Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: Levi, disciple, evangelist, tax collector, the 12, the twelve, apostle, sermon on the mount, jewish audience, beatitudes, lord's prayer, great commission, parables, olivet discourse, mount of olives, olivet, synoptic

Showing 2976 to 3000 of 4942 results

2976. A Fantastic Feast

Luke 14:1-14

Sermon

Eric Ritz

Once, while in New York City, I had the opportunity to see the movie "Babette''s Feast," which I liked so much that I bought the video version of it. As I viewed the film, I knew someday it would help form the foundation of a Holy Communion Meditation. As I viewed the film, my mind immediately made connections to the well-known passage of scripture written by Dr. Luke that we just read in our worship service and the other passage from John 12:1-8. However, before I share with you those connections, let me ...

2977. Staying Focused--Traveling Light

Hebrews 12:1-13

Sermon

Eric Ritz

I think most of you would agree that we live in a sports-oriented culture. Even the average athlete makes more money than the President of the United States, and most college coaches make more money than the professors who teach at our universities. Yes, every Saturday and Sunday there are athletic events that have the capacity to attract millions of folks to stadiums, golf courses, and race tracks. These athletic events also have a way of attracting the headlines of the morning newspapers even when we are ...

2978. Waiting

John 1:1-18

Sermon

Brett Blair

As a child I remember that the most difficult part of Christmas was simply waiting for it to come. From Thanksgiving to December 25 seemed more like an eternity than a month. Days seemed like weeks. Weeks felt like seasons. Time seemed to stand still. Waiting is foreign to our society. It seems unnatural. We hunger for immediate gratification. The idea of delayed satisfaction is a stranger to our thinking. The symbols of our unwillingness to wait are all around us. Fast food chains boom because we don’t ...

2979. Grace in the Midst of Suffering

2 Corinthians 4:1-18

Sermon

Glenn McDonald

For several years an earnest and energetic woman has been attempting to make August 8 a national holiday in the United States. She'd like to call it, "National Admit You're Happy Day." She has canvassed the governors of all fifty states, personally requesting their support. At least fifteen governors have responded positively. A good many others have been less happy with the idea -- including George Pataki, the governor of New York, who has said, "The state of New York has no official position on happiness ...

2980. The Lions Are Shackled

John 18:1-19:42

Sermon

King Duncan

Nearly three decades ago, a California minister had himself nailed to a cross as a protest against crime in the streets. The Reverend Willie Dicks, of St. John’s Missionary Baptist Church in San Jose, set up a 9-foot by 12-foot wooden cross in a park in Oakland. Removing his white cotton gown, he leaned against the cross and extended his arms. Using carpenter’s nails sprayed with Bactine, an assistant affixed the pastor to the cross, hammering the nails through the skin between the third and fourth fingers ...

2981. First Light

Isaiah 9:1-7

Sermon

Curtis Lewis

Have you ever seen the aurora borealis? That may not be a familiar term to you, and you may be asking yourself, "Is that a country?" "Is it some kind of strange animal that is nearly extinct that I have somehow missed?" Some of you already know what the aurora borealis is; for those who don't, they are called the northern lights. The northern lights occur in the far northern regions. Recently, while driving in an isolated northern area of the United States, I saw a brilliant display of colored lights that ...

2982. Follow the Signs to God and Eternal Life

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Richard Gribble

"Red, right, returning." "Even red nuns have odd black cans." To the mariner entering harbor from sea these expressions keep ships, their occupants, and cargo "out of harm's way." Remember the expressions and follow the signs and you will navigate safely home. Navigation, the art or science of moving precisely from one location to a second, has been practiced by humans since the dawn of civilization. With increasing sophistication men and women travelers have used various navigational aids, all of which ...

2983. Proclaimers Of The Gospel

Philippians 1:12-30

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Let me introduce you to the story of a great man. These are his words, “My first night on the campus,” he said, “a student came to see me. The student said, ‘I’ve come to welcome you here and to tell you that if there’s anything I can do for you to make your stay here more pleasant, I want to do it.’ Then he asked me where I went to church, and I told him I was a Catholic. He said, ‘Well, I can tell you where the Catholic Church is, but it’s not easy to find. It’s quite a distance away, let me draw you a ...

2984. Saints In The Light

Colossians 1:1-14

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

“Saints in the Light” — does that conjure any images in your mind? Stained Glass? A well-lighted painting in a museum, like El Greco’s Saint Jerome which I saw at the Metropolitan in New York a few years ago? Or, maybe your mind is more playful or impish. Did you think of some of that religious art in luminous paint on black velvet? You can buy them on the roadside in some of your vacation travels, especially if you get near Mexico. Or, perhaps less impish, but also less sophisticated, you thought of a ...

2985. The Gift Of Sleep

Psalm 127:1-5

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

I think I've told you the story of the mother who was trying desperately to get her son out of bed, to get him up and ready for church on Sunday morning. None of you parents have that problem with your children, do you? The mother threatened, begged, cajoled -- but to no avail. "Come on, Son, she pleaded. Why don't you want to go?" "I'll give you three reasons, he said. One, the people down there aren't friendly. Two -- they don't like me, and three, they don't listen to what I have to say." Parents, have ...

2986. A Love For All Seasons (i)

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

"You know what I don't understand?" asked Lucy of Charlie Brown in my favorite comic strip -- "PEANUTS" by Charles Schultz. "I don't understand love!" Charlie Brown replies, "Who does!" Lucy says, "Explain love to me, Charlie Brown", Charlie says. "You can't explain love. I can recommend a book or a poem or a painting, but I can't explain love." Lucy comes back, "Well, try, Charlie Brown, try." As is always the case, Charlie can't say no to Lucy. He can't resist doing what Lucy tells him to do, so he says ...

2987. The Dayspring From On High

Luke 1:5-25

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

A little boy was preparing for the Annual Christmas pageant in his church, and the beginning of white gifts to the King. As his mom was helping him with his part, he interrupted the rehearsal of his lines, saying, "Mom, can't we change the story this year. It's the same story every year." Well it is! But what a story. We have to guard against our familiarity with the story blinding us to the richness of it. There was a young missionary couple who were going out on their first assignment to take over a pair ...

2988. In The Beginning And The End...God

Genesis 1:1-2:3

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

"A fire mist and a planet –a crystal and a cell a jellyfish and a saurian,and caves where the cave men dwell; Then a sense of law and beauty and a face turned from the clod Some call it Evolution,And others call it God. A haze on the far horizon,The infinite tender sky.The ripe, rich tint of the cornfields, and the wild geese sailing high;. And all over upland and lowland, the charm of the goldenrod,Some call it Autumn,And others call it God. Like tides on a crescent sea beach When the moon is new and thin ...

2989. Courage Me!

Ephesians 6:10-20

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

One day a guest was checking out of a major hotel in Honolulu. While he was paying his bill at the desk in the lobby, it suddenly dawned upon him that he had left his briefcase in his room upstairs. He called to a bellboy standing nearby, "Son," would you please run up to my room and see if I left my briefcase there? The limo is waiting and I've got to get to the airport as fast as I can." "Sure," said the young man, "I'll be back in just a minute." Well, in no time, the bellboy came running out to the ...

2990. At Home In The Daylight

Ephesians 4:17--5:21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Mrs. Adams was preparing an early supper for her 12-year-old son so he could get to football practice on time. Everything was ready when she discovered she was almost out of ketchup. She was thumping away at the end of the nearly empty bottle when the phone rang. You know how you do that -- when the ketchup is scarce and it's hard to get out, you turn the bottle upside down and you thump on the bottom of it. Well she was doing this when the phone rang. "Would you get that?", she called to her son. ...

2991. A Fragrant Offering

Ephesians 4:17--5:21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

A teacher sent home a report card with this notation to the parents, "Alvin excels in initiative, group integration, responsiveness, and activity participation. Now if he would only learn to read and write!" We chuckle, but there's a serious point here. We have excelled in almost everyway imaginable as human beings, except in the one way that matters most. We have not learned to love. So we come to the close of this series of sermons on "The Christian Walk". We talk about the ultimate call -- the most ...

2992. How To Be Rich And Poor

James 1:1-18

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

One day, Herman and Clara were riding along in their shiny new car. Clara spoke up and said, "You know, Herman, if it weren't for my money, we probably wouldn't have this wonderful new car." Herman just sat there and didn't say a word. As they pulled into their driveway, Herman turned off the engine. They quietly admired their beautiful home and Clara said, "You know, Herman, if it weren't for my money, we probably wouldn't have this house." Herman just sat there and didn't say a word. That afternoon, a ...

2993. He Comes As He Came

Luke 19:28-44

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Sometime ago there appeared a cartoon in The New Yorker magazine which depicted that dramatic story in the Old Testament of Moses' parting the Red Sea and the Israelites passing through on dry land. Actually, the moment depicted in the cartoon is when the water has been parted and the Israelites are moving swiftly through the passage. Moses is irritated because, obviously, someone has said something to him, so he replies to the man next to him, "Of course, it's damp underfoot, but that strikes me as a ...

2994. More Tolerable For Sodom And Gomorrah

Luke 10:1-24

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Cracow, the ancient capitol of Poland, remains a medieval city for it somehow escaped the devastation that leveled so many other European cities during the war. Cracow was once a flourishing member of the Hanseatic League, an association of independent merchant towns that exerted so much power and influence in the Middle Ages. The hugh sprawl of covered market still stands in the central square, dominated by a tower from which each night a trumpet tune sounds (the interesting thing is that in the midst of ...

2995. Getting Ourselves Off Our Hands

Philippians 3:12-4:1

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

"Bishop Fitzgerald in his book How to be A Successful Failure tells a fascinating story about a young man (barely twenty years old) who was caught one day "stealing sheep." He was charged and convicted. As a penalty, the villagers decided to make an example out of him. They took a branding iron and branded his forehead with the letters "ST"...meaning of course, "Sheep Thief." The brand was permanent and a constant source of shame to the young man. Penitent, he turned to God. He asked God for forgiveness. ...

2996. Naming And Being Named

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

...Comes from the 15th chapter of John's Gospel. I'm going to read verses 12-17. Let's share now this Word of the Lord. "This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing. But I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard ...

2997. The Baby Leaped

Luke 1:39-45

Sermon

King Duncan

Dr. Jerry Schmallengberger, former president of Pacific Lutheran Seminary in Berkeley, CA, tells a hilarious story about a Christmas program that went awry. The story concerned a Pastor Paul Dahlrimple who had a great scheme to illustrate baby Jesus coming down from heaven. Pastor Dahlrimple asked Elder Fred to help. In preparation, he carefully rigged a baby doll to an invisible fishing line, stringing it through hooks in the ceiling and across to Elder Fred’s fishing pole in the wings. This baby doll was ...

2998. Portrayal of Holiness

Isaiah 6:1-13

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

We use the word "holy" a lot. We talk about the Holy Bible or the Holy Ghost, a holy place, or a holy person. Roman Catholics call their pope "His Holiness," which is the title of a book about John Paul II. And we sense that when some things or some persons are called "holy," there is a different aura about them. Somehow they seem set apart from our profane, everyday life, and we are tempted to speak in whispers about them. We are not wrong in the way we treat holiness. The root meaning of the word, "to be ...

2999. Tasks For The Living God

Acts 16:11-15

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

Our text for the morning sets us down in the middle of what many have called Paul's second missionary journey. Luke schematizes Paul's travels and arranges them so that Paul goes on three journeys, returning twice to the "headquarters" of the church in Jerusalem. Paul's letters, on the other hand, give a somewhat different account. But it is certain that Paul traveled thousands of miles for Christ in his mission to the Gentiles. As we pick up our story, Paul, accompanied by Silas, journeys through Syria ...

3000. Compassion Fatigue

1 John 4:7-21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

I’m excited about being here – I’m excited about what Hope Foundation is doing. As much as anything else we need to pay attention and honor those who are seeking to make a difference for the cause of Christ. I just came from South Africa – Nelson Mandella – In Jail for 26 years – He talked about his Christian faith and the role the church played in dismantling apartheid. Imagine that – in prison for 26 years – often tortured, poorly fed, manual labor all day, sleeping on a straw mat. Coming away from that ...

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