Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 2726 to 2750 of 4508 results

Sermon Aid

THEOLOGICAL CLUE Had the plan of the Joint Liturgical Group in Great Britain, which set an agenda for reforming the church year, been followed in the American churches, the Advent prayers might have come at a very propitious time in the life of the churches, the beginning of September. The Joint Liturgical Group had suggested extending the Sundays before Christmas back far enough that the holy hi...

2727. The One Chosen

Drama

Robert F. Crowley

Theme: There are those who would stop us from doing God's best and want us to do what is only good. They are stumbling blocks to us. Jesus is always our model for life and death. Summary: In a time in the future, when the government is exterminating children who are inferior and sterilizing parents who bear them, two people struggle whether to put their lives in danger to save others. Playing Ti...

2728. Crayon's Crazy Idea

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

Object: A crayon. Lesson: For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Good morning, boys and girls. Today is one of these wonderful days when I feel just great. How do you feel? (Let them answer.) That is super! Everyone feels just great. I think that one of the reasons I feel so good is that I have learned a great lesson from my friend "Cra...

2729. Tiny Bad Habits

Children's Sermon

King Duncan

Object: A slice of tree. Large enough that the rings will show clearly. Boys and girls, most of you know that this is a piece of a tree. It is cut out of the middle of the tree. Can you see the rings? These are growth rings. A tree grows one ring wider each year. If you look carefully, you can tell if the season was wet or dry (wide rings mean wet weather). Sometimes you can see scars that show t...

2730. Tevye's Question

Children's Sermon

King Duncan

Object: None or a small cross for each child. Good morning, boys and girls. Jesus told his disciples that they must "take up their cross and follow him." This seems like a strange thing to say, but the disciples understood what Jesus meant. He meant that they had to be willing to do the right thing although it was hard. Jesus knew he was going to go to the cross. He didn't want to – in fact, he e...

2731. Whose Side Are You On?

Sermon

King Duncan

“Shoot Me First.” That’s what a courageous 13-year-old Amish girl said to the crazed man who broke into her school on Monday, October 2, 2006. “Shoot Me First.” He did shoot her, killing her along with five of her schoolmates, aged seven to thirteen. Then he killed himself. The shooter, Charles Carl Roberts, a 32-year-old milkman entered the humble one-room schoolhouse with the intent of killing ...

2732. The Road No One Wants to Travel

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

Some time ago, I was riding a train through central England and a man boarded at one of the stops. As he looked for a seat, he saw my face and beamed at me with great joy. "Hi, Will!" he said brightly, in a wonderful British accent. Unfortunately, I'm not Will. When he sat next to me and I opened my mouth to protest his mistaken notion of who I was, my flat American English paved the way for his ...

2733. Smother Love

Sermon

Kristin Borsgard Wee

I loved my father very much. He was my security, my hero, my knight in shining armor. But he wasn't perfect. My dad had "a plan" for each of us three kids. We were supposed to go off to college, and then come back home to teach school, preferably in the same school where my dad taught. My older brother functioned pretty much according to plan. I didn't. After college I made plans to go to graduat...

2734. In Search of Heroes

Sermon

King Duncan

On one of his programs years ago, legendary broadcaster Paul Harvey told the thrilling story of a man named Ray Blankenship. It seems that one summer morning as Blankenship was preparing his breakfast, he gazed out the window and saw something that made his heart nearly stop. A small girl had fallen into a rain-flooded drainage ditch beside his home and was rapidly being swept downstream. Blanken...

2735. For Those Who Are Auditing the Class

Sermon

King Duncan

Pastor Tony Evans says his wife has for years audited classes at Dallas Seminary. Some of you know what that means. When you audit a class, you go and sit in the classroom, but there are no outside requirements. You don’t have to study. You don’t have to take any tests. You get the information but you don’t have the burden of actually passing the class. Tony Evans goes on to say, “Many Christians...

2736. Five Mission Killers

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Although autumn does not officially start until September 22, we all know that this weekend, Labor Day Weekend, signals the end of summer. The "holiday" season is over. It is time to "get back to work" Tuesday morning. And we all, all generations, know it — whether we are in kindergarten class or on a corporate totem pole. After Labor Day it is "business as usual." No more holidays. Holidays used...

2737. Oops! I Did It Again

Sermon

King Duncan

Have you ever had a setback, a defeat, a screw-up? Have you ever snatched failure from the jaws of success? Playwright Oscar Wilde once commented after a disastrous opening night that his play was a great success but the audience was a failure. That’s one way of handling defeat, I guess. Winston Churchill had that same ability to spin a setback a setback into something else. He was once asked, “...

2738. Cross-Bearing

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

The time was close to the time when Jesus was crucified. The Scripture tells us that Jesus had just told the disciples that he was going to have to suffer and be put to death. Peter couldn’t stand that idea and told him, "This shall never happen to you" (Matthew 16:22b). Jesus told Peter that he was thinking the way people thought rather than the way God thought. Then Jesus told his disciples what...

2739. Take Up Your Cross And Follow Me

Sermon Aid

Clement E. Lewis

Meditation Hymn: "Above The Hills Of Time"(May be sung as a solo in preparation for worship) Prayer Of Invocation: We come to worship you, our Lord, knowing that you overcame both the cross and the grave. We realize that except for your endurance of the cross and its cruel death, we would not have known the full magnitude of your love for us. Your having made atonement for our sins, makes us awar...

2740. What Is Christianity Without the Cross?

Sermon

Brett Blair

The Second President of the United States, John Adams, said, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for a government of any other.” In other words, unless our country remains Christian the Constitution will not function properly. Is John Adams right? Can our society survive without the Christian faith? There are many who would say that religion do...

2741. Choosing the Way to the Cross

Sermon

James W. Moore

Recently I ran across a story that absolutely amazed me… and yet it’s a story that may well represent the “cater-culture-give-‘em-what-they-want world” in which we now live. A church wanted to improve attendance at their major worship services, so they hired a powerful advertising agency to come in, study their situation, and make recommendations. The ad agency did their research… and then sugges...

2742. Why the Church?

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

Our daughter Carole made her decision to become a minister while she was studying in England in the early 1970s. When she told some of her fellow students about her decision to enter the ministry, they were incredulous...not that a woman would decide for the ministry, but that anybody would want to be a minister. That means being part of the Church, doesn’t it? they said. Why the Church? That...

2743. Slippery Rock

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

Some “rock” Peter turned out to be! Immediately following Jesus’ giving him that new name, the very first thing he did was to say something so stupid that Jesus had to call him a “devil,” and tell him, “You are a hindrance to me; for you are not on the side of God, but of men.” (Matt. 16:23) Some rock! In J.D. Salinger’s novel CATCHER IN THE RYE, fifteen-year old Holden Caulfield gives us this...

2744. Tevye's Question

Sermon

King Duncan

Many of you are familiar with the Broadway musical, Fiddler On The Roof. It is a touching story about a deeply devout middle-aged Jewish man named Tevye and his wife Golde (pronounced Golda). They live in Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century. Their lives are hard, but filled with devotion. A complicating factor in their lives is that they have all daughters. Finding proper matches for ...

2745. Do You Get It?

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

"Is that really necessary?" It's a question that we may ask when something unpleasant or disturbing has been said or done. If someone brings up a topic like capital punishment or abortion at the dinner table, you might ask rhetorically, "Is that really necessary?" In that situation it probably isn't, but there are times when such issues do have to be discussed. We can't always insist on keeping th...

2746. Scandal

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Prop (Animation): large mouse trap with “prop” piece; stone or rock; basket of river rocks People I know are hooked to two tv shows right now. One they admit right away: “Empire.” The other is more a “guilty pleasure” they admit to only when pressed: “Scandal.” Back for its fifth season, “Scandal” is the story of a president’s mistress. A married US President, Fitzgerald Grant, has fallen in lov...

2747. Proper 17

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

Theme: Suffering for righteousness' sake. Both Jeremiah and Peter rebelled against the idea of suffering for the sake of the kingdom of God; both of them had to be reprimanded by God and brought back into a state of obedience. COMMENTARY Old Testament: Exodus 3:1-15 Moses observes the mysterious burning bush on Mount Horeb and draws closer for an examination. An angelic presence is seen in the f...

2748. Faking It or Making It?

Sermon

King Duncan

Last winter AT&T unveiled an amusing commercial in their “Just Ok is Not Ok” series. Many of you will remember it. The commercial features a sleazy tax preparer named Phil who is talking with a young woman who has come for help with her taxes. Phil says to the young woman, “Leave it to me. I’ll get your taxes in an O.K. place.” The young woman says, “What?” Then with the back of his hand beside ...

2749. Your Place Is Behind Jesus

Illustration

Johnny Dean

One of the early church fathers, a man named Origen, suggested that when Jesus said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan," what he actually meant was, "Peter, your place is behind me, not in front of me. It's your job to follow me in the way I choose, not to try to lead me in the way YOU would like me to go." Certainly what Jesus said immediately after his rebuke of Peter would support that interpretat...

2750. It Is Not I

Illustration

Richard J. Fairchild

It is said that St. Augustine was accosted one day on the street by a former mistress some time after he had become a Christian. When he saw her he turned and walked the other way. Surprised, the woman called out, "Augustine, it is I". Augustine as he kept going the other way, answered her, "Yes, but it is not I." It is an amusing story - one that comes close to making the same point the German t...

Showing 2726 to 2750 of 4508 results