Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 2951 to 2975 of 4508 results

Sermon

King Duncan

Sometimes I run across a story that is so bad that I can’t resist telling it. A man walks into his doctor’s office and says, “Doctor, I’ve eaten something that disagrees with me.” Suddenly there is a voice from the man’s stomach. The voice says, “Oh no, you haven’t.” Oh, well. I warned you it was bad. I don’t know whether you have encountered any food that has disagreed with you but there are s...

2952. A Different Kind of Meeting

Illustration

Staff

When Franklin Delano Roosevelt was president, he normally attended an Episcopal church on Sixteenth Street, North West, in Washington. Of course, crowds of tourists and others came just to see the man. One Saturday the rector's phone rang and a lady asked, "Do you expect the President to be in church tomorrow?" Promptly and thoughtfully, the rector replied, "This I cannot promise; but I can promis...

2953. A Wish and A Promise

Illustration

Three years the disciples of Jesus had walked with him, and then they had seen him die. Tenderly they had laid his body in a tomb. But early in the morning of the first day of that very next week he broke the power of death, and some of his friends saw him alive walking in the burial garden. He said to them, "Go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee - there shall they see me." In other words,...

2954. Loving Confrontation

Illustration

Johnny Dean

Several years ago, a good friend and colleague in ministry came to visit me at the church I was serving in Memphis. After we exchanged greetings, he put his arm around my shoulders and said, "Johnny, you know I love you. That's why I have to tell you this." And he proceeded to gently, lovingly scold me for the way I had been handling a particular situation in the church. And he was absolutely righ...

2955. Work

Illustration

David E. Leininger

God planned for us to work: work was a part of God's good creation. Martin Luther said, "God gives every bird its food, but he does not throw it into the nest." Kennan Wilson, the founder of the Holiday Inn chain said, "I believe to be successful, that you have to work at least half a day - it doesn't make any difference which half, the first twelve hours or the last twelve hours!" As someone has ...

2956. Three Strikes?

Illustration

Johnny Dean

What do you do when the Word of God you encounter at church on Sunday morning is not comforting but confusing and even down right confrontational? The lectionary text from the Gospel of Matthew certainly fits in that category, doesn't it? Well, at first glance it may not be all that confusing. Forgiveness is good, but there are limits. If someone sins against you, confront that person face to fac...

2957. Forgiveness: Where Ordinary Folks Struggle

Illustration

Scott Hoezee

Recently the Templeton Foundation, which has campaigned for an increase in what it calls "forgiveness research," funded a major nationwide study on people's attitudes toward forgiveness. Co-sponsored by the University of Michigan and the National Institute for Mental Health, the study found that 75% of Americans are "very confident" that they have been forgiven by God for their past offenses. The ...

2958. Conflict Saps the Life Out of the Church

Illustration

Todd Weir

You know how church conflict usually works. The 3rd Grade Sunday School teacher gets mad at the Superintendent and tells her best friend about it, who happens to be the head of the board of Deacons. Then the Deacon, much to the surprise of the pastor, says at the end of the Deacons meeting, "I think we have a problem with the Sunday School Superintendent." Soon the whole church is talking about i...

2959. I Have No Enemies

Illustration

Wayne Brouwer

When the great nineteenth-century Spanish General, Ramon Narvaez, lay dying in Madrid, a priest was called in to give him last rites. "Have you forgiven your enemies?" the padre asked. "Father," confessed Narvaez, "I have no enemies. I shot them all." Too often that is the story of our lives, and Jesus knows it.

2960. Building Bridges

Illustration

Bob Tasler

Once upon a time, two brothers who lived on adjoining farms fell into conflict. It was the first serious rift in their 40 years of working together. It began with a small misunderstanding, and grew into a major difference, and finally exploded into an exchange of bitter words followed by weeks of silence. One morning, there was a knock on John's door. He opened it to find a man with a carpenter's ...

2961. The Stop-and-Think Chair

Sermon

Roy Howard

Schools opened here last week, and I remembered something from one of the teachers. Like all good teachers, she has certain expectations — norms of behavior — for her students. The students agree to these community norms for the classroom that are posted in the room. That’s not new. What I find intriguing in her classroom is the consequence if someone breaks the norm. When a community rule is brok...

2962. Sanctity Stinks

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

There is almost nothing worse in the world than religious people who think they are holier or better or less sinful than other people. I love the limerick which says, "The power of hell is strongest when the odor of sanctity creates the smell." Yes, the odor of sanctity does stink. Martin Luther, the single man responsible for all of Protestantism, said a similar thing when he wrote: "O Lord, de...

2963. Are You Willing to Live in Hell?

Illustration

Randy Hyde

In his book The Great Divorce, C. S. Lewis, the great Christian apologist, draws a stark picture of hell. Hell is like a great, vast city, Lewis says, a city inhabited only at its outer edges, with rows and rows of empty houses in the middle. These houses in the middle are empty because everyone who once lived there has quarreled with the neighbors and moved. Then, they quarreled with the new neig...

2964. TAX COLLECTOR

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

Modern taxes are a recent development, but the practice of taxation is an ancient one. The comment, "There is nothing more sure than death and taxes" has won sympathetic agreement down through the ages. Now, certainly, any thinking person will agree that taxes are a necessity of governmental life, but we seldom approve of the methods for collecting such taxes. We are always sure that there just h...

2965. Even in the Grocery Store

Illustration

The Washington Times carried a story many years ago about Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. According to this newspaper article, Dr. Rice once described to a Sunday school class at National Presbyterian Church in Washington, how she had drifted from her Christian faith and how God reached out and brought her back: "I was a preacher's kid," says Dr. Rice, "so Sundays were church, no doubt about...

2966. Corporate Effects of Sin

Illustration

Elie Wiesel

A man is on a boat. He is not alone, but acts as if he were. One night, without warning, he suddenly begins to cut a hole under his seat. The other people on the boat shout and shriek at him: "What on earth are you doing? Have you gone mad? Do you want to sink us all? Are you trying to destroy us?" Calmly, the man answers: "I don't understand what you want. What I'm doing is none of your busines...

2967. Apologies

Illustration

King Duncan

In the comic strip, Andy Capp, the principal character is a chronically unemployed cockney ne'er-do-well who spends most of his days playing soccer and most of his nights at the corner pub, both of which drive his long-suffering wife, Flo, up the wall. In one episode, Andy is pacing the floor while Flo stands with her arms crossed. Finally, she breaks the silence: "Three whole days without speaki...

2968. Disharmony in Worship

Illustration

King Duncan

There was a church where the pastor and the minister of music were not getting along. As time went by, this began to spill over into the worship service. The first week the pastor preached on commitment and how we all should dedicate ourselves to the service of God. The music director led the song, "I Shall Not Be Moved." The second week the pastor preached on tithing and how we all should gladl...

2969. Anger Is a Choice

Illustration

King Duncan

David Augsberger wrote abook a few years ago about anger. He noted that anger is a choice. He said the only thing we don't have a choice about is the adrenal in which is being pumped into our bodies. He told about a large rock in his front yard. One beautiful afternoon he decided to move it using a 2x4 for leverage. Somehow the 2x4 slipped and the rock rolled back, breaking his leg. David remember...

2970. Control Your Temper

Illustration

King Duncan

They said that World War II military hero George Patton couldn't or wouldn't control his temper as a young officer. Patton once ordered a mule shot. Why? It had gotten in the way of his jeep. He forced members of an anti-aircraft unit to stand at attention for being sloppily dressed, despite the fact that they had just beaten off an attack and some of the men were wounded. In one notorious incid...

2971. What God Can Do with Forgiveness

Illustration

King Duncan

By the grace of God we can use forgiveness as a positive, creative force bringing light into a darkened world. Nobody does that kind of thing better, of course, than God. Who could imagine 2,000 years ago that the symbol of the Christian church would be a hangman's noose, an electric chair, a guillotine? Those analogies may be necessary for us to keep from being too sentimental about "the old, rug...

2972. Proper 18

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

OLD TESTAMENT TEXTS Exodus 12:1-14 is one of the central descriptions of how the Passover is to be celebrated and how it functions in the life of Israel. Psalm 149 is a two-sided hymn of praise in which God's ability to destroy and to save is acknowledged. Exodus 12:1-14 - "The Passover" Setting. The confusion of the present form of Exodus 11-13 confronts any reader with immediate obstacles to...

2973. Template for Reconciliation

Sermon

Steve Molin

Every pastor can tell a story of a church fight; some pastors have multiple volumes from which to choose. Arguments over the color of carpeting in the fellowship hall is a popular one; anything the youth director does is fair game for criticism, and whenever there is a question about the inappropriate handling of church finances, even the least active member of the congregation demands an explanat...

2974. Fine Tuning

Sermon

Lori Wagner

As little as fifty years ago, televisions looked radically different than they do today. They were heavy, square monstrosities topped often with what looked like the antennae of a super-sized cricket. When you turned the TV on, by means of a knob on the front of the device (there were no remotes and no cable service), you’d get either a grey, fuzzy screen with wavy lines or the faint outline of a ...

2975. Who’s Keeping Score?

Sermon

William J. Carl

What we have in our passage is the contrast between a theology of grace and a theology of keeping score. The first is the one Jesus espouses in this text. The second is the one Peter is pushing and, by the way, the one our world has bought into for centuries. Anne Herbert once suggested that the whole thing started in Eden when Adam and Eve began keeping score. Certainly it was carried on in their...

Showing 2951 to 2975 of 4508 results

2951. When Someone Disagrees with You

Sermon

King Duncan

2952. A Different Kind of Meeting

Illustration

Staff

2953. A Wish and A Promise

Illustration

2954. Loving Confrontation

Illustration

Johnny Dean

2955. Work

Illustration

David E. Leininger

2956. Three Strikes?

Illustration

Johnny Dean

2957. Forgiveness: Where Ordinary Folks Struggle

Illustration

Scott Hoezee

2958. Conflict Saps the Life Out of the Church

Illustration

Todd Weir

2959. I Have No Enemies

Illustration

Wayne Brouwer

2960. Building Bridges

Illustration

Bob Tasler

2961. The Stop-and-Think Chair

Sermon

Roy Howard

2962. Sanctity Stinks

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

2963. Are You Willing to Live in Hell?

Illustration

Randy Hyde

2964. TAX COLLECTOR

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

2965. Even in the Grocery Store

Illustration

2966. Corporate Effects of Sin

Illustration

Elie Wiesel

2967. Apologies

Illustration

King Duncan

2968. Disharmony in Worship

Illustration

King Duncan

2969. Anger Is a Choice

Illustration

King Duncan

2970. Control Your Temper

Illustration

King Duncan

2971. What God Can Do with Forgiveness

Illustration

King Duncan

2972. Proper 18

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

2973. Template for Reconciliation

Sermon

Steve Molin

2974. Fine Tuning

Sermon

Lori Wagner

2975. Who’s Keeping Score?

Sermon

William J. Carl

Showing 2951 to 2975 of 4508 results