advent we would like to celebrate small towns. How many of you grew up in a small town? Small towns are just a little bit different. As someone has written, “You know you live in a small town when . . .” A baby born on June 14 receives gifts from local merchants as the first baby of the year. You speak to each dog you pass by name and he wags his tail at you. You can’t walk for exercise because every car that passes you offers you a ride. You can name everyone you graduated ...

2572. A Word to Prodigals

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

King Duncan

Retired seminary professor Fred B. Craddock was preaching on the parable of the prodigal son. After the service a man said, “I really didn’t care much for that, frankly.” Craddock asked, “Why?” The man said. “Well, I guess it’s not your sermon, I just don’t like that story.” Craddock asked, “What is it you don’t like about it?” He said. “It’s not morally responsible.” Craddock asked, “What do you mean by that?” “Forgiving that boy,” said the man. Craddock asked, “Well, what would you have done?” The man ...

2573. The Challenge, The Call, The Cure

Matthew 9:9-13

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

The 1999 movie October Sky, is the true story of Homer Hickam, Jr., who rose from a gloomy West Virginia coal mining town with not much hope of a future to become a NASA engineer. Homer's mind and imagination is completely captured by the launch of Sputnik. All of a sudden he is fascinated by rockets. There's a scene early on in the movie when Homer is thinking about talking to Quentin, the school nerd and his best friend, Roy Lee says: "You can't be seen with him Homer. He's a weirdo." As Homer gets up to ...

2574. The Short List

Micah 6:1-8

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

You might remember the old story about a man who was informed by his doctor that he had rabies. The doctor also had to inform the man that he had waited so long to go the doctor that nothing could be done about his condition. The man looked devastated but before the doctor could console him, she was called out of the room for an emergency. As soon as she could return, she did. As she opened the door, the doctor saw the noticed the patient was writing something on a piece of paper. Hesitantly the doctor ...

2575. Redemption: A Wide Angle Picture

Exodus 3:1-22

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Some time ago I was in Maryland for a retreat, and we were near Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. I had never been to Gettysburg, that sight of the pivotal battle that turned the tides of the Civil War, so we rode out there one day. It was altogether too cold, and there was too much snow and ice for us to tour the battle field. But we had the opportunity of visiting the Cyclorama - the giant painting on canvas the high water mark of that awful war. Paul Philippoteaux was the artist. He came to America in 1881 ...

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