Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 2551 to 2575 of 4508 results

Children's Sermon

B. Kathleen Fannin

Object: A saltine cracker in a plastic bag. Lesson: Helping others; sharing. This is a difficult text even for adults. In order to help the children make some sense out of it, I have brought a saltine cracker in a baggie. I begin by asking the kids, "Do you know what a crumb is?" No one is sure enough to describe a crumb to me, so I take the baggie with the cracker out of my pocket, hold it up a...

2552. A Strong-willed Woman

Sermon

King Duncan

Have you ever noticed that some women are equal to any occasion? And they can be as tough as NFL linebackers. I heard about one woman in a farming community years ago who went to a meeting usually dominated by men. They were discussing some important issues critical to farmers. About midway through the meeting this woman stood up and spoke her piece. One of the old farmers didn’t like her intrusi...

2553. The Cry for Help

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

In the Gospel of Mark, the woman in our story is called a "Syrophoenician." Matthew, however, calls her a "Canaanite." That's easier to say than "Syrophoenician" but there's something more important going on with that change. The Canaanites are not just Gentiles but enemies. They are the people who were to be driven out of the promised land by the Israelites and who fought against God's covenant p...

2554. Wrong Way. On Purpose

Sermon

Siegfried S. Johnson

"I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel . . . It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs" . July 17, 1938. Douglas Corrigan tops off the fuel tank of his tiny 1929 Curtis Robin monoplane. Moments later Corrigan is airborne from the East Coast's Floyd Bennett Airfield. The plane is hardly state-of-the-art. His cabin door is literally tied shut with baling ...

2555. Live and Learn

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Is anyone's memory of study hall a fun one? Either you were the studious type, who really wanted to use that hour of enforced peace and quiet to get some work done, or you were the kid that was bored, trying to think of ways to sneak out, send notes, shoot spit-wads, or otherwise somehow liven up that deadly hour. But the shushings of study hall monitors and librarians aren't common to all cultu...

2556. She Had Great Faith

Sermon

King Duncan

A few years ago author Bennett Cerf was addressing an audience of doctors in San Diego. Afterwards one of these doctors told him about an operation he had performed on an ill‑tempered lady of about eighty. The woman came through the surgery with flying colors despite all her dire prognostications. Nevertheless she became quite agitated when the doctor told her that in accordance with the rules of...

2557. Send Her Away!

Sermon

King Duncan

Those of you who are of a certain age might remember a little song from the 1960s. It was a tune by the Kingston Trio with the misleading title, “Merry Minuet.” It was anything but merry, but it was a satirical song that describes some of the turmoil in the world today. It went like this: They’re rioting in Africa. They’re starving in Spain. There’s hurricanes in Florida and Texas needs rain. The...

2558. Don’t Be a Trender - Be a Trendsetter

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

“Trending” as in “what’s trending?” is a social networking term used to describe what latest “hot new thing” is gaining popularity online and in our TGIF (Twitter, Google, Instagram, Facebook) culture. If you know what is “trending” then supposedly you’ve got your finger, or at least your texting finger, on the pulse of “what’s happening” in the world today. What have you heard is trending? Anyon...

2559. When You Need Help

Sermon

King Duncan

What can we say about this woman? She was pushy, aggressive, assertive. She would not be denied. Even when Jesus ignored her she would not quit. Can you ever remember Jesus deliberately ignoring anybody? But that's what the record shows. Matthew tells us a Canaanite woman came crying after Jesus: "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is possessed by a demon." No big deal. Jesus was ...

2560. Let Yes Be Yes!

Sermon

A popular folk song among Christian youth in the 60s went like this: And God said Yes! Yes! Yes! Said Yes to the world once more! Said Yes with a cosmic roar! Said, Open that Other Door! Said Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! In one word, that’s God’s message for this planet. It’s the gospel. It’s the hope we need, the doorway to the future. Each of us has asked ourselves and one another and the silent s...

2561. Just Who Do You Think You Are?

Sermon

Johnny Dean

How we read the Bible has a lot to do with what we get out of the Bible. If, for example, we read it as a rule book which governs the playing of the game of life, then what we get out of the Bible is a view of life that says, "Everyone who plays by the rules wins, and everyone who does not play by the rules loses." Based on your personal experience, is that an accurate representation of life? Mos...

2562. Hang in There!

Sermon

David E. Leininger

What do you think of that story? Not much, I suspect. For those of us who are followers of Jesus Christ, this might make us wonder what we have done. After all, at first blush, this lesson makes the Lord sound like something of a jerk. My first reaction is to want to "rescue" Jesus, find some way of explaining away this conversation that will put him in a bit more flattering light. The commentato...

2563. A Daughter of Jacob

Sermon

Richard Hoefler

This miracle is not simply the story of a mother and her demon-possessed child; it is really an international incident which was to affect the future shape of Christendom. What happened to the Canaanite woman that day affects us today in a most direct and vital way. Like most international incidents it happened at the border between two adversaries. Jesus had traveled to the extreme north end of ...

2564. It's Not Nice To Call Someone A Dog

Sermon

King Duncan

One of the appealing characteristics of the historical Jesus is how open he was to people ” all kinds of people. Will Rogers once said he never met a man he didn’t like. Jesus never met a person he didn’t love. People from all kinds of situations found themselves comfortable in his presence. He didn’t come across as stuffy or pretentious. It reminds me of the story of a priest in the mountains of...

2565. Great Is Your Faith

Sermon

Brett Blair

What would you think if I told you that on your tombstone would be inscribed a four-word epitaph? Well, you might respond, it would depend on who would write this epitaph an enemy or a loved one. It might also depend, you might say, on how well this person knew and understood you. If a newspaper critic wrote of a concert pianist the four words: "He was a failure," you could always say: That was hi...

2566. Syrophoenician Lives Matter!

Sermon

Lori Wagner

“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” (Isaiah 49:6) Animators (Props): cornucopia….apples…..pumpkins As we enter the fall season, we prepare for a lot of celebrations. Halloween, All Saints Day, Thanksgiving, Adv...

2567. Desperate Times Call For...

Sermon

King Duncan

This week marks the point in the year when most of us have wrapped up our summer vacation plans, and we’re getting back to our normal routines of work. Let’s all share a collective sigh as we say goodbye to summer vacation. I don’t know how much planning you put into your vacation. Some people like to go to the same places every year. Some people like to pack up and head out for a weekend, just t...

2568. THE KING OF LOVE MY SHEPHERD IS

Sermon Aid

John W. Rilling

She said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table." It certainly isn’t right to take food away from hungry children and give it to dogs instead. But it seems so out of character for Jesus to throw these words into a poor, distracted, woman’s face. "He went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil." But why then is he so reluctant t...

2569. Breaking down Barriers

Illustration

John Tucker

C.S. Lewis once wrote an essay entitled The Inner Ring. He says in the article that in any playground or office or church there are little groups or rings of people who are on the "inside". And those who aren't: those who don't get picked at playtime, those who stand on their own in the lunchroom. Lewis says that the existence of such rings is not necessarily bad. We're finite beings, and we can o...

2570. Have Faith Anyway

Illustration

David E. Leininger

The place was a suburb of Detroit. The speaker, Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel. The subject: "After Auschwitz, Can We Still Believe!" Jews and Gentiles alike filled the great synagogue to listen to the recollections of one who survived the furnaces of Dachau. Thin and fragile,Wiesel stood at the podium for nearly an hour telling one story after another of the horror and despair of those blea...

2571. One Feisty Woman

Sermon

Roy Howard

We could begin by noting that this is one feisty woman. Or, at the risk of irreverence, we could begin by noting that Jesus is one rude man. Rather than focus on one or the other, I suggest we explore the relationship enfolded in this remarkable gospel story and then ask about the implications for us. That the encounter between Jesus, the Jew, and this woman, a Gentile, even occurred was remarkab...

2572. The Rabbi's Apprentice

Sermon

Lori Wagner

In 1797, prominent German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote a poem called “Der Zauberlehrling,” in which an apprentice of a master sorcerer is left alone with chores to do. Invoking magic that he was not yet properly trained to use, the apprentice commanded a bucket and broom to do his work. Because he could not properly control them, everything got quickly out of hand, and chaos ensued. Fin...

2573. Thinking of Nothing Else

Illustration

J. Curtis Goforth

The famous Catholic monk, Martin Luther, was legendary not just for nailing a piece of paper to the door of his home church citing 95 things that needed to be changed about it. He wrote and lectured extensively to his students at the university as well. Some of his students were very good learners, and others were not so good. But a few of his students realized that some of the most valuable instr...

2574. Great Is Your Faith - Sermon Starter

Illustration

Brett Blair

2575. Pray for Yourself

Illustration

King Duncan

In 1989, former President George H. W. Bush was entering St. John's Episcopal Church to attend a worship service. A homeless man, William Wallace Brown Jr., stopped him and asked for prayer. The President's answer must have shocked onlookers. He replied, "No. Come inside with us and pray for yourself." From that day forward, William Wallace Brown Jr. regularly attended St. John's Episcopal Church...

Showing 2551 to 2575 of 4508 results