Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 2826 to 2850 of 4935 results

2826. Whom Do You Sit East Of?

Jonah 3:1-10

Sermon

Richard L. Eslinger

Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness has come up before me." Finally the evil of the Ninevites had provoked the Lord God to action. Yahweh had had enough. A prophet was needed who would proclaim the word of judgment to the enemy. Jonah, son of Amittai, was chosen for this mission - to cry out against the wicked of Nineveh. But as we all know, this "prophet" rose to flee from the presence of the ...

2827. He Commanded Us to Preach

Acts 10:23b-48

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

Opposition to preaching the risen Christ and reaching the Gentiles emerged early in the ministry of the apostles. Peter and the others quickly found themselves on the front lines of defense against attacks regarding the cogency and credibility of the message they were preaching. Emboldened by the presence and power of the Holy Ghost, many of the apostles gained renewed fortitude in proclaiming the message of Christ to Jewish and Gentile communities in the early days of the church. Anytime the gospel is ...

2828. A Society Out Of Control

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

King Duncan

I don't think any of us would term television personality, Phil Donahue, a rigid moralist. On his show sometime back, one of the guests was a man who has written a book on "sexual addiction." The thesis of the doctor's book is that there are people in our society who are addicted to various kinds of inappropriate sexual behavior just as other persons may be addicted to drugs or alcohol. Often in the program, as he described problems such as promiscuity, child molestation, obsession with pornography, etc. ...

2829. He Is Risen!

Colossians 3:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

Pastor Stephen Brown's brother Ron died suddenly of a coronary. In his forties, Ron was a popular public servant, a superb district attorney, a good father, and, Stephen's closest friend. Three or four weeks after Ron's death, while visiting their mother, Stephen went to the cemetery in the mountains where they had buried Ron. It was a cold, rainy, late winter afternoonthe kind of weather that chills your bones. When he got to the cemetery he couldn't find the place where Ron was buried. A stone had not ...

2830. Blessing, Testing, Response

Matthew 25:31-46

Sermon

King Duncan

Sometime back newscaster Paul Harvey reported that the average person blinks his eyes 13 times every minute. That's an interesting bit of trivia. But what really interested me was what I also read this week about the problem of world hunger. I read that 13 people starve to death every minute in this world. That means, of course, that every time you and I blink our eyes, another person has died from starvation. Now I am usually unaware of blinking my eyes. It's just an automatic reflex. I don't have to be ...

2831. What In The World Is Happiness?

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

King Duncan

A family had sold everything possible to pay bills and to put food on the table. Nevertheless, a burglar broke in one night when the family was gone. The family returned and found the door knocked off its hinges. "What did the burglar get?" the police officer asked. The head of the house just shook his head. "Practice," he said. It's not easy being poor. What did Jesus mean, "Blessed are the poor?" Jesus was a master at keeping his listeners off-balance. He always said the unexpected. He praised people ...

2832. Redefining Life

2 Corinthians 12:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

If I were to say, "He-e-e-e-e-ere's Johnny!" what image would come to your mind? If you're old enough, you will probably think of "The Tonight Show," with Johnny Carson. What if I came out here and said, "Let's get ready to rummmmmble!" What comes to mind? Some of our younger people might recognize this as the opening of a professional wrestling show. I don't know if you have ever thought about the importance of a good introduction. It is very important to an entertainer or a speaker or a performer of any ...

2833. The Christ Of Healing

Mark 5:21-43

Sermon

King Duncan

It seems that we receive good news on the medical front almost every day. Did you know that fewer men are dying of heart attacks today, particularly young men? It appears that our concerns about exercise, diet, and cigarette smoking are beginning to pay off. I know that there are some of us will never give up our bad habits. We identify with Robert Maynard Hutchins who wrote: "I never run when I can walk. I never walk when I can stand still. I never stand when I can sit down. I never sit when I can lie ...

2834. The Adventure of Discipleship

Mark 1:14-20

Sermon

Paul E. Flesner

Today's Gospel is about Jesus' calling of his first four disciples. It is about the first people who were called to hold the job which we hold today. Mark's story is not very elaborate. It is short and to the point. There is a certain note of adventure as the four men leave their fishing business to go with Jesus, but there is not much in the story that seems terribly upsetting. What the story doesn't tell about is what those men were getting in for by becoming followers of Jesus. To find out what was ...

2835. Ah, the Sweet Mystery of Life

Romans 16:1-27

Sermon

Fredrick R. Harm

An early movie version of Victor Herbert's romantic operetta Naughty Marietta has the young and dashing Nelson Eddy sing to an enraptured Jeanette MacDonald: Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life, at last I've found you. Ah, at last I've found the secret of it all ... Yes, 'tis love and love alone The world is seeking.... This charming song expresses what the Christian has known to be true all along. It is love -- and love alone -- that unlocks the mysteries of life. Not the transient and sometimes trashy love of the ...

2836. Sweet Little Jesus Boy

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Tired from another hectic day, a successful business executive collapsed into his easy chair. The bright colors of a magazine cover in his den caught his eye, and he picked up the periodical and leafed through it while he waited for dinner. It was an issue of The Christmas Annual. There were beautifully illustrated reproductions of Christmas carols. He began to read the familiar word, but being in a caustic mood, he began to revise the carols into parodies: "Silent night, holy night All is calm, all is ...

2837. How to Look Foolish

1 Corinthians 1:18-25

Sermon

Mark Trotter

None of us like to look foolish, but I confess that I continue to find ingenious ways to do that, usually by insisting that I am right about something, and it turns out that I am wrong. I feel there are certain areas where my experiences lend me some authority, so I speak out, giving my credentials, and then somebody comes along with the facts. Like the other day, two of our grandsons were visiting us with their mother. Their father was away at a meeting, and they came down and spent a couple of days with ...

2838. Honest Abe

Genesis 12:1-4a

Sermon

Bill Mosley

There's an oft-told story about someone going to church to hear the new young preacher give his first sermon, and someone asks him, "How was the sermon?" And the person said, "Well, it was about faith and sin, but I don't know which he was for and which he was against." This is a sermon about faith, and I want it clear right up front that I'm for it, if it's honest faith. There are two definitions of faith. One is that faith is tenets, beliefs, doctrines. You can "belong to the Christian faith," or the " ...

2839. Seeing Just Enough of God

Exodus 33:12-23

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

Life never stands still. It can crawl along too slowly, zip past us before we know it, torture us with opportunities we can never get again, or bewilder us with which path to take. But it never stands still. A woman who learned about life's twists and turns shared her story with a pastor friend of mine. Shortly after her marriage, in full flush of love, she went out for a jog. Bursting with a feeling of how delicious her life was, she offered up a prayer of gratitude to God for her marriage, her health, ...

2840. Even Greater

Matthew 22:34-46

Bulletin Aid

Frank Ramirez

Call To Worship One: Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Two: Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. Three: You turn us back to dust, and say, "Turn back, you mortals." One and Three: For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past, or like a watch in the night. Two: You sweep them away; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning; in the morning ...

2841. Los Posadas

1 Thessalonians 5:12-28

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Rejoice! It's the mandatory mantra of Christmas. After all, there are brightly colored lights, beautiful decorations, great sales, parties, programs, and parades. What's not to be joyful about? But the flip side of the holiday season is a dour, depressive mood that settles on Christian and non-Christian alike. For the studious and the dubious, joy become mere jocularity, praise is only uttered by those who close their minds to realty, and thankfulness is just middle-class relief that life is still going on ...

2842. Are You Living the Three Advents?

Romans 13:11-14

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Theme: The Christian tradition invites us to celebrate 3 advents the 4 weeks of advent. It would help your sermon if you wore some kind of “garment” that signified your ordination or calling. The Word-Made-Flesh . . . Exegesis of Romans 13:11-14 It seems strange that as the church’s calendar enters into its most hopeful, anticipatory season, the first of our four Advent readings turns once again towards that final Day of Judgment and end-time scenarios. Yet the eschatological words from Paul to the Roman ...

2843. The True Feng Shui Life

Matthew 14:22-36

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Our world has been shaped by one image. It may be the most powerful image to come out of the 20th century. If you were asked about the most important image of the 20th century, what would you pick? Here is my pick . . . [if you use screens]. The one picture that did the most to transform our perception of this world was that look-back at Earth from the tiny port-hole window in the first Apollo mission to the moon. Dangling in the bleak blackness of space was this beautiful blue-ball planet — with swirling ...

2844. Mazing Grace or Amazing Grace

Isaiah 42:1-9

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

It is the amazing grace of God that brings together God's justice and mercy - and turns the maze of life into constant amazement. Remember when you were a kid and you wanted to ask your mom and dad for permission to do something really special? The more outlandish the request, the more unlikely the prospect of approval, the more you knew that timing was everything. You knew you had to catch them in just the right mood and at just the right time of day. It always helped to do a few unexpected good deeds as ...

2845. Galatians 2:15-21

Galatians 2:15-21

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Paul's letter to the Galatians, while highly personal and emotional, yet also offers some of the clearest and most powerful expressions of theology the apostle ever wrote. The text read for today's epistle lesson starts a new section in the letter. It is concerned with the theological fallout created by the actions of Peter and the others in Antioch. Paul has already told the Galatians how he confronted Peter and openly voiced his displeasure with what he called their "cowardly" or "insincere" behavior. ...

2846. Mark 1:1-8

Mark 1:1-8

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Mark's prologue functions to give the reader special insights, hidden knowledge, that is unknown to all the other characters in the gospel narrative, excepting Jesus himself. In this prologue we get an explanation of John the Baptist's predicted appearance and mission, which the narrator reveals is the key to correctly understanding John's identity. Whereas scholars initially included only these eight verses as Mark's introductory material, more recent scholarship has concluded that the prologue extends to ...

2847. Compassion Can Do More Than You May Think

Luke 7:11-17

Sermon

David R. Cartwright

A teacher was fond of asking students in his counseling classes this question: "What can you know about a perfect stranger the moment you meet?" After the students had a go at the question, the professor shared his own answer, "You can bet that the stranger has just lost something." That person has just lost a job, a promotion, a loved one, a home, a car, a girlfriend, a boyfriend, their health, their zest for living, or God forbid, the very desire to live. Whatever it is, you can bet your life on it. The ...

2848. Itchy Ears

2 Timothy 3:14-4:5

Sermon

Donna Schaper

As usual, the epistle is a little more graphic than we can quite grasp. Itchy ears: what a concept just in physical terms. Experience it for a minute. You itch, you scratch, you sort of know you shouldn't scratch because it will only make the itch worse. But still you scratch, while wondering how the itch ever got started in the first place. What a concept: itchy ears as a vehicle for spiritual truth. When we itch, we scratch. We awaken. We know we are not comfortable. We want to be comfortable. This ...

2849. Startled By Jesus

Luke 24:36-49

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

Years ago I read the supposedly true account of a judge in Yugoslavia who was electrocuted when he reached up to turn on the light while standing in the bathtub. His wife found his body sprawled on the bathroom floor. He was pronounced dead and was placed in a room under a crypt in the town cemetery for twenty-four hours before burial. However, in the middle of the night, the judge came to, realized where he was, and rushed over to alert the guard. Startled, the guard promptly ran off, terrified. ...

2850. On Your Mark, Get Set, Hope!

Isaiah 11:1-16

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

Remember when? Remember when: Visions of sugar plums danced in your head, Silent night was an exciting night, Away in a manger didn’t seem so far away, Remember when you couldn’t wait for Christmas? Life has a way of turning our hopes and dreams into obligations and responsibilities. The child within us gives way to the adult that is out daily earning a living, fulfilling roles, meeting the deadlines of life. Maybe here in December it’s time to visit that child again, the child that lives within. The ...

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