Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 276 to 300 of 3160 results

Matthew 5:38-42

Sermon

Joe Pennel

... plagues of the Middle Ages were - wrecking a kind of societal havoc against which we seem to be defenseless. They tell us that there are all sorts of people on drugs, and that these people are trying to get more and more money so they can buy more and more drugs. They tell ... of the earth is held from neither. Secondly, the "higher righteousness" required of disciples demands much more than the sort of kindness and affection found among publicans and Gentiles, to say nothing of that found among Scribes and ...

277. Proper 13 & Pentecost 11

Matthew 14:13-21, Nehemiah 9:1-37, Exodus 12:1-30, Romans 8:28-39, Isaiah 55:1-13

Sermon Aid

... next few weeks and one's preaching may have to be somewhat different than it was during the summer. Congregations come to life in September, awakening, as it were, from spiritual hibernation during the summer months. All sorts of programs are about to begin again. Pastoral exegesis will determine what sort of preaching has to be done to speak in this situation; the preacher may have to be reminded of the eschatobogical movement of the church year, which is about to enter the second half of Pentecost. The ...

278. Pentecost 24

Mal 1:6-14, Lev 2:1-16, Mic 3:1-12, Am 5:18-27, Ru 4:1-1, 1Th 2:1-16, 4:13-5:11, Mt 23 and 25:1-13

Sermon Aid

CSS

... to the theological concerns of people who are conscious that the last things are close at hand. It is also suited to people who are in any sort of trouble, as surely as the psalmist was: "O God, you are my God; eagerly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints ... Paul was writing to them. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-14 (1518) (L) I know a man who, when he is invited to any sort of a buffet supper - be it meager or bountiful - selects his food on what he calls his own theory: "I skip the preliminaries ...

279. Epiphany 7

Isaiah 49:8-26

Bulletin Aid

... wait in silence! People: GOD ALONE IS OUR HOPE! Leader: God alone is our rock and our salvation! People: GOD ALONE IS OUR FORTRESS, AND WE SHALL NOT BE SHAKEN! (Based on Psalm 62) Collect God of constant love, you have always brought release to those in every sort of captivity. Help us to hear your message of liberation in this day and time: that, filled with the good news of your freeing grace, we may shake off the bonds and shackles of all that enslaves us, and live as free people redeemed in Christ Jesus ...

280. Proper 11

Matthew 13:24-30

Bulletin Aid

... on divine discrimination, both in its original form (vv. 24-30) and in its (almost certainly later) allegorical interpretation (vv. 36-43). The suggestion is that in God's Reign (and in the Church) no artificial human "weeding" is necessary: "Save them all, and let God sort them out!" Call to Worship (based on Psalm 103) Leader: Let all the angels and heavenly hosts bless God, People: AND ALL WHO ENDEAVOR TO DO GOD'S WORD AND WILL! Leader: Let all the works of creation bless God, People: IN EVERY CORNER OF ...

281. "Good Friday People In An Easter World"

Mark 15:37-47, Mark 16:1-6

Sermon

... respected member of the council" from Mark 15 He was a good friend of mine. "I’ve got a problem," he said. "I don’t know what to believe. I don’t even know if I believe. You see," he said, "I’m a pretty average sort of person. I’ve lived a pretty normal sort of life. Nothing much bad has ever happened to me, but nothing all that miraculous has ever happened to me either. So I don’t know what to believe; I don’t know what to believe about God. If I could experience some kind of miracle ...

282. Celebrating with Jesus

Luke 5:33-39

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... Good Morning to the high. You couldn’t hardly grumble at Good Morning from a guy. Just his cap he used to doff us, and he used to wave his hand; But it sort of made the office…well, you may not understand; It kind of smoothed the wrinkle that you’d gathered overnight, And the meanest little rabbit or the big boss, stern and sad, Sort of somehow got the habit that the Good Morning fellow had. He used to lighten labor, though our labor was a pile, Just to greet an office neighbor with Good Morning and a ...

283. On Mars Hill

Acts 17:16-34

Sermon Aid

CSS

... his position so that a judgment might be made as to whether his teachings were the ravings of a maniac or the doctrines of someone who had a new insight into the truth. The council at the Areopagus had no official power, but it was a sort of faculty or tribunal whose decision about new tenets and teachings was held in high esteem. The council gathered in a circle around Paul to listen carefully as he presented a brief and fascinating sermon - much different in content from the presentations he made in the ...

284. Faith, Love, and Fakers at Ephesus

Acts 18:18-28

Sermon Aid

CSS

... worked from dawn until the heat of the day. They then ate and rested during the next few hours, resuming their labors about 4 p.m. when the air again became cooler. The account given by Luke hints that Paul carried on a daily routine of this sort for two years. It had a big effect on Ephesian life. The text simply says that Paul’s public preaching was heard "by all the residents of Asia." Paul’s daily presentations must have become important community events. Visitors to Ephesus who flocked to the Hall ...

285. Welcome to the Training Table!

Matthew 22:1-14

Sermon

... mind for us reshapes us for effective service. At a training table, teammates don’t eat just anything they please. Nor do they eat there without thought of doing service for the leader of the team when they get up to leave each time. God calls all sorts of people to his training table, but he wants an elite corps. That’s what those who stick with him become. Every person at God’s training table has some special reason to be there. Each has potential for becoming extraordinary on God’s healing team ...

286. Call Him a Story Teller

Luke 1:1-4

Sermon

George Bass

... of the four evangelists and also as a martyr’s day; the color for the day is red. It would be nice if there were some spectacular story to tell about his death and martyrdom. If there ever were such a story that might have made Luke into the sort of folk-hero that Peter and Paul, Lawrence and Sebastian were to the Roman Christian community, it has been lost. But it might make an intriguing tale, because what little tradition has survived to the present day has it that Luke died at eighty-four years of age ...

287. Called to Be Saints

1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Sermon

Hubert Beck

... word is timeless, as we have suggested earlier, then the same must be said for us whether we think we look like saints or not! We are called on to walk the way of faith - a difficult passage between pure fatalism on the one hand, believing in a sort of pre-determination of our life over which we have absolutely no control, and an absolute freedom of will on the other, believing that all is but accidental in whether one happens to be at the right time and place or not in order to choose given paths. Faith ...

288. A Thinking Person’s Thankful Prayer

Philippians 1:1-11

Sermon

Raymond Gibson

... a Jewish business-woman, a citizen of Greece, and from all indications, a person of some importance. She was Paul’s first convert as well as being a close friend. Then there was a nameless slave girl. This poor creature had been afflicted by all sorts of strange neuroses and had been exploited shamefully by her owners. But then she met Paul, and he told her about Jesus, his power, and his love, and she was converted. Her neurotic tendencies cleared up, she gained the peace that passes understanding, and ...

289. "Can Do" Christianity

Philippians 4:10-20

Sermon

Raymond Gibson

... he did in my wife. She is the most loving, genuine person I know, and I want to be like her. If Jesus Christ can do that sort of miracle in her, I know he can do it in me, too!" That man was a living example of what Christ can do through a single ... that hand before. Moses says, "You’s with me, ain’t you, Lawd?" God replies, "‘Cose I is, Moses, ‘Cose I is." That same sort of assurance is given to every Christian. God is with us always and forever in Jesus Christ. We have his word on it. Therefore ...

290. Mary of Bethany and Jesus’ Mother

Drama

Jon Joyce

... benches.] Something has happened. Can you tell me what it is? MJ: [Rubbing her hands together nervously] Yes - yes, I will. Jesus just caused a disturbance in the Temple and ... MB: [Alarmed, but with the air that she expected something of this sort] What sort of disturbance? MJ: The men selling, you know, oxen and sheep and pigeons - and the men who exchange the money for the pilgrims. [A deep, long sigh. MB watches MJ closely, yet apprehensively] My son, so angry. [She shakes her head, staring straight ...

291. What Gives You Away?

Judges 12:1-7

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

... . You recall that a little maid said to Peter, while he warmed himself by the enemy’s fire; "Thy speech betrayeth thee." Maybe that’s why the wisdom of one of the Proverbs says: "Even a fool is thought wise when he keeps silent." We talk about all sorts of things - both the Christian and the non-Christian. There is no difference in the fact that we all talk. But there should be a difference in what we talk about. It is very easy to be guilty of speaking a lot - but only of trivia, of incidentals, non ...

292. God Made Me Do It!

Genesis 45:1-28

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

... be harmless enough, but not always very wise). We could use a little wisdom in the work of the Kingdom today. With some of the reporting we do for God and the church, it is no wonder the people stay away in droves. When will we learn to sort out what to say to the non-Christian, to the non-churched? Do you have to tell every weakness, every mistake, every problem that we have? Some of our "reporting" could be of a little wiser caliber, and still be truthful. Cultivate some Christian tact. A famous preacher ...

293. Christians In A Warring World - 1941

Galatians 6:1-10

Sermon

Kent Moorehead

... , but inevitably. Conversely, the only way to get peace is to fulfill the conditions of peace; that is, to strive, not superficially, but sacrificially, to eliminate the causes of war. This means that we should stop pouring out billions for armaments and all sorts of war preparations, for thus we increasingly create fear and suspicion and hate in the hearts of the people of other lands. The pacifist believes that the end never justifies the means, but rather that the means inevitably determine the end. The ...

294. What Are Christian Liberals? - 1951

John 16:5-16

Sermon

Kent Moorehead

... we make, and that is absolute adherence to the line." This is just as true of Fascists as it is of Communists. It is just as true of the left as it is of the right. The worst sin you can commit, from the standpoint of the Communists, is any sort of deviation from the line, and they will do all things to coerce you into that kind of thought control. This is abhorrent to the liberal. There must be tolerance. We come then to the fifth major characteristic, which is the test or the guide on which liberals rely ...

295. The Old and the New

1 Corinthians 5:1-13

Sermon

Jon L. Joyce

... the monasteries the old monks with loose robes had trouble eating their soup, so they sewed buttons on their sleeves to keep their sleeves out of the soup. We no longer wear the robes, but we still have the buttons. We have all sorts of buttons brought over from yesterday, all sorts of things that we do not need, customs we have outgrown, habits of thought grown stuffy and musty with the years. Most of us have lived in towns where someplace in town there was a cattle path through a pasture, which had become ...

296. The Waiting Game

Sermon

James Bjorge

... on schedule. However, there were other teachers who expected us to give a summary of the lesson without advance notice. They urged us to be ready in season and out of season. There was an alarming alertness on the part of the students under such class procedure. I sort of think God works the latter way. "In an hour you think not the Son of Man will come" (Matthew 24:44). As Martin Luther is quoted as saying, "We are to believe and live and love and work as though Jesus Christ died yesterday, rose today, and ...

297. Christmas Is Coming

Luke 2:21-40

Sermon

James Bjorge

... , for all the time I was in India I never met a Christian." Each found that for which he was looking. As Simeon discovered salvation in the Child that day, so might we during the Christmas Season, or any time, if that is what we are earnestly looking for. I sort of think God is more interested in being found than we are in finding him. And finally, Simeon gave us a good glimpse of an old man who had lived a full, ripe life and now knowing his salvation was secure, just rested back in the hands of God. No ...

298. No Withdrawal

Sermon

James Bjorge

... best tolerate. We drag through eleven months of dog-eat-dog policy and all of a sudden adopt the good neighbor policy for one month. The stabs in the back change to pats on the back for these fleeting days. It almost seems like a make-believe world. It is sort of wonderful. But like Cinderella, we know that when the clock strikes twelve we must rush back to the real world in which we live. Next year we shall again don the smiling mask and grab the bag of gifts to play the game of Christmas once more. Well ...

299. Measure of Success

Drama

Sarah Walton Miller

... money? All right, I’ll give you ten dollars more. HENRY: It isn’t the money. This whole thing is wrong. PHILLIP: What’s wrong about it? HENRY: What good is a college education you never really get? PHILLIP: Oh, I’m getting an education - of another sort. Do you know I’ve made all my expenses and have a nice fat bank balance? HENRY: [angrily] From lending money to your fellow students! PHILLIP: At interest, cousin! At good interest. HENRY: Phil, you don’t want to learn. All you want to do is make ...

300. The Young Man

Drama

Sarah Walton Miller

... born - only fifteen. My other children came along later. So, for a time, he had all my attention. He was a bright, happy baby. It was sort of like still playing with dolls. Later, he helped me with the other children. After his father died, I depended on him so. That's ... hurt when he left home. Just like that! BOY 2: We were boys in school together. I didn't run around with him much. He was sort of square, if you know what I mean. Even if he was my cousin, I wasn't exactly bragging about it. Who wants to be ...

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