Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 2851 to 2875 of 3160 results

2851. Speaking Truth to Power and Hope to the Powerless

Mark 9:30-37

Sermon

Rick McCracken-Bennett

... who are least of all, who are unable to care for themselves, who slip through the cracks constantly; the children and other powerless ones in our society. I have to admit that this seems to go against the grain sometimes and that we can come up with all sorts of reasons why some of those powerless ones have more power than they appear to have and so need to do for themselves instead of having others do for them. I get it. Yes, there are those who are fully capable of caring for themselves and their families ...

2852. Jesus' No-Nonsense Guide to Discipleship

Mark 10:46-52

Sermon

April Yamasaki

... Sunday morning was the highlight of her week. "I love gathering together," she said. "That's when I feel I can praise God the best." Another values his few moments of quiet time before starting work. Another senses God's presence most keenly when she's sorting through donated clothes in the basement of the local thrift store. As Bartimaeus came to Jesus, he discovered that Jesus had a question for him: "What do you want?" Here was his big opportunity. Bartimaeus did not ask for money the way he had been ...

2853. Filling the Emptiness Within

John 6:24-35

Sermon

King Duncan

... about spiritual hunger? Many of us have a deep emptiness within that nothing physical will ever fill. It is a longing to be connected to our Creator. There is something missing from our lives. Something is missing and in its place we have substituted all sorts of other things--material things, power, sex, accomplishment--but none of these ever really satisfies. We always want more. Some of you will remember when a young man named Boris Becker was at the very top of the tennis world. Did you know Becker was ...

2854. Hard and Soft Hearts

Mark 10:2-16

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

... to hang in there when your spouse is so unlovable. But it is then and only then that you begin to discover what marriage is really all about. Then and only then do you begin to discover what it really means to love." Given those sorts of realities, I guess we should not be surprised that our society has become so littered with the rubble of broken marriages. According to the latest divorce statistics, half of all marriages end in divorce. The number of couples living together without the benefit of marriage ...

2855. In Awe of Christ

Luke 9:28-36

Sermon

King Duncan

... out, “Lord, save us! We are drowning.” Jesus chided them for their lack of faith and turned to the wind and waves and said, “Peace! Peace! Be Still!” Suddenly there was a great calm. Now the disciples really were afraid. They were afraid of Jesus. “What sort of man is this?” they asked. “Even the wind and waves do what he tells them.” Some of you may be familiar with the classic children’s book, The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, first published in 1908. The Wind in the Willows ...

2856. Speaking from the Heart

Luke 6:43-45

Sermon

King Duncan

... Muslim countries, there are strict rules about touching garbage, so the job of garbage collector often falls to the non-religious folks or to the “least desirable” members of society. That includes Christians. In Cairo, Egypt, for example, a very poor Christian man was sorting through mountains of garbage when he came across an $11,000 watch with a man’s name engraved on the back. This watch was worth many years’ wages to this man; it would have provided him a very comfortable living. But because he ...

2857. Good-Bye Mardi Gras, Hello Lent

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

... era. Religiously, fasting was and is a means to come closer to God. The idea is that by denying oneself food, one’s attention can be better focused on matters of the faith. Fasting promotes self-denial as a religious discipline. Unfortunately, self-denial of any sort is not high on our list of priorities. We live in a time more attuned to self-indulgence than self-denial. In fact, we tend not to want to deny ourselves much of anything. Yet our faith teaches there is spiritual value in self-denial. That ...

2858. From His Arrest to His Crucifixion and Burial

John 18:1--19:42

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

... tragic. We are not, of course, privy to all the events that led up to Good Friday. On the other hand, there is a certain commonality of human experience over the centuries. For that reason, I think it safe to assume that there was some sort of committee meeting before Jesus and his apostles left on that fateful journey from Judea in the north to the capitol city in the south. Assuming there was such a meeting, Jesus must have said something like, “Fellows, we are going to Jerusalem again. Pack carefully ...

2859. The Inn That Missed Its Chance

Illustration

Amos R. Wells

... seen before And may not see again. And there they were, Close-herded with their servants, till the inn Was like a hive at swarming-time, and I Was fairly crazed among them. Could I know That they were so important? Just the two, No servants, just a workman sort of man, Leading a donkey, and his wife thereon Drooping and pale,–I saw them not myself, My servants must have driven them away; But had I seen them,–how was I to know? Were inns to welcome stragglers, up and down In all our towns from Beersheba ...

2860. A Novel Reaction to Criticism

Illustration

Jamie Buckingham

... read the letter. "You know, he's right," she said to her secretary. She never wore another street-length dress on her TV program. A lesser person would have responded with anger or passed it off as just another senseless remark. But she was not that sort of lesser person. She heard. She coped. She let it help her toward her goal of communicating. All of which was possible because there was no root of bitterness to give a bad taste to everything that came into her life which presented another viewpoint.

2861. So, Do Something About It

Lk 1:39-56

Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

... ever known. His name was Isaac Watts. In a few weeks we will be singing one of his most famous hymns, "Joy to the World!" Isaac Watts discovered joy in his life because he knew that God would never desert him. He was able to live his life with all sorts of health problems feeling close to God and Jesus. He had joy deep in his heart.

2862. The Story of Noah Retold

Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

... hath gone on strike. Shem, my son who helpeth me on the ark side of the business, hath formed a pop group with his brothers Ham and Japheth. Lord, I am undone." And the Lord grew angry and said: "And what about the animals, the male and female of every sort that I ordered to come unto thee to keep their seed alive upon the face of the earth?" And Noah said: "They have been delivered unto the wrong address but should arrive on Friday." And the Lord said: "How about the unicorns, and the fowls of the air by ...

2863. A Brother Like That

Illustration

C. Roy Angell

... . "Will you stop right where those two steps are?" the boy asked. He ran up the steps. Then, in a little while, Paul heard him coming back, but he was not coming fast. He was carrying his little polio-crippled brother. He sat him down on the bottom step, then sort of squeezed up against him and pointed to the car. "There she is, Buddy, just like I told you upstairs. His brother gave it to him for Christmas, and it didn't cost him a cent. And someday I'm gonna give you one just like it. Then you can ...

2864. The Road of Life

Illustration

Author Unknown

... book "Holy Sweat" which describes how we should ride through life with Jesus in control: At first, I saw God as my observer, my judge, keeping track of the things I did wrong, so as to know whether I merited heaven or hell when I die. He was out there sort of like the president. I recognized His picture when I saw it, but I didn't really know Him. But later on, when I recognized this Higher Power, it seemed as though life was rather like a bike ride, but it was a tandem bike, and I noticed that God ...

2865. Honest Dealings

Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

A client went to his attorney and said: "I am going into a business deal with a man I do not trust. I want you to frame an airtight contract that he can’t break, which will protect me from any sort of mischief he may have on his mind." The attorney replied: "Listen, my friend. There is no group of words in the English language that will take the place of plain honesty between men, which will fully protect either of you if you plan to deceive each other."

2866. God's Servants

Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

Archbishop Secker used to say, "God has three sorts of servants in the world: some are slaves, and serve Him from fear; others are hirelings, and serve for wages; and the last are sons, who serve because they love."

2867. In Which City Do You Live?

Revelation 21:10-14, 22-23

Sermon

King Duncan

... . . . one motor vehicle theft every 41.3 seconds . . . one aggravated assault every 39.4 seconds. (3) And, of course, the most tragic of all, school shootings. Certainly these would have been unthinkable just a generation ago. It is not a pretty picture. I feel sort of like Vance Havner. He says that he and his wife were taking a bus trip through the mountains, and the bus broke down right in front of a hillbilly grocery store. The woman there apparently had never been anywhere else much. Havner’s wife ...

2868. Next Man Up

John 17:20-26

Sermon

King Duncan

... or habits, Google set out to determine, leads to the most productive, most unified team? Project Aristotle involved measuring nearly every aspect of Google employees’ lives. The company’s executives interviewed hundreds of employees over several years, and analyzed all sorts of data on the productivity and innovation of almost every team in the company. All this in-depth research yielded one result. Listen up those of you in business or education or sports or any endeavor that requires teamwork. This ...

2869. Jesus' Guide to Wise Investing

Luke 12:13-21

Sermon

King Duncan

... is not rich toward God.” Isn’t it interesting that God should call him a fool—not a sinner, not a reprobate—but a fool? We have to be very careful here. Scholars assure us that parables are designed to make only one point. But the term “fool” suggests all sorts of things to me. Probably not all of them relate to this rich man, but they do relate to some men and women I have known. Let’s think of some reasons God may have called him a fool. First of all, God may have called him a fool because ...

2870. Where's the Magic?

Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-12

Sermon

King Duncan

Billy Joe, a good old boy from the Deep South, stopped at a convenience store. There he ran into Ricardo, an old buddy from New York City. Billy Joe was a mischievous sort. When no one was looking he stole 3 candy bars from a store shelf. Walking out of the store he turned to Ricardo and bragged, “Ha! Did you see what this old Southern boy did? I stole three candy bars and got away with it. Man, I’m slick.” Ricardo ...

2871. Making Your Life Count

1 Timothy 2:5-7

Sermon

King Duncan

... Sargent in an art gallery in New York City. He kept muttering to himself, “I’ve been given a place at last. I have a place at last.” Artist Robert Henri was standing nearby. Henri was mystified at the man’s words. “Are you in this sort of work?” he asked the man. “Oh, yes,” said the man, “but this is the first time I’ve been displayed like this.” Now Henri really was disturbed. “But I thought that this work was by the great painter Sargent,” he said. “That’s right,” said ...

2872. A Strange, New Math

John 17:20-26

Sermon

Glenn E. Ludwig

... But there it is. What do you think "Z" would say about God's math? Well, finally, a closing word about what this text doesn't mean. I've heard a lot of well-meaning people use this text on oneness as a pitch for a global church of some sort. There's no question that Christ's prayer calls for oneness, but it's hard to imagine that Jesus, in his last moments, was making a pitch for one international church or one world-wide mission board, or one universal hymnal. Those may be important human dreams, but Jesus ...

2873. Life's Intermission

Illustration

Robert Jeffress

... exits. She had failed . . . or so it seemed. Fade to black. Popcorn time! Had viewers gone home after the first half of the movie, they would have missed the stirring conclusion--where Maria returned to the abbey and experienced her own intermission of sorts. After spending some time on her favorite mountain, she returned to the von Trapps, married the captain, and climbed over the Alps to escape from the Nazis. What a dramatic ending! In the movie and theatrical world, the intermission is the interval ...

2874. Hug and Kiss Blessing

Illustration

Bill Glass

... blessing mentioned in the Old Testament has carried over to the modern-day Jew. They have a very strong sense of family. We, in the Judeo-Christian tradition, should have received this heritage. But I think we have been influenced more by the Prussian-German life-style, and also a sort of Puritanism that says don’t touch anyone or show emotions.

2875. A Supremely Kind Man

Illustration

William Barclay

... and had rented a room at the Central YMCA. When he retired, he began helping out in every possible way--collecting letters, going out for stamps, running errands, buying Sunday papers for staff members. But more than that, he was doing all sorts of kindnesses that most people knew nothing about until after he had died and they began sharing stories. Dr. Barclay describes Oliver as a “supremely happy man,” “a supremely useful man,” and “a supremely kind man.” And then Barclay says, recalling that ...

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