Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 276 to 300 of 1858 results

276. “Unto Us A Child Is Born... Next, On Omar”

Luke 2:1-7

Drama

Lois Anne DeLong

... stay in my own house. Even made a few bucks renting the stable out back. There weren’t even rooms at the inns for all the people, and some of them just wandered the streets all night. And a few of them had some pretty wild stories to tell. Omar: Wild stories. Well, here’s our answer for Sweeps Week. Anyway, that leads us to our topic for tonight, “People Who Came To Bethlehem Because Of A Vision.” First up, let’s welcome a group of shepherds. (Applause Child holds up sign. Shepherds enter from ...

277. Home By Another Way

Luke 2:1-7

Drama

Lois Anne DeLong

... night’s sleep in a bed at the palace before the long trip home. Wise Man 3: I’ve been thinking a lot about this. Maybe, our servants are right and we shouldn’t go see Herod. Wise Man 2: Don’t tell me you’re starting to believe these wild shepherd stories? We must tell Herod. He’s the ruler of this land and it’s his right to know. Wise Man 3: I’m sure you’re right. (A second “caravan,” made up of a Merchant and all the little Angels [without costumes], comes up the center aisle, playing ...

278. Thou Sayest I Am King

John 18:28-40

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... – the pastor in the film, who is a central character, is suffering tremendous pain because of the death of his son. His son was killed in an auto accident as a result of drunkenness. In reaction to that pain, the pastor turned that entire town into a wild, mad group of Pharisees. In the process, his lost daughter, almost lost his wife, and had to deal with the fallout of people who wanted to burn books and who wanted to become moral policemen over the action of every other person in the community. It’s ...

279. Room For A Savior?

Luke 2:22-33

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... had to walk a long distance home every evening, and his route led through a forest with a large ravine. Reports said that wild animals and gangs of robbers were often seen in that area. Great fear would seize his heart as he made his way past ... world of ours can be. God knows the struggles we have trying to get it right and always seeming to get it wrong. God knows the wild and animals and gangs of robbers who linger in the dark. God knows how broken we are. That's why every Christmas, God Himself walks up ...

280. Cross Eyed: Rebuke

Mark 8:31-38

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... 4. They're community-minded." They're involved in service to others. That is cross bearing that really makes a difference. (2) B. There is an old story about two brothers. They were likable enough young men but they had a little bit of a wild streak. It got so wild that they became sheep thieves. They earned their money by stealing sheep from the local farmers. As happens to all thieves, one day they were caught. Rather than kill them, the villagers decided to brand the two brothers on the forehead with the ...

281. Who Is the King?

Luke 4:1-13

Illustration

Maxie Dunnam

... about it. You are the king of the jungle!" And then the lion came upon a mighty elephant, huge, massive, towering many feet above the lion! And once more he asked with a ferocious growl, "Who's the king of the jungle? Who's the greatest beast of the wild?" And the elephant didn't say anything. He just picked up the lion with his trunk, whirled him around several times, and smashed him into a tree. As the lion got up, broken and bleeding, he said to the elephant, "Look man, just because you don't know the ...

282. Resurrected Following (Series: Living on the Resurrection Side of Life)

John 10:1-21

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... animals that attack the flock. Like David was armed with his sling shot, the shepherd is armed with his rod. He has a staff. A staff is an 8 ft. long pole with a crook on the end of it. Sheep must not only be protected from the wild animals, but from the landscape itself. The hills of Palestine are steep and rugged. Sheep are prone to wander. The staff nudges them back to the flock and rescues them from the rugged ravine. Insurance is something you carry hoping you never have to use it. The facts are, you ...

283. The Promise of Hope

Matthew 3:1-12

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.' " [4] Now John wore clothing of camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. [5] Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, [6] and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. [7] But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadduccees coming for ...

284. There Is a Price for Everything

Matthew 13:44-46

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... their life?” Now that’s the scriptural focus of the sermon today - the theme, “There is a price for everything.” In the sermon today, I want to elaborate two truths suggested by these words of Jesus. II The first is this: Life itself has a price. Oscar Wilde once wrote that in modern society, “People know the price of everything, but the value of nothing.” Ours is an age of the “sell out”. It seems that everything is for sale at any price, and it seems every person has his or her price. We ...

285. The Shared Life of the People of God

Galatians 6:1-10

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... be careful about spiritual overconfidence. Just when we think we are solidly in the saddle, with firm clutch on the reigns, the wild horse of our nature may take a sudden turn or make a dramatic buck sending us sprawling to the ground. Or, like ... to holler and put up an argument. I want a little guts to show before I let him go. I want to be sure he sees all the wild possibilities And I want him to know the subtle, sneaky, important reason he was born a human being and not a chair.” (Be Your Whole Self pp ...

286. Luke 8:26-39

Luke 8:26-39

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... by the swineherd’s testimony, people from the “the city” and “the country” come out to “see what had happened.” What they “see” is the complete transformation of the man they had known as a demoniac. The “demons had gone.” The man who had run wild, naked, and out of his mind now sits submissively at Jesus’ feet, where he is “clothed and in his right mind” (v.35). Yet the crowd’s response is not wonder, or joy, or praise. Instead “they were afraid.” Whether this is a fear of ...

287. It Doesn't Have to Be That Way - Sermon Opener

Luke 8:26-39

Illustration

James W. Moore

... him a new beginning, a new start, a new birth. At the beginning of the narrative, it sounds like a horror-story. This wild-eyed, adrenalin-filled, madman comes running and shrieking out of the tomb. He is so unbalanced! He is convinced that he is ... the boat. But not Jesus! Jesus stood His ground and faced the madman. Undaunted, unafraid... Jesus stood there and dealt with this wild man. Jesus healed him. He brought peace to his troubled soul. He changed him. He cleansed him. He turned his life around… ...

288. Follow

Mark 1:14-20

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... Your Heart"; she replied with “Almost Persuaded." Elated, I came back with “O Why Not Tonight?" There is another standard song in that old Cokesbury Hymnal that is buried deep in my heart. It goes like this: Jesus calls us; o'er the tumult Of our life's wild, restless sea, From each idol that would keep us, Saying, “Christian, follow Me." That's what I want to talk about today! I. JESUS CALLS US. Jesus calls us. It's not Avon calling; it's not Howard calling; it's not even the church calling; Jesus is ...

289. Males or Females?

Acts 18:1-3, 18-19, 24-26

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... throughout this congregation, there is a radical need for a strong, challenging, adventurous, spiritual ministry to men. John Elderidge in his book Wild at Heart says men are looking for a battle to fight, an adventure to live, a beauty to rescue and all ... suburban. It is always frontier and we who live in it must accept and even rejoice that it remains untamed." May we catch the wild side of God in our faith. The church needs men as spiritual leaders; the family needs it, the world needs it, your church ...

290. Mistaken Identity

Matthew 16:13-20

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... him, now that he had become a point of contact between them and God. Identity Options: John? So the answers came. "Some say John the Baptist," they told him. This was Herod's favorite and fearful line. Herod had long been fascinated with Jesus' cousin John, a wild man who lived outside the system. But John was also a prophet who criticized the system and those who ran it, and no one came under more of John's judgmental tirade than did Herod. Herod's forebears had taught him how to survive in politics: it ...

291. The Holy Way

Isaiah 35:1-10

Sermon

Tony Everett

... in the land of the Bible; for example today's Israel, Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Iran? The wilderness is a rocky, dry, and barren space. In the same day, temperatures may vary from a blazing 100 degrees Fahrenheit to nearly freezing. Food and water are scarce. Wild beasts and even bandits prowl around seeking to devour unsuspecting travelers. The wilderness can be a very scary and lonely space. It's easy to get lost there, far from home with no hope, no help, and no support in sight. In the wilderness spaces ...

292. Science And The Bible

Isaiah 40:1-31

Children's Sermon

Marti Kramer Suddarth

... them. (Read Genesis 1:26.) “Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’ ” God created human beings. When he did that, he made us special and complex, and so he created many branches of science including anatomy, medicine, and psychology. God created the world ...

293. Can You Be Popular and Serve Jesus?

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

King Duncan

... a person who lives according to God’s values and not the world’s values. It is a person who is true to his or her inner voice of right and wrong and not the outer voice of the crowd or the culture. William Willimon in his book On a Wild and Windy Mountain describes a woman whom he calls a saint. She was the lay leader at a church he served in North Myrtle Beach, S.C. Her name was Peggy. In many ways, he notes, Peggy would hardly have qualified for the popular definition of “saint.” For one thing ...

294. Surprise!

Luke 1:26-38

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... ever known. Surprise! Think through the centuries of church history to a time not quite 500 years after Christ, to the young man in the north of Africa who led such a wild, riotous life, that even after he decided to become a Christian he refused baptism because there was still some sinning he planned to do, and he wanted to go wild with at least a relatively clear conscience. He made a prayer once in reference to his raucous womanizing; he said, "Lord, make me chaste, but not yet." His name was Augustine ...

295. Understanding Bible Prophecy

Deuteronomy 18:14-22

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... you have some basic background. It is written in a unique style called "apocalyptic" which is unfamiliar in our day, but was much better known during the period between the Old and New Testaments. Apocalyptic writing, with all its wild imagery — ten-horned, seven-headed beasts, dragons, wild animals, and so on — functioned as a kind of pictorial narrative about God and justice and answers the inevitable question, namely, "If there is a good God who is in control of things, why doesn't God do something ...

296. Do You Love Me?

John 14:15-31

Sermon

Kristin Borsgard Wee

... that it is the hard things — not the easy ones — that change lives. There are a number of quotes that are supposed to make us feel better about this. One quote says, "Those who cannot feel pain are not capable either of feeling joy." Oscar Wilde said, "Where there is sorrow, there is holy ground."2 Syncletica was a fifth-century Christian mystic. She said, "In the beginning, there are a great many battles and a good deal of suffering for those who are advancing toward God and afterward, ineffable joy ...

297. The Place beyond Revenge

Esther 7:1-6, 9-10, 9:20-22

Sermon

Donna Schaper

... to lift our sights beyond ourselves and point to something we are only beginning to understand.The power of music and art to lift our sights beyond ourselves and point to something we are only beginning to understand. The thrill of wild dancing to a pounding beat.The thrill of wild dancing to a pounding beat. The wonder and beauty of the constantly renewing creation.The wonder and beauty of the constantly renewing creation. Our oneness with each other and all of life.Our oneness with each other and all of ...

298. Job Is for Real

Job 1:1, 2:1-10

Sermon

Donna Schaper

... her children cruelly, as if they were not her own. For God deprived her of wisdom and left her with little sense. And yet when she spreads her wings to run, she laughs at the horse and the rider. Or did you give the horse his strength? ... Who unties the wild ass and lets him wander at will? — Job 39:13-19, 5-6a Did you deck the ostrich with wings, with elegant plumes and feathers? She lays her eggs in the dirt and lets them hatch on the ground, forgetting that a foot may crush them or sharp teeth crack ...

299. Who's the Captain of Your Soul?

Illustration

Oscar Wilde

... chamber, one has some day to cry aloud from the house-top. I ceased to be lord over myself. I was no longer the captain of my soul, and did not know it. I allowed pleasure to dominate me. I ended in horrible disgrace. Note: It is reported that Oscar Wilde had a sexual predilection for boys. Perhaps that is at the root of his confession here.

300. Life's Little Gambles

Illustration

Bill Bryson

... just four years off their lives.)...It has been calculated that for every cigarette you smoke, you lose ten minutes off your life expectancy...The grim predictability of mortality rates is something that has long puzzled social scientists. A few years ago, in fact, Canadian psychologist Gerald Wilde noticed that mortality rates for violent and accidental deaths throughout most of the Western world have remained oddly static all through this century, despite advances in our technology and safety standards ...

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