Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 301 to 325 of 4508 results

301. Recollections of Reuben, Uncle of a Young Bethlehem Shepherd

Drama

Robert A. Morgan

A Dramatic Monologue It's a great time for you to be asking questions now, after all the blood your soldiers spilled and all the pain and misery they brought to nearly every home in Bethlehem! Yes, I understand what you've said - you wouldn't have allowed such widespread killings if you had been King Herod, and not just a captain of his soldiers. You would have asked some questions first, and tri...

302. Where's Dad?

Drama

Arley K. Fadness

Theme: Parenting, fathering (A preaching subject may be on Joseph as a fatherly role model.) Characters: Brad Nelson Bowling Alley Proprietor Stranger Tone: Thoughtful, emotionally painful Setting/Props: Bowling alley setting with bowling balls Table and chairs Soda Telephone Approximate time: 5-7 minutes (Brad Nelson is sitting at a table sipping a soda. Bowling alley noises are heard in the...

303. The Escape To Egypt And The Return From Egypt

Drama

Dallas A. Brauninger

Suggestions: Use as an anthem. Characters: 4 readers - 2 older women as storytellers, 2 middle-aged men Key: 1 and 3 = storytellers 2 = angel 4 = prophet 1: Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, 2: "Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy h...

304. Joseph's Friend

Drama

Robert F. Crowley

Theme: Fatherhood is a solemn responsibility given by God. Modern fathers could learn a lot from Joseph, the man who was the stepfather of Jesus. Summary: Joseph, the stepfather of Jesus, talks about his relationship with Jesus. A monologue. Playing Time: 3 minutes Setting: A neutral playing area which could represent the home of Joseph Props: None Costumes: Hebrew, of Jesus' time Time: The ...

305. Same Ol’, Same Ol’

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

Herod I or Herod the Great was born in 73 BCE, the son of Antipater the Idumaean, a high ranking court official. Through a series of intrigues and coups more complex than we have time to unravel, here, he was declared King of Judea by the Roman Senate in 37 BCE. He would rule as “King of the Jews” for about thirty years until his death in 4 BCE. Historically, he is remembered mostly for his buil...

306. The Fourth King In The Christmas Story

Sermon

Eric Ritz

I hope you had a joyous holiday. Perhaps, though, you have moved from the anticipation of Christmas to the anxiety after Christmas. Particularly if you gained weight during this season of celebration or spent more than you planned. Julia Boynton Green spoke for many people when she wrote: "Twas the night after Christmas and all through the house, We were paying each one for our yuletide carouse. ...

307. Two Promises For A New Year

Children's Sermon

King Duncan

Object: Discarded Christmas wrapping paper. Good morning, boys and girls. Christmas is over. A few days ago, I received a present wrapped in this beautiful paper. But now the paper is useless and I must throw it away. (Wad up paper.) Soon we will be putting away the lights and the ornaments and the tree. Gee, it's sad, isn't it? But we don't throw away our memories, do we? When you are an adult, ...

308. The Character Of Christmas; Herod: The Not So Great

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

I don't remember where I gleaned this story, but it was in some of my readings this week in sermon prep. But Brenda Roberts of Stone Mountain, Georgia is a Sunday School teacher. She was reading the story of Jesus' birth to her day-care children one morning. As usual, she stopped to see if they were paying attention and understood. "What do we call the three wise men?" she asked. "The three maggo...

309. Way Down In Egypt's Land

Sermon

King Duncan

I hope you had the best Christmas ever. Robert Orben says city kids have a difficult time understanding the Christmas story. When he said that Mary and Joseph had to spend the night in a stable, his daughter asked, "What’s a stable?" he said, "Picture your room without a stereo!" Doc Blakely said his son is so out of it that he got a pair of cuff links for Christmas and had his wrists pierced. Ju...

310. Been There, Done That

Sermon

William B. Kincaid, III

"Been there, done that" is a popular, and often overused, phrase that excuses us from having to endure anything a second time. It doesn't matter if we have skateboarded up Mt. Everest, or walked from New York to London, or stood on our heads and gargled peanut butter, we are entirely too cool to do any of that stuff again. "Been there, done that" asks other people not to bore us by requesting that...

311. Flight To Egypt

Sermon

King Duncan

One mother says that she is always sorry when Christmas is over because she knows that after her family has hung up their stockings on Christmas Eve it will be a whole year before any one of them will hang up anything again. (1) After Christmas, Lucy mutters, "Rats! Phooey! Everything is hopeless! Who cares?" Charlie Brown asks, "Lucy, what in the world is the matter with you?" Again she shouts, "...

312. A Word of Hope for a Hard World

Sermon

King Duncan

If you’ve ever felt like your life was out of control, then you can relate to the harrowing adventure of Tattoo, a basset hound from Tacoma, Washington. One evening, Tattoo’s owner headed out for a drive. He didn’t notice that Tattoo’s leash had gotten caught in the car door. Police officer Terry Filbert, patrolling the neighborhood on his motorcycle, spotted the poor dog running--and occasionally...

313. Egypt: Unlikely Refuge

Sermon

J. Ellsworth Kalas

If you plan a pilgrimage in the footsteps of Jesus, you probably will not include Egypt in your itinerary. What does Egypt have to do with Bethlehem, Nazareth, the Jordan River, and the Sea of Galilee? Egypt is exciting as the land of the pyramids and the Sphinx, but we don’t instinctively think of it as part of our Master’s story. But it belongs to his story, in a strange and wonderful way. You’...

314. Deliverance by a Dream

Sermon

It is a scene burned into my memory; I remember the death of the Cambodian child as though it had just happened. My granddaughter and I had just finished watching Cookie Monster do his stuff on Sesame Street, and the national news came on. My granddaughter immediately left, but another took her place, not on my lap, but on the television screen. I was whisked off to a refugee camp in Cambodia and,...

315. Promises Kept!

Sermon

King Duncan

Some years ago the Canadian Medical Association reported the strange case of Jack Traynor. Jack was an Englishman who fought in the trenches of World War I. Twice he was shot: one bullet severed the nerves and tendons in his right arm; the other put a hole in his skull. Jack was alive, but his arm was useless and his brain was damaged. He couldn’t walk, and he had constant epileptic seizures. His ...

316. The Down Side of Christmas

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

‘Twas the day after Christmas When all through the place There were arguments and depression— Even mom had a long face. The stockings hung empty; And the house was a mess. The clothes didn't fit; Dad was under stress. The family was irritable; The children were not pleased. The instructions for the swing set Were written in Chinese. The bells no longer jingled; And no carolers came around. The ...

317. The Horror before the Blessing

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

A few years ago, a woman wrote in exasperation to the editor of her newspaper. She demanded to know why the media always publish negative and sad stories during the holiday season. As she pointed out, "Christmas is supposed to be a happy, joyous time."1 Her letter sounds almost as if she thinks that, even if bad news happens during the holiday season, the newspapers and television should simply ig...

318. Dream Power

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

One-third of our lives is spent not having any idea what we are doing. All right, admittedly many of us spend even greater percentages of our lifetimes clueless. But officially, we all have one-third of our lives basically unaccounted for. Why? Because we are sleeping. Sleeping is required by every creature with even the most rudimentary or remedial brain stem. Yet we really don’t understand wh...

319. The Rest of the Story

Sermon

Susan R. Andrews

Just a few days later, the needles are falling, the poinsettias are drooping, and the cookies are stale. How do we hold onto the feeling? How do we hold onto the warmth, the wonder, the welcome of Christmas? Christmas letters - offering graceful glimpses of old friends; That rare mother/daughter afternoon, creating the most perfect Christmas of our lives; American soldiers sharing Christmas with ...

320. Dream Reality

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

In a world that dreams nightmares, let's begin the new year with some God-powered, God-sized daydreams. In Native American culture there is a talisman called a "dream catcher." Actually, they've recently become quite popular as pieces of jewelry and folk art. A dream catcher looks like a simplistic version of a spider's web, adorned with a few decorative feathers and beads. According to legend, p...

321. Hiding in Plain Sight

Sermon

Lori Wagner

“Things are not as they appear. We will not know ourselves or our beauty until we see God.” C.S. Lewis (“Till We Have Faces”) C.S. Lewis loved secrets, symbols, layers of meaning, and mystery. In 2008, Michael Ward, currently Senior Research Fellow at Blackfriars Hall, University of Oxford, announced his discovery of a possible new connection between Lewis’s 7 fiction books, The Chronicles of Nar...

322. Even in Our Hiding

Sermon

Lori Wagner

In Haarlem, Holland, 1837, a man named Willem ten Boom opened a watch shop. His family lived in the rooms above the shop. Later, the home and business was passed on to his son, Caspar ten Boom, and then later to Caspar’s daughter, Cornelia, who went by the name of Corrie ten Boom. The ten Boom family were devoted Christians, and their home was always open to anyone in need. The family served thei...

323. Feliz Navidad

Children's Sermon

King Duncan

Object: An ad for a motel Good morning, boys and girls. In Mexico, the emphasis at Christmas is on the days and nights that Joseph and Mary traveled looking for lodging. Beginning on December 16 and continuing for nine nights, Mexican families take part in the POSADAS. Posada means inn and the posadas are a reenactment of Mary and Joseph's search for lodging. Several families celebrate the posada...

324. The Evil Done in God’s Name

Bulletin Aid

Frank Ramirez

Call To Worship One: God enters history and becomes a fugitive. All: The Word becomes flesh and a refugee. One: The Light shines in the darkness, All: But the forces of darkness lash out against the innocent. One: Now we wait for your vision, in our waking and in our dreaming. Speak to us today, Lord of life and light. Collect O Lord, the wailing. O Lord, the crying. It seems the time of celebrat...

325. Christmas 1

Bulletin Aid

Amy C. Schifrin

Greeting And Opening Litany Leader: Brothers and sisters, we gather on this day in the name of the one who has bound himself to us in love, Jesus Christ, our Lord. All: Amen. Leader: Sent from heaven and born in our lives, All: let us rejoice at the presence of Christ among us. Leader: Out of Egypt and into the land of Israel, All: he calls us his brothers and sisters. Leader: Abounding in steadfa...

Showing 301 to 325 of 4508 results