Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 2551 to 2575 of 4957 results

2551. Give Them Good News...

Romans 5:1-11

Sermon

Robert V. Dodd

... But the other man will be expecting you," came the reply. "Well, I appreciate the offer, but I'm riding with my friend Bob," Dr. Colaw said, ending the discussion. I was dumbfounded. Here I was a "nobody" and he was treating me like a "somebody" - giving my prior claim on his company a high degree of importance. I think I know now how Zacchaeus must have felt when Jesus told him to climb down out of that sycamore tree and said, "Today, I'm going to have dinner with you." "But Lord," his disciples must have ...

2552. Is It Well With Your Family? (Mother's Day)

2 Kings 4:8-26

Sermon

Brett Blair

... to smile a big smile of recognition. ‘Wait a minute!’ he said. ‘I know who you are. I see the family resemblance now. You are a child of God.’ With that he slapped me across the rump and said, ‘Boy, you’ve got a great inheritance. Go and claim it.’ The old man looked across the table at Fred Craddock and said, "Those were the most important words anybody ever said to me, and I’ve never forgotten them." With that, he smiled shook hands with Craddock and his wife, and moved on to another table ...

2553. Trifling with the Trinity

John 16:5-16

Illustration

Brett Blair

... grieve Jesus if they adhere to doctrines not found in Scripture. She says, "If God wanted us to refer to Himself, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit as the 'trinity,' He would not have left this word completely out of the Bible." We must tread carefully when these kinds of claims are made. Just because a word is not in the bible doesn't mean that it is unbiblical. There are a lot of words that we use in the church that are not found in the Bible. In fact, the word Bible is not in the Bible. Now we find ...

2554. God, The Enemy

Luke 12:1-12

Sermon

... in the face of frightening things we cannot control. In any case, it's worth noting that when the poet Henley wrote those words, he probably was not thinking of setting his own standard of morality, as McVeigh appears to have done. Far from claiming the right to be judge, jury and executioner of others, Henley was vocalizing his attitude toward the hurts and setbacks of life. At the age of 12, he developed tubercular arthritis, and his left foot was amputated in his teens. He had other health problems ...

2555. Master of My Fate; Captain of My Soul

Luke 8:26-39

Illustration

... at the judgment seat of God, none of us is any longer master of our fate. It's worth noting that when the poet Henley wrote those words, he was not thinking of setting his own standard of morality, as McVeigh appears to have done. Far from claiming the right to be judge, jury and executioner of others, Henley was vocalizing his attitude toward the hurts and setbacks of life. At the age of 12, he developed tubercular arthritis, and his left foot was amputated in his teens. He had other health problems later ...

2556. The Friend At Midnight

Luke 11:1-13

Sermon

Brett Blair

... by his daring pooled their resources. The little boy and his mother left with 23 boxes of chocolate chip cookies. We Americans pray, but we may not know how to pray. According to a Gallop Poll, 87% of all Americans pray, 50% use prayer for petitions, and 70% claim their prayers are answered. Although we are not allowed to pray in the classroom in public schools, it is clear that Americans do manage to pray. But, do we know how to pray as we ought? When we pray are we just speaking to ourselves, or are we ...

2557. Sermon Opener - The Friend At Midnight

Luke 11:1-13

Illustration

We Americans pray, but we may not know how to pray. According to a Gallop Poll, 87% of all Americans pray, 50% use prayer for petitions, and 70% claim their prayers are answered. Although we are not allowed to pray as community in public schools, it is clear that Americans do manage to pray. But, do we know how to pray as we ought? When we pray are we just speaking to ourselves, or are we speaking to God? ...

2558. Our Three Deepest Needs

Luke 11:1-13

Illustration

Richard Patt

... as persons. What would you imagine those to be? The first need we have, the speaker said, is to know someone who will listen to us. We all have a story to tell, a need to verbalize our feelings. We want someone who will listen to that. Secondly, he claimed, we want the person listening to believe what we are saying. We want someone who will trust our story. Finally, the television speaker said that when we have found such a person who listens to us and trusts us, we want to be assured that such a person is ...

2559. Full Barns and Empty Hearts

Luke 12:13-21

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... filled. We clergy must take much of the blame for this painful admission. We get so accustomed to holy things that we handle them carelessly and thoughtlessly, so that no one goes out from worship sensing the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. Nor could we claim that the Sunday morning worship service is the only place where we can have our hearts filled with the richness of God’s love. This would be to subscribe to a liturgical fundamentalism that does not square with the witness of scripture or reason. God ...

2560. Museum or Mission?

Luke 15:1-7, Luke 15:8-10

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... a devastating fire destroyed the impressive building of that church. Many remarked on what a sad thing this was to have happened to this congregation. Its structure had long been a landmark of the downtown area, and many in suburban congregations claimed that their spiritual home was in that place. But wise lay and pastoral leadership saw an opportunity for mission that had not existed before fire destroyed their building. From the fire they received an insurance settlement of several million dollars. This ...

2561. To Be Somebody

Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

... , O Savior true; No, I was found of thee. - SBH, 473 This is Christ standing at the door and knocking. This is what the prophet wrote when he was quoting God: "Before they call, I will answer." (Isaiah 65:24) This is like our baptism, where God claims us before we could acknowledge him. The crowds murmured when they saw the rabbi walking home with the sinner. They shouldn’t have been surprised. The God of Israel had communed with Abraham the liar. (Abraham had passed off his wife as his sister a couple ...

2562. Is This Life All There Is?

Luke 20:27-40

Sermon

... resurrected saints will be like, when the Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier will make our souls and bodies new. Now I suppose Jesus could have ended his answer here. But he went on and took the attack. The Sadducees based their dennial of the resurrection on their claim that the books of Moses said nothing about it. The Sadducees didn’t accept the authority of the rest of the Old Testament, just the first five books. So our Lord met them on their own ground: But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed ...

2563. Christ the King A King Worth Having

John 12:12-19

Sermon

... taxes on the colonists without their consent; suspending their legislatures; and so on. A thousand years before Christ, the Kingdom of Israel groaned under the tax load required by Solomon’s life style. The Old Testament reports Solomon loved women, and it backs up that claim by explaining he had 700 wives and 300 concubines. You can imagine what his grocery bill was like. If just one of his wives complained, "I don’t have a thing to wear," I don’t suppose the other 999 kept quiet either. When Solomon ...

2564. The Footwashing

Luke 7:36-50

Sermon

... he was never crucified with Christ in his own life. He sudied apostolic history, but he did not live apostolically. He was an observer and a talker about Christianity, but not a doer. Now, it may be pushing things a bit too far by claiming that Simon fits the description developed by Kierkegaard. It just may be that we mirror his accusations more than Simon does. The Pharisees were "doers" in a very legalistic and literalistic sense; they were scrupulous in their observation of God’s law. They believed ...

2565. The Gospel of the Little Man

Luke 19:1-10

Sermon

... himself, present a resume of his accomplishments, his past experience, and his impressive references. The resume can be terribly deceiving, as those of us well know who have been stung by seif-sales-personship and have hired on a nerd whose only claim to brilliance was the power of deception. Undoubtedly, despite his riches, Zacchaeus never felt poorer, and though small of stature, never felt smaller. But whatever he had sought when he climbed up the sycamore was less than he received before the day ...

2566. How to Stay on Top of It

Luke 21:5-38

Sermon

... , and meanwhile watching out for black cats on their pathway. But the hopeful are the people who can see God’s end and new beginnings in his promise. The Warning Jesus did not answer the disciples’ question. Instead he issued a broad warning about false messiahs who would claim the office of messiah, saying, "I am he. The time is at hand." Do not be led astray. And instead of giving them a sign as they had asked, he said that in the latter days there would be tragedies and wars, and while this often has ...

2567. Believing is Seeing

Luke 23:26-43

Sermon

Alton F. Wedel

... , we try to make the Kingdom come on our terms, not on Christ’s, by power plays instead of meekness movements. The mission is contemporized to make folks feel good about themselves, to win friends and influence people at the expense of other people. Vaunted claims of inclusiveness result in subtle exclusiveness. Sin is upgraded to the level of "that’s how it is these days," and forgiveness is a word reserved for pious liturgies. In ways like these, and many others, we try to make a mark, increase the ...

2568. Remember Me?

Luke 13:22-30

Sermon

... what he taught. They believe that the greatest event is that the word became text rather than the word became flesh. They are scholars who enjoy a casual association with Christ. This text is a warning about such casual associations. Addressing the people who claimed a casual association with him, the householder boldly said, "I do not know where you came from; depart from me, all of you workers of iniquity!" (Luke 13:27) The casual associations of eating and drinking in his presence and having him teach in ...

2569. The Emperor’s Son-in-law

Luke 12:22-34, Luke 12:35-48

Sermon

Carveth Mitchell

... knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, that through these you may ... become partakers of the divine nature." (2 Peter 1:3-4) Blessings, indeed! And as Christians we lay claim to them. Then in, through and under them is the story of the Steward. It ends with the demanding words of Jesus, words from which we shrink in our self-centered daily life: "To whom much is given, of him will much be required." Peter says more ...

2570. Our Splintered World

Luke 12:49-53

Sermon

Carveth Mitchell

... and nothing more. Neutrality toward Jesus is not possible, as Pilate discovered. Every person must come down on one side or the other. Jesus said, "He who is not with me is against me." (Matthew 12:30) He cannot be "just a good man." Either he is God as he claimed to be - "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30) and "He that has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:9) - or else he is not even a good man, but one of the most audacious liars and first-class frauds that history has produced. No matter ...

2571. The Man Who Came to Dinner

Luke 14:1-14

Sermon

Carveth Mitchell

... and unbearable to people. Nobody liked me. But now I’m the most modest, likeable guy you ever met, and everybody likes me."* * It is interesting to note that such diverse writers as Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1771-1834) and Robert Southey (1774-1843) both claim that the Devil’s favorite sin is "pride that apes humility." And the Devil did grin, for his darling sin Is pride that apes humility. Coleridge, The Devil’s Thoughts The Devil owned with a grin that his favorite Is pride that apes humility ...

2572. Of Preachers and Preaching

Micah 1:8-16

Sermon

... to be scrutinized carefully by the community of faith. The church could not long survive if it gave equal and unqualified attention to all the eccentric individuals who get a feeling of being called. The point is illustrated in an old story about a country boy who claimed to have a vision that propelled him into the ministry. According to his report, as he was at work in the fields one day he had looked up to see the capital letters G P C blazing across the sky. Filled with awe, he had interpreted these ...

2573. Why Aspire to Sainthood?

Daniel 7:1-14

Sermon

... of God, unless it be the humble inner assurance that it is so? What greater wealth can enrich a life than that which is found in possessing the Kingdom of God? Let us, then, resolve to take the high road with our lives, the saintly road. Let us dare lay claim to our heritage as God’s children. Let us not be afraid or ashamed to join Abraham and all the saints of all the ages in launching out toward the land God has promised we can possess. The way will not be a lonely one. Our Lord has promised to ...

2574. Weed-Pulling

Matthew 13:24-30

Sermon

Richard Patt

... of over-generalizing. To me it seems that we often pull up and throw away a lot of valuable wheat by some of our over-generalizing. The familiar, merciless ones are known to all of us. The complaint that all Jews are out to make a financial killing. Or the claim that black people don't know how to take care of their homes and allow their neighborhoods to go to ruin. That kind of over-generalizing is weed-pulling of the worst sort. For what are we really doing? We're pulling up all the wheat as well. We're ...

2575. Everybody Pray!

Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon

... in itself, has come in recent years to suggest a dry, formal, outward way of practicing religion. Among theologians a favorite expression is "dead orthodoxy," referring to the religious game of going through the motions. The word rekes heavily of the claim to a "right" or "correct" way of believing and practicing the Christian faith. What seems to break through quite clearly in this text here is the fact that such orthodoxy, such laudable religious etiquette, is never something demanded of those who ...

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