Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 2926 to 2950 of 4943 results

2926. Worried About Her Child

Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon

King Duncan

A man was going up to bed, when his wife told him he'd left the light on in the garden shed. She could see it from the bedroom window. But he said that he hadn't been in the shed that day. He looked out himself, and there were people in the shed, stealing things. He rang the police, but they told him that no one was in his area, so no one was available to catch the thieves. He said "ok," hung up, counted to 30 and rang the police again. "Hello. I just rang you a few seconds ago, because there were people ...

2927. Casting Out Demons

Mark 1:21-28

Sermon

King Duncan

An Upbeat Word for a Downbeat World, #5 (Alternate) The Lord has authority over demons. That's the good news for the day. No demon can stand up to Christ. Now obviously, few of us are conscious of being demon possessed. You may have heard about the preacher who asked one elderly lady how it was with her soul. "Oh," she replied, "the old devil has been giving me a rough time." Immediately her husband protested. "Now hold on," he said, "she's not too easy to live with herself." Is there a demon that is ...

2928. I Am Only . . .

Jeremiah 1:1-19

Sermon

King Duncan

"Five Things Christians Should Never Say," #3 Welcome on this Super Bowl Sunday. Football is a wonderful sport, but football fans can be cruel. Last season when the Dallas Cowboys were having difficulty beating anyone, there was a story going around that one of the players, while on his way to the locker room happened to look down and notice a suspicious-looking, unknown white powdery substance on the practice field. The FBI was called in to investigate. After a complete field analysis, the FBI determined ...

2929. A Word For Christian Fathers

2 Corinthians 5:11--6:2

Sermon

King Duncan

You are familiar with the great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy. Tolstoy's marriage was a saga of bitterness. His wife carped and complained and clung to her grudges until he could not bear the sight of her. When they had been married almost a half a century, sometimes she would implore him to read to her the exquisite, poignant love passages that he had written about her in his diary forty-eight years previously, when they were both madly in love with each other. As he read of the happy days that were now gone ...

2930. Why the Church?

Matthew 16:21-28

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’s the question with which I begin this morning. Why the Church? George Arthur Buttrick in his book So We Believe, ...

2931. Christmas and the Condensed Bible

John 1:1-18

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

I must confess that I am not a great fan of Reader’s Digest, but in a strange way, the magazine is partly responsible for my being in the United Methodist ministry. You see, during the late 1940’s and 1950’s, the “red-baiting” era of the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy, Reader’s Digest published an article titled “Methodism’s Pink Fringe.” The article purported to show that Methodists were, in reality, Communists, because they believed in such radical things as civil rights and world peace. Having recently ...

2932. Childish or Child-like?

Mark 10:13-16

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

“And he took a child, and put him in the midst of them; and taking him in his arms, he said to them, ‘Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me...’” (Mark 9:36) I feel sorry for the poor kid who happened to be there the day Jesus decided to use him as an “object lesson.” No child likes being used in this way. Some of us can remember being stood up before a group of adults and having our parents ask us to recite something we’d just learned in school. Or being made to sit down at the piano and ...

2933. The Lord's Prayer: Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done

Matthew 6:5-15

Sermon

Eric Ritz

Father Henri Nouwen shares, "In ten years, we will celebrate the second millennium of the Christian Era." However, he raises a good question, "Will there be anything left to celebrate?" He continues by saying, "Many voices in our land wonder if humanity can survive its own destructive powers." I agree! As we look out over the landscape of the world, we see great warring conflicts among all the people of the world. We have all kinds of wars. We have wars being fought in the Middle East, South Africa, ...

2934. Trouble: A Required Course in LIfe

James 1:1-18

Sermon

Eric Ritz

There is a story about a first year theological student who was given to napping in her Basic Theology Class. Over a period of time the professor took notice of it and was somewhat angry. One day he noticed her falling off to sleep and decided that he would catch her in the act of taking a snooze. The professor had the habit of asking questions off the top of his head during class sessions. One afternoon the professor asked the question, "Why does God permit hardships, troubles and adversity in our ...

2935. Grace in the Midst of Exasperation

Romans 8:1-17

Sermon

Glenn McDonald

Spiritual storytelling (a.k.a. "my testimony") is often an inspiring experience for a gathered group of Christians. It is also inherently risky. The risk is that the story will sound wonderful. Whenever the overwhelming number of details of someone's garden-variety life are squeezed down to a significant few, it can seem that that four-minute abridged version of existence is fabulously more exciting or meaningful than anything the rest of us have experienced in the previous forty years. We may say to each ...

2936. The Church: Identity And Function

1 Peter 2:4-12

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Our Scripture lesson today is from the 2nd chapter of I Peter. “So put away all malice and all guile and insincerity and envy and all slander. Like new born babes, long for the pure Spiritual milk that by it you may grow up to salvation, for you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. Come to him to that living stone rejected by men but in God’s sight chosen and precious. And like living stones, be yourself built into a spiritual house. Be a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God ...

2937. And the Word Is...Love

Mark 12:28-34

Sermon

King Duncan

Moses Mendelson tells the story of a woman who came to a great teacher and asked him: "Teacher, how do I know which religion is the right one?" The teacher replied with a story of a great and wise King with three sons. This King had a precious gift--a magic ring that gave him great compassion, generosity, and a spirit of kindness. As he was dying, each of his sons went to him and asked the father for the ring after his death. And he promised to each of the sons that he would give him the ring. Now how ...

2938. Dealing With Your Enemies

Luke 6:27-36

Sermon

King Duncan

How do you treat your enemies? This is an ancient question, and it is a question that is still relevant to our world today. A little girl came home from Sunday School and asked her father if she could send a note to Osama Bin Laden. “Why him?” asked her startled father. “Because,” said the little girl, “if Mr. Bin Laden got a nice note from a little American girl, maybe he’d think that we’re not all bad and he might start liking us a little. And then maybe he’d write a note back and come out of his cave ...

2939. It's My Life, Isn't It?

1 Corinthians 6:12-20

Sermon

James McCormick

It was in an Ann Landers column some time ago – a letter from a grief stricken mother. Her son had died at the age of 33, weighing 560 pounds. His parents had warned him about the dangers of obesity. But he always replied, “It’s my life. I’ll do what I want with it.” As I read that, I remembered reading about a wife and mother who became bored with her life. One day she left her husband and family to go to Las Vegas with a man who had left his wife. Her only words were, “It’s my life. It’s the only one I’ ...

2940. A New Beginning

Matthew 3:13-17

Sermon

King Duncan

When it comes to the subject of baptism, our Baptist friends seem to have all the fun. That is, the very nature of baptism of adults by immersion lends itself to loads of good humor. For example, there is a story of a seven-year-old son of a Baptist minister who decided to baptize his two cats. He chose the bathtub for this rite. One of the cats was a tiny kitten. It was dunked before it realized what had happened. But the older tom cat wanted no part of this strange ceremony. As the boy brought the cat ...

2941. A Deserter in God's Army

1 Timothy 4:9-10

Sermon

James Merritt

One of the most fascinating cities I have had the privilege of visiting is the City of Rome, Italy. If you ever go there, one of the main attractions in the very heart of the city is the ancient ruins of the Roman Coliseum. This was the place where chariot races were held, and where the Christians were fed to the lions. Right across the way from that coliseum, underground, dug out of rock, are the remains of what was called the Mammertine Prison. It was literally carved out of stone. There were no windows ...

2942. Don't Believe the Lie about the Truth

John 8:32

Sermon

James Merritt

I am convinced that in some ways children are far wiser than adults. Because children at least know that there are certain things that are absolutely true. I recently came across a list of great truths about life that little children have learned and totally believe. No matter how hard you try, you can't baptize cats. When your mom is mad at your dad, don't let her brush your hair. If your sister hits you, don't hit her back; they always catch the second person. Never ask your three-year old brother to ...

2943. Fatal Attraction

Matthew 5:27-30

Sermon

James Merritt

A teacher was working with a grammar lesson and she said to one of her students, "Willie, what is it when I say ‘I love you, you love me, he loves me?'" Willie replied, "That's one of those triangles where somebody gets shot." Well, it used to be a situation where somebody would get shot—with a gun. Today it's a situation that gets shot with a television camera. Television refers to adultery, to sex outside of marriages, 13 times more frequently than it mentions intimacy between a husband and a wife. There ...

2944. Why You Should Come Clean With God

Psalm 139:23-24

Sermon

James Merritt

I want to begin by asking you a question. Who is sitting in your seat? Now I know you think I’ve lost my mind because you just said “I am.” Well, let me ask you a follow-up question: Which “you” is sitting in your seat? You say, “What do you mean?” Well, there are actually three people in your seat. There is the person that you think you are, there is the person others think you are, and there is the person God knows you are. When I was a boy one of my heroes was someone very familiar to all of you. I’m ...

2945. Parades and Crosses — The Challenge of Ministry

2 Corinthians 4:5-12

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

He had grown up in a fashionable suburb of a large American city, a cosmopolitan area of considerable size and sophistication. He was a winner from the time he was born; you know, one of those babies that comes into the world with a smile and a confident air that life is friendly and meant for success. Oh, yes, he did his share of crying, and as an infant and pre-schooler, he had his share of sickness. But all in all, he was the kind of boy you would expect to see in a prize-winning television commercial. ...

2946. One Nation Under God

2 Chronicles 7:14

Sermon

James Merritt

When Ronald Reagan was elected President of the United States, he and Nancy had to get used to the Executive Mansion on their own. President Carter had broken with recent tradition and had not given the Reagans a tour of the White House. If you remember, during those days it was a difficult campaign with Carter and Reagan both bitterly fighting out what was to be a runaway election landslide for Reagan. The Carters greeted the Reagans a few days before the Inauguration, and then turned them over to White ...

2947. What If It Happens To Me? The Fear of Suffering

2 Corinthians 12:1-10

Sermon

James Merritt

I want to talk to you today about perhaps the most thorny issue confronting the Christian faith. In fact, it is the single biggest obstacle for non-Christians to overcome in order to become believers in Christ. George Barna, who is the George Gallup of the Christian world, conducted a national survey in which he asked this question, "If you could ask God only one question and you knew He would give you an answer, what would you ask?" By far and away the number one response was this one - "Why is there pain ...

2948. Jesus: The Promise Received

Luke 2:10-14

Sermon

James Merritt

Jessica was four years old and she had had a perfect Christmas. She got all the presents she wanted. Her cousins were with her to share the holidays. She had eaten her favorite food all day long and as her mother tucked her in for bed she looked up at her at smiled and said, "Mom, I sure hope Mary and Joseph have another baby next year." After Jesus was born, Mary and Joseph did go on to have several other babies. However, the first baby born to Mary was not one that they had. It was one that Mary had by ...

2949. Hell under Fire

Matthew 5:22; 28-30

Sermon

James Merritt

We are in a middle of a series that we have entitled "The War of the Worlds" and today the series is really going to heat up (no pun intended!) What we are talking about is the war of the world views. Remember, every person has a world view; a lens through which they see the world they live in, the life they live and it is the guide they use to make the crucial decisions about how they are going to live and what they are going to believe. There are basically only two world views the Christian world view ...

2950. Altar Your Presence

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

One of the words we use a lot in the United Methodist church is the word Connection. Generally, when we use the word Connection we are talking about the connection between the local church to the District, the Annual Conference, the Jurisdictional Conference, the General Conference all United Methodist Churches around the world. Our founder John Wesley realized there was power in this idea of connection. John Wesley understood the communal nature of the church and of faith. He planned and designed ways for ...

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