Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 3101 to 3125 of 3160 results

John 7:37-39 · 1 Corinthians 12:3-13 · Acts 2:1-21

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... something which touches you holistically in a powerful way. Just as in looking at the aurora borealis, a sight for some so beautiful that is evokes an emotive response of exhilaration, peace, joy, or awe, we can also have these sorts of experiences other times in our lives when we are especially attuned to something both actively, spiritually, psychologically, and emotionally. Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls this a state of “flow” in his book called Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience ...

3102. The Power of Good

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... . I want you to imagine this morning your favorite character. Maybe it’s Harry Potter. Maybe his parents. Maybe it’s Peter, Susan, Edmund, or Lucy. Maybe it’s Bilbo Baggins, Frodo Baggins, or even Gandalf. Or maybe your hero is of a superhero sort like Spiderman, Captain America, Iron Man, or Dr. Strange. Whoever your favorite character is, I want you to imagine yourself in their clothes, literally in their shoes. Can you get a picture in your mind? Imagine looking into the mirror and seeing yourself ...

3103. What Heaven Will Be Like

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... of our Father, there will be nothing separating us from the fullness of God’s glory. In his book Standing on the Promises, pastor and theologian Lewis Smedes says that the hardest task for people who believe in the second coming of Jesus Christ is “living the sort of life that makes people say, ‘Ah, so that’s how people are going to live when righteousness takes over our world.’” (6) In the kingdom of our Father, we will have the glory of God living in us and we will reflect the glory of God ...

3104. Seeing the Truth of Jesus

Matthew 16:13-20

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... shelters. In an interview she said, “I saw a whole list of people, I just kept a list in the beginning of people that I saw who didn't see me. I saw two people at the mall, one of my priests was walking around the streets and I just sort of waved as I walked by. “People in churches didn't recognize me. I mean, if they did, they didn't say anything, and I haven't received a letter yet saying, ‘We saw you.’” (4) This was Bishop Wolf’s way of seeking to understand what people in her ...

3105. The Fringe

Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... of trade. A waitress wears an apron. A chef wears a kind of apron-like garb. A tradesman wears a tool belt or heavy apron. A policeman wears a uniform and belt. You would never do your job without wearing your special garb. They are an extension of sorts of who you are and what you do. Likewise, a prayer shawl has a similar purpose. Years ago, women in particular, would don a “prayer shawl” in order to meditate or spend alone time with God. Jewish men (and today some women too) wear what’s called a ...

3106. Welcoming Jesus

Matthew 10:40-42

Sermon

William G. Carter

... country. “Whoever welcomes you welcomes me,” he said. He meant it. In fact, near the end of his time among us, Jesus told a true story about the future. He said the day would come when all truth will be revealed, and all people will be sorted. The single question at the heart of God’s judgment is whether people have opened their hearts to those around them. As the risen Lord will say, “I was a stranger and you welcomed me.” Everybody will be astonished, he declared, and every single person will ...

3107. A Second Look

Matthew 5:27-48

Sermon

Will Willimon

... than my first fifteen minutes on the school bus. Therein I learned the impracticality of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. As you can see, I did not obey and pluck out the eye that caused me to sin. Rather, I took Junior High psychology wherein I discovered all sorts of psychological reasons why it 1s utterly unrealistic to expect a normal fourteen year old male to be free of lustful eyes, heart, hand or whatever vital organ. And, in a way, that's what I did with the rest of the Sermon on the Mount. Did you ...

3108. Spiritual vs Material Thinking

Illustration

Maxie Dunnam

... days are even thinking in those terms. All of us should be. The human being is spiritual. The philosopher was right. There is a God-shaped void within us all. But it’s not just a question about God. How do we love? What gives us meaning? What sort of experience provides joy? To what do we open our eyes widely and exclaim, “Ah-ha!”? These are spiritual questions. To be spiritually minded rather than materially minded is to think about things in the light of a year rather than an hour, to test value, to ...

3109. The Pearls of Hapsberg

Illustration

Maxie Dunnam

... .” They’re perfect in symmetry and highly lustrous. The pearls have been on display in Vienna, Paris, London, and New York from time to time. A while ago someone noticed the pearls were appearing dull, losing their luster and sheen. All sorts of authorities began to work on efforts to restore their shining glow, but all failed. Finally some authority suggested returning the pearls to their original salt water environment. It worked! The pearls of Hapsberg’s luster was restored. That’s a parable ...

3110. The Last Laugh

Luke 24:1-35

Sermon

Will Willimon

... 'm going to report you to the Dean! What is your name?" The student stepped back, hiked up his trouser legs and said, "You're so smart, you tell me." Do you know why that story is from a book on how to be a better teacher? You get this sort of humor in Jesus: There was a rich man. He had it made. He had large barns -- had to build even bigger ones to hold all of his grain. "Take it easy," he told himself as he settled down into his easy chair. "Hello, fool," said the angel of death ...

3111. God's Little Acre

Matthew 13:24-30

Sermon

Will Willimon

... , he could see sinners for who they really are, and he would avoid them." Jesus answers by telling them this story. God knows those who are truly of the kingdom and those who aren't. God is the patient judge. Let God wait to do the sorting. When I was finishing high school in Greenville, South Carolina, Greenville had a Billy Graham Crusade, right in our own town. There was a president of a nearby Fundamentalist Christian university. He forbid any of the students to go hear Billy Graham. Why? "Because Billy ...

3112. A Violent Week

Mark 14:1-2 · Luke 22:14-23:56

Sermon

Will Willimon

... The rulers of this world like to lord over people," said Jesus. In Moscow, Beirut, Washington, Belfast, Soweto, we have our pax romana, pax russiana, pax americana. "It shall not be so among you." He calls us to put our trust, to find our security elsewhere, to be the sort of people who are bound so securely to him that we are free enough to say with the psalmist, ''We will not put our trust in horses, in chariots, in MX missiles, but we will trust in the Lord our God and him only will we serve." Luke says ...

3113. Jesus' Final Exam

Luke 20:19-40

Sermon

Will Willimon

... of life or death. "Then the Pharisees went and took counsel how to entangle him in his talk,..." (Matthew 22:15). The method of entanglement is Exam Question #1, a devil of a question, if ever there was one, a damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you don't sort of question. "Teacher,....you are true, and teach the way of God truthfully, and care for no [human] opinion....Tell us, then,…Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?" It's a question, a setup. If Jesus answers "no," the Romans will label him a Jewish ...

3114. The Inverting Promise

1 Corinthians 1:27-29 · Genesis 25:21-34

Sermon

Will Willimon

... , indoors, played the piano, cooked gourmet meals, felt that football encourages violence. No surprise then that the Bible says: "Isaac loved having Esau...but Rebekah loved Jacob" (verse 28). What kind of family is this? Dad loves one twin, Mom loves the other? What sort of parents are these where partiality and favoritism is shown to one and not the other? They are real parents, your parents. Not that your parents love your little sister more than they love you--although they might. "Dear, it's not that I ...

3115. The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning

Deuteronomy 34:1-12

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

Let me ask you an odd question: If you died tomorrow, how hard would it be for your loved ones to sort through your belongings? I stole that question from Ashley Hamer, a science writer and podcaster, in an article she wrote about the practice of Swedish death cleaning. Have you heard about this? It sounds morbid, but it’s actually a good idea. Swedish death cleaning is the practice of going ...

3116. When God Leads

Joshua 3:7-17

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... by leading them into Canaan, the Promised Land. But first, the Lord prepared His chosen leader, Joshua. The Rev. David Gockley shares that one of his favorite cartoons pictures a man with his head bowed in prayer as he prays, “God, can you help me, but sort of make it look like I did it all myself?” (3) Fortunately, Joshua was the right leader at the right time. He had nothing to offer God except unwavering obedience. That’s why, after receiving his instructions from the Lord, the first thing he said ...

3117. When Payday Comes

Matthew 20:1-16

Sermon

Steven Molin

... ’s not fair; we earned more!” And in a sense, they were right. If they were being paid for the hours worked, or the tasks accomplished, the full day workers deserved more than the one-hour workers. No employer in her right mind would try this sort of thing today. They would be inundated by union officials, lawyers and job seekers. No school teacher would give “A’s” to both the student who wrote a one page essay, and the student who wrote a book. I know all about differentiation, but the helicopter ...

3118. Trick Questions

Matthew 22:15-22

Sermon

Steve Molin

... powerful than God More evil than the devil Poor people have it Rich people don’t need it And if you eat it you will die? And the answer… Nothing! In the gospel text that is ours today, the Jewish leaders came to Jesus with a riddle of sorts…a riddle whose answer they are hoping incriminates Jesus. Their initial approach was to suck up to Jesus in order to gain his trust. “Teacher, we know that you always tell the truth about things…especially when it comes to God, so teacher, we have a question ...

3119. The Candle

Mark 4:21

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

... was and why He came. Jesus is the light of the world and we should not try to hide Him. Jesus should be seen and heard by everyone. Jesus is the most important light in the whole world and people who know Jesus know love, patience, kindness, forgiveness and all sorts of good things. But sometimes we try to hide Jesus. We know that Jesus doesn't like us to act tough, and hateful, to lie, and do other things that are not right. We hide Jesus whenever we want people to see us first or think of us first. But ...

3120. Dynamic Preaching January 2024 Sermons

Sermon

King Duncan

... fashioned his prayer after what he thought he heard in church in the Lord's prayer: "And forgive us our trash baskets," he prayed, "as we forgive those who put trash in our baskets." We all admit that we have trash in our baskets. We all have sinned and fallen sort of the glory of God. None of us denies that. And we know that sin is a barrier to our relationship with God. Indeed, sin is brokenness, alienation. The longer we stay in our sin, the more difficult it is for us to turn to God. There is an ...

3121. Simeon (A Monologue)

Luke 2:22-40

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... need to know what their heavenly Father requires of them in this day. If people hear the law read in the temple or their synagogues, they need to be able to understand its relevance in the here and now. Those who would live righteous lives need to know that sort of thing. We believe that the law is a living, breathing, vital gift from God — a way to help us order our lives so that we might be pleasing. Some have accused us of taking liberties with the word of God in making the interpretations we do, but I ...

3122. I Am Somebody!

Mark 1:4-11

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... it is so radical, so dangerous, so threatening, that people either flee the church as they get older, or they weep when we have the opportunity to reaffirm our baptismal vows.” One of our most eloquent writers has asked, “Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies ...

3123. Taking the High Way to Heaven

John 1:43-51

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... . This new and amazing bridge to a bright and hopeful future. Now imagine another scenario. What if you could connect to God in an equally miraculous way? What if suddenly a gateway appeared, a kind of portal between this life and the next, a bridge of sorts that would enable you to see and access God and God’s Kingdom of Heaven, to see to the other side. Not just see, but to get there over that newly appeared “bridge.” We call this kind of “bridging” a revelation, God revealing something to us ...

3124. A Restless Lad

Luke 15:11-32

Drama

Arley K. Fadness

... come in for a little talk with you Dr. Fad. FAD: Great. Have a seat. Sooooo..... LAD: I’ve been meaning to talk to you about well – ah, ahem, you know about this friend. He’s got this problem. FAD: Your friend has a problem? LAD: Yeah, I sort of, I think so. FAD: Are you at liberty to tell me about it? LAD: Sure. FAD: Well? LAD: Aah.... FAD: Go ahead – everything’s confidential here. LAD: All right. Well you see this friend is really bored. FAD: Bored? Like disinterested in what’s going on? LAD ...

3125. The Great Discovery

Luke 15:14b-18a

Drama

Arley K. Fadness

... trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about him (Christ): they say,’I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would be either a lunatic—on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg – or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was and is ...

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