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 2726 to 2750 of 2815 results

2726. Devour And Conquer

Mark 12:38-44

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

... how important they were compared to others who attended church. Jesus seemed to be saying that in societies where there’s a gap in incomes the strong devour the weak. Devour and conquer. Jesus returned to the subject of widows on more than one occasion. He told a parable about an unjust judge who refused to hear a widow’s court case, but in the end she wore the judge down. Well, what are we to do? Is the warning of Jesus and the example of the widow interesting sidelights on a two-thousand-year- old ...

2727. Sustaining Faith

Mark 12:38-44

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... often in the world of finance, corporate growth, economics, and in general, any bureaucracy, but it’s not the way we like to view people when we think in terms of a faith community. In fact, just the opposite. Look at any scripture story, parable, or teaching by Jesus, and you will find a strong reaction to “weighing one’s worth” by one’s deeds or acts. In Jesus’ mission and message, we aren’t “golden” because we are useful, successful, or essential to a project or institution. We ...

2728. Going Into Labor

Mark 13:1-8

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

... indication about when it will happen? The proper response, according to the gospels, is to be found working! When Jesus ascended into heaven the disciples were scolded by two angels for looking into the sky instead of following their Lord’s instructions. In various parables Jesus suggested that when a master went out on a trip the slaves should be found at their posts, doing their work, so they’d be found doing what they were supposed to be doing when their master returned. The ancient Greek poet Hesiod ...

2729. Shake It Up

Mark 13:1-8

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... how amazing God’s kingdom will be! Since God touched down, God had been surreptitiously making changes throughout the area. Crowds followed Jesus wherever he went. He left his mark on countless of those he healed, both psychologically and physically. His parables fed people with new and different food. His provocative accusations to the powers that be caused some to whisper, others to seethe. The changes had begun. The fissures and cracks in underneath the Temple façade had begun to widen. Soon ...

2730. When Good People Pray

Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

Sermon

King Duncan

... used this for a storage room during the summer. Just haven’t gotten it cleaned out yet.” Herb Miller writes, “At first it seemed like a sacrilegious thing to the visitor—stacking a prayer room full of junk. But then he realized that the room was a parable of his own life. He was so busy traveling around the country speaking and doing good things, he had lost the habit of praying. The time he had formerly spent talking with God each day was now crowded full of other things.” (2) That has happened ...

2731. Grace Under Pressure

Luke 4:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... could ever imagine. 1. “Woman goes into labor and gives birth in the middle of taking the bar exam,” By Lauren M. Johnson, CNN October 11, 2020 https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/10/us/mom-has-baby-while-taking-bar-exam-trnd/index.html. 2. “The Parable of the Unprepared Plumber” by Susan Todd, http://www.1timothy4-13.com/files/proverbs/plumber.html. 3. Lee, Blaine. The Power Principle (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997), pp. 5-6. 4. “I’m not the strongest. I’m not the fastest. But I’m really good at ...

2732. Welcome, Joe!

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Sermon

King Duncan

... audience. So our story begins with the words, “Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.’ Then Jesus told them this parable. . .” What do these verses tell us about God’s heart? Jesus is telling his audience of outcasts, “God welcomes you.” You are important to me. Not as a project or a charity case. As a friend. “This man welcomes sinners and eats with ...

2733. Jesus In Ministry — Us In Ministry

Luke 4:14-21

Sermon

Derl G. Keefer

Chuck Swindoll illustrates how ministry concerns all of us in his “Saving Lives” parable (https://www.insight.org of October 2, 2015). On a rugged section of seacoast many decades ago a crude lifesaving station was built. Only a few volunteers manned the station to watch for ships that were in danger of the rocks. On the occasion of a shipwreck the handful of ...

2734. Provoked

Luke 4:21-30

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... , or at least NOT for those we disapprove of. God’s gift of mercy and grace given to those whom we feel don’t deserve it has plagued our souls from the time of our independence from the garden. And today is no different. Think about Jesus’ parable of the vineyard workers: “It’s not fair that those working 1 hour get paid the same as those working 8.” Think about Jesus’ experience of anointing by Mary: “It’s not fair that all that money gets poured over the head of one man. We could ...

2735. The Joy of Being Found

Luke 15:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... it. He loves us and reaches out to us in grace simply because it is the nature of love to reach out.” God is love. And it is the nature of love to reach out. So after the religious leaders grumbled about Jesus, we read, “Then Jesus told them this parable: ‘Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then ...

2736. Have You Seen a Buck Flying Past?

Luke 16:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... to the work of the kingdom of God or go back to pursuing their own safe and comfortable interests. In other words, take on the responsibilities of discipleship or spend the rest of their lives passing the buck. And so, he tells them a very strange parable, a story about a rich man who accuses his household manager of mismanaging his resources. The rich man calls this manager into his office and asks, “What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management because you cannot be my manager any ...

2737. The Steady March Forward

Luke 9:51-62

Sermon

Dave Zuchelli

... to Jerusalem was fraught with all kinds of occurrences. He was rejected by the Samaritans, turned down some would-be followers, visited Martha and Mary, drove out some demons, argued with some Pharisees, predicted his own death and resurrection, told a lot of parables, healed some lepers and at least one blind man, visited Zacchaeus, and finally rode into Jerusalem. The entire time he was doing those things he was continually teaching his followers the way of the kingdom. With all that going on, it would ...

2738. God So Loved

John 3:16-17

Sermon

Will Willimon

... . The prophet is sent not to scold but to save. The preacher has come to lift up, not to tear down. Look at the cross, the Lenten preacher says, see what you did to Jesus! Look at the cross, John 3:16 says, see what God does for you. A parable I heard years ago: Once there was a mean, old rancher. He was a tough man, who didn't take nothing off nobody. One of his cowhands rustled a cow. When they finally caught the cowhand, they dragged him before the old rancher. He looked down at the poor, frightened ...

2739. Bigger, Better, Basta!

Luke 12:13-21

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... by one’s possessions, even when someone is very wealthy.” Our value, self-worth, identity, meaning, purpose, and delight in life never can come from the accumulation of things. They can give us nothing back. Their value is illusive and illusional. They cannot love you. Jesus’ parable comes next. In it, he describes a rich man (already overflowing in means) who produces a bountiful crop that year. He has reaped so much that he has no place more to put it, nowhere to go with it. He has way more than he ...

2740. Christmas Is Out of Control

Matthew 24:36-44

Sermon

John Jamison

... . The Zealots hated them almost as much as the Romans themselves. Simon looked nervous but excited. He had waited for this day for a very long time. According to Matthew, Jesus began talking to his disciples, and anyone else nearby, telling them a couple of parables. He didn’t turn over tables that day, but his stories had a way of getting the point across, and most of them pointed directly at those Pharisees, Sadducees, priests, and scribes. It didn’t take long before they had heard enough. A group of ...

2741. A Young Man's Vow

Luke 14:25-33

Sermon

Richard Hasler

... across a missionary magazine in 1904 and noticed that the Paris Missionary Society was looking for a missionary doctor to work in their Congo mission. Schweitzer wrote in his autobiography: “My thirtieth birthday, a few months later, I spent like the man in the parable who ‘desiring to build a tower, first counts the cost whether he have wherewith to complete it. The result was that I resolved to realize my plan of direct human service in Equatorial Africa.”[1] As he planned to enter the mission field ...

2742. The Last Coca Cola in the Desert

Luke 18:9-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... we really are the last Coca Cola in the desert, this story is definitely for everyone in this room. Our story begins with these challenging words: “To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: ‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: “God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector ...

2743. Small Beginnings, Great Endings

Luke 17:5-10

Sermon

Richard Hasler

... , even if this happens seven times. There should be no limit to the forgiveness. The third saying is on faith, the heart of this particular sermon. We will elaborate more on this topic later. The fourth saying concerns the matter of obedience. A slave in this parable even though he had labored in the field all day long, should not feel that his work was done. He may say to himself, “Now is my time to eat and be served by someone else, but Jesus says that his servants should see the situation differently ...

2744. First Responder

Luke 18:1-8

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... of our society. They care for others deeply, enough to sacrifice their lives for those in danger. We owe every day a great debt to our first responders. Today, in our scripture, Jesus points us to yet another “first responder.” In his short, simple parable, he points to the immediate, caring, responsiveness of God to those who call out in need through prayer. Jesus is talking about urgent prayer, emergency prayer, prayer that subs as a divine 911 call to the Head First Responder –God’s own self. Now ...

2745. Rule Breakers

Matthew 5:21-37

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... People Make . . . . (HarperCollins Publishers, 1992). 3. Cited in The Collected Sermons of William Sloane Coffin: The Riverside Years, Volume I, page 4. www.khouo.com. Pastor Richard Allen, http://www.mamaroneckumc.org/2008sermons/20081116.htm. 4. Jamie Buckingham, Parables (Lake Mary, FL: Creation House, 1991), pp. 81-82. 5. “From prisoner to booster: Former POW eager to watch 'The Vietnam War'” by Gerald Ensley Tallahassee Democrat September 16, 2017. https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2017/09 ...

2746. How Does Prayer Work?

1 Corinthians 2:1-12 (13-16)

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... monk walked down the corridors of the monastery and noticed that each of his disciples had a cat in their prayer room. After seeing the monk with a cat, they thought that having a cat was the secret to powerful praying! I believe this is a parable for many Christians today. Many believe they have to do something special in order for God to hear them and answer them. You will often see folks running here and there to learn the latest prayer gimmick from self-proclaimed spiritual gurus. Prayer is not rubbing ...

2747. Seeing is Believing…or Is It?

John 20:19-31

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... a while, we can encounter a “glitch,” something so out of our realm of understanding, something so clarifying that it “shifts” our entire architecture –adds something new to our inner vision. This was in fact Jesus’ gift in his telling of parables. It’s what happens when someone suddenly sees something in their lives that changes their view of themselves and others. We call it healing. Jesus calls it seeing. Thomas’ experienced a “paradox” that day –and it would change his life and our ...

2748. The Gift of Forgiveness

Matthew 18:21-35

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... our God never forces His way in or kicks down the door, we must first open it from the inside.” (5) Forgiveness is a gift from God. We have been forgiven, and so we are able to forgive others. Jesus followed his answer to Simon Peter with a delightful parable of a man who owed his king ten thousand talents. We are told that this was an amount equivalent to 15 years of wages to a laborer in that day. The king forgave the man his debt. This same man, however, had an acquaintance who owed him the small sum ...

2749. How Much Should We Pack?

Matthew 9:35-10:8, (9-23)

Sermon

William G. Carter

... That is refreshing because the props can get in the way. Years ago, when my sister worked at a summer church camp, she brought back a collection of short passages that the staff used for devotions. It was a snarky little collection of wisecracking little parables, which is probably why I kept it still on my shelf. Here’s one of my favorites: In a certain town, an advertising executive decided to sell God. She invited some clients to a presentation. Then she got busy. First she converted the “God message ...

2750. The Pearls of Hapsberg

Illustration

Maxie Dunnam

... and sheen. All sorts of authorities began to work on efforts to restore their shining glow, but all failed. Finally some authority suggested returning the pearls to their original salt water environment. It worked! The pearls of Hapsberg’s luster was restored. That’s a parable for us. Our true value is in our everyday environment. If we try to be something we aren’t, we will lose our identity. The glow and luster of life comes when we separate ourselves from pretense and sham, when we seek to be the ...

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