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 2751 to 2775 of 4942 results

2751. The Disciples' Tenebrae

Mark 12:13-17

Sermon

Jerry Eckert

Comment: Emmanuel Church in Horicon had accepted the Christmas Eve "Pageant" very well (see page 25) but had showed no signs of interest in such drama for sermons. However, when we began planning the Maundy Thursday service, there was a fond remembrance of a tenebrae service, a service of candles, that had been done six years before. I wrote to the former pastor, Rev. Owen Miller, who generously sent what he had done. The concept was to say something about each disciple and extinguish a candle to bring ...

2752. Prayer Power, Bible Power And Small Group Dynamics

Illustration

Michael B. Brown

Paula D'Arcy, author of Song For Sarah, tells of belonging to a small church in New England. There were approximately 200 members on roll, with about 50 in church on any given Sunday. Usually there were about four in the choir. All was dull and dead: no new faces, no children, no laughter, no spirit to speak of. In time she and a friend began discussing the merits of looking for a new church home. However, they decided to remain until the end of the calendar year. In the autumn came the time for the annual ...

2753. A Scholar · Nicodemus

John 3:1-21

Sermon

Gordon Pratt Baker

When Nicodemus enters the gospel story he is already elderly (John 3:4) and well-to-do. (John 19:39) That he was an aristoc_esermonsrat his membership in the Sanhedrin attests. For not only was it the governing body of the Jewish people, its constituents were drawn from the priestly families of the land, the scribes, and the teachers of the law. A recognized scholar, (John 3:10) Nicodemus was the kind of person who would die learning. Accordingly, unlike many of his colleagues, he kept an open mind to life ...

2754. Surprised By Grace

Matthew 20:1-16

Sermon

Donald Dotterer

Let us pray: Gracious and eternal Father, we come to you this day seeking to understand the ways in which your Spirit moves in our lives. Lord, in these moments, may we be moved by love in our hearts and receive wisdom in our minds. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address has been called America's "greatest gathering of words."1 Lincoln's message was given over 130 years ago on the Civil War battlefield in Pennsylvania named Gettysburg. The burial of the Union dead was still ...

2755. Memory And Hope

Sermon

Deborah D. Steed

For An Older Couple, Both Widowed Genesis 2:18-23; Psalm 100;Colossians 3:12-17; John 15:9-12 The Bible contains many themes, but two of them that pervade both the Old and New Testaments are memory and hope. The Israelites were constantly reminded by their leaders and their religious rituals to keep uppermost in their minds the fact that God had saved them, had made them a nation, had bestowed on them through Abraham and Sarah a special covenantal love. This memory was recalled time and time again as ...

2756. Dressing For The Marriage

Colossians 3:1-17

Sermon

Mary Venema Swierenga

For A Protestant-Catholic Marriage Well. Here you are, finally, __________ and __________, all dressed in your wedding clothes: a lovely, lovely bridal gown and a dashing GQ wedding tuxedo. You are a very attractive couple on this most significant day of your lives, a couple I like very much -- each of you separately, and as a couple. Behind my affection for you is my respect: you each have deep spiritual convictions which have shaped your character as Christian young adults. You've done a lot of work with ...

2757. In His Redeemer's Arms

Mark 10:13-16

Eulogy

Charles R. Turbin

12-Year-Old ____________ and ____________, friends and loved ones of ____________, dear friends in Christ, grace to you and peace from God, our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. Amen. "And Jesus took them in his arms." What a beautiful picture that is of the love our Lord has for his children. There is a hotel or more probably a rooming house I know of called The Redeemer's Arms. Huge white letters are mounted on the side of the building announcing its name. Those many times I have ...

2758. The TV Audience

Sermon

Michael Rogness

Our sermon consumers are used to VCRs and Super Nintendo Ÿ strong visual images Ÿ they watch and then rewind. For our preaching, that certainly means it is a different generation of people out there listening. It has definite implications for what we say and how we say it.11 -- Jerry L. Schmalenberger I talk with many laypeople about sermons, and the comment I hear most often is: "Sermons are bo-o-o-oring!" This comment is of course not new in church history. Perhaps Eutychus thought the same thing about ...

2759. A Larger Design For Living

Matthew 7:24-29

Sermon

Clement E. Lewis

Words Of Preparation from 1 Peter 2:4-5: Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God's sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house. Hymn: "Higher Ground" Scripture: Matthew 7:24-29 (NRSV) Jesus said, "Everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on a rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been ...

2760. A Continuing Presence

John 16:5-16

Sermon

Larry Powell

Clarence Macartney tells of a certain Canadian river which flows through a forbidding chasm. Looming on either side of the river are rugged, uninviting crags which bear the names "Eternity" and "Trinity." Macartney suggests that the opposing crags invite an analogy (you understand of course, that to a preacher, most everything invites analogy). "Inseparable from any true conception of God," he says, "are always the two doctrines of God's eternity and God's trinity ... The threefold experience of God the ...

2761. The Problem With A Promise

Genesis 15:1-18

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

You have all made promises; and kept them, but some you have broken. Maybe you didn't intend to break it, but when the time came to fulfill it, it simply wasn't in your power to keep it. Or, upon re-thinking it, you decided it wasn't a good promise, so you reneged upon it.And, you've had promises made to you; and they've been kept - some of them, but who has not been hurt by having a promise made, and then broken? What parents have not heard their child exclaim at some point, "But you promised me!" ...

2762. Lent 5

John 11:1-16, John 11:17-37, John 11:38-44, John 11:45-57

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

"Get a life!" is the new catch phrase for the 90s. It is said that it replaces the slogan of the 80s, "Have a nice day." Now, they say, the smiley stuff no longer works in the present when times are harder and people have to knuckle down and get serious about doing what they have to do. "Get a life" - where does one get life? Is it earned? Is it a gift? In today's miracle, raising Lazarus from death to life, Jesus gave him life. Can anyone give life other than Jesus? Why did Jesus bring Lazarus back to ...

2763. Proper 14

Mt 14:22-33 · Rom 9:1-5 · Ex 14:19-31 · Ps 106:4-12

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

The Miracle Of Walking On Water When it comes to a body of water (river, lake, gulf or sea), there is one thing humans cannot do. We can drink water, float on it, swim in it and under it, and drown in it. We can sail on it, fly over it and in submarines we can travel and explore under it. But, there is one thing we cannot do: walk on it. Yes, we can ski on it, even without skis when we barefoot ski behind a speeding boat. To walk on water like walking on the ground would be a miracle. Since it is ...

2764. Epiphany 2

John 2:1-11, Isaiah 62:1-12, 1 Corinthians 12:1-11

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

Wine Miracle On the third day there was a marriage at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there; 2 Jesus also was invited to the marriage, with his disciples. 3 When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine." 4And Jesus said to her, "O woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come." 5 His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you. 6 Now six stone jars were standing there, for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty ...

2765. Walking The Familiar

Mark 6:1-6

Sermon

Leonard H. Budd

There was still a slick of morning moisture covering the path into the town as Eli and Samuel walked by Nathan's orchard, crossed the small stream, and finished the prescribed sabbath day's journey to the synagogue: in length, 2,000 cubits. By our modern standard of travel it was not far. It was about 1,000 yards. They walked at hurried pace. Their prayer shawls were pulled tightly around them, which helped protect them from the morning chill. Sabbath. The day of rest. In Nazareth the gathering was a ...

2766. A Woman's Place

Genesis 2:4-25

Sermon

Erskine White

It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him. (Genesis 2:18) Ask a chauvinist where a woman's place is and he or she will say, "A woman's place is in the home," or, "A woman's place is subordinate to the man's." Ask a feminist where a woman's place is and she or he will say, "A woman's place is wherever she chooses to be," or, "A woman's place is anywhere a man's place is." Ask a chauvinist and a feminist what the Bible says about a woman's place and chances are that ...

2767. Come The Judgment Day

Jeremiah 16:1--17:18

Sermon

Erskine White

I, the Lord, search the mind and try the heart, to give to everyone according to their ways. (Jeremiah 17:10) In our text from Jeremiah, the prophet proclaims God's judgment over each of us as individuals, but sometimes I wonder: who really believes in a Last Judgment any more? Who takes seriously the idea that God "searches the mind and tries the heart, to give to everyone according to their ways"? A number of years ago, a judge named Horace Gray was forced to free a guilty man because of a legal ...

2768. Together In Christ

Acts 2:42-47

Sermon

Erskine White

And all who believed were together and had all things in common. (Acts 2:44) We Americans are generally a religious people. According to a recent Gallup survey conducted nationwide, more than ninety percent of us believe in God. Eighty-four percent of us believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ as the Son of God. Two-thirds of us describe our religious faith as a personal commitment. Yet that same survey also showed a gigantic gap in the American understanding of Christianity. Only half of the American ...

2769. Physical Fitness For The Soul

James 3:1-12

Sermon

Erskine White

From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. (James 3:10) Americans of all ages are on a physical fitness craze and many people are paying a great deal of attention to their waistlines. They worry endlessly about their weight and want their bodies to be just the right size. If your name is not Michael Jackson, it seems the fastest way to earn a fortune in this country is to write a new diet book. The next-fastest way is to open an aerobic dancing studio or an exercise club. Today I speak about another ...

2770. Lent 5

John 7:45--8:11, Psalm 126:1-6, Isaiah 43:14-28, Philippians 3:1-11, Luke 20:9-19, John 12:1-11

Sermon Aid

George Bass

THEOLOGICAL CLUE The Fifth Sunday in Lent floods the mind with memories of when it was the beginning of the two-week celebration of the Passion of our Lord. Passiontide was the third period in the progression from Septuagesima Sunday to Easter, the Resurrection of our Lord. (The three "gesima" Sundays were the first period, the first four and a half weeks of Lent comprised the second part; Passiontide was the third section of Lent; Holy Week was the fourth part; and the Triduum, which originally was Good ...

2771. Maundy Thursday

John 13:1-17, Psalm 116:1-19, Exodus 12:1-30, 1 Corinthians 11:17-34, Mark 14:12-26, Jeremiah 30:1--31:40, Hebrews 10:19-39, Luke 22:7-38

Sermon Aid

George Bass

THEOLOGICAL CLUE The title of this day, Maundy Thursday, would not apply to two or three of the churches observing this day, mainly because "Maundy" was connected to the footwashing ceremony that finds root in John 13:1-15; it would be appropriate for the Roman Catholic Church, which employs John 13 for all three years of the calendar and lectionary. Holy Thursday is more appropriate, if the gospels of Luke and Mark are read as the Gospel for the Day. The "foot-washing," which does not really occur in many ...

2772. Easter 3

John 21:1-14, Acts 5:17-42, Acts 9:1-19a, Jeremiah 32:1-44, Revelation 5:1-14, Psalm 33:1-22, Psalm 30:1-12

Sermon Aid

George Bass

THEOLOGICAL CLUE Compared with the traditional calendar of the church, the revised titles of the Sundays in the church year give only general clues to the theology of worship and preaching on the Sundays of Easter. At least, that is what is assumed to be true. Misericordia domini was the title of the Second Sunday after Easter - "Mercy Sunday" - which is now the Third Sunday of Easter. It was also Good Shepherd Sunday, because the traditional Gospel for the Day was John 10:11-16. That gospel and the name ...

2773. Easter 4

John 10:22-42, Acts 13:13-52, Numbers 27:12-23, Revelation 7:9-17

Sermon Aid

George Bass

THEOLOGICAL CLUE Good Shepherd Sunday fell on the Second Sunday after Easter in the classic calendar and lectionary; it now occurs on the Fourth Sunday of Easter (or, in the older scheme, on the Third Sunday after Easter). Accordingly, the traditional gospel (John 10:11-16) is retained, specifically in Year/Cycle B of the contemporary lectionaries, but John 10 is also employed as the Gospel in Years/Cycles A and C. Last Sunday's theme emphasized that Jesus Christ was the Paschal Lamb, who was sacrificed at ...

2774. Proper 5

Luke 7:11-17, 1 Kings 17:7-24, Galatians 1:11-24

Sermon Aid

George Bass

THEOLOGICAL CLUE In this long cycle/season of Pentecost, the church year theological clues tend to disappear and become almost imperceptible. The title Pentecost should be a constant reminder of what the church should be about, as well as what the church is expecting from God. The church, during Pentecost, should be getting on with the business of Christ in the world; Pentecost reminds the church what its mission is, and suggests that the necessary resources are readily available to those who are repentant ...

2775. Proper 19

Luke 15:8-10, Luke 15:1-7, Psalm 51:1-19, Exodus 32:1-33:6, Hosea 4:1-19, Hosea 6:1--7:16, 1 Timothy 1:12-20

Sermon Aid

George Bass

THEOLOGICAL CLUE Depending on the lectionary cycle followed and the calendar year the Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost may be known and celebrated, in much of the Christian church as World-wide Communion Sunday. Most of the denominations of Christendom will be participating in the sacrament of holy communion on that Sunday, regardless of the other occasions on which the sacrament is observed. Actually, every Sunday is a worldwide communion Sunday; every Sunday calls for the celebration of the meal at ...

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