Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 3276 to 3300 of 4508 results

Sermon

King Duncan

After years of wandering, Clint Dennis realized something important was missing from his life. He decided to attend church. As he entered a church for the first time he noticed people putting on long robes. They were also tying ropes around their waists and wrapping headdresses around their heads. "Come be a part of the mob," a stranger told him. It was Palm Sunday and the church was reenacting th...

3277. The Lonesome Valley

Sermon

Mark Trotter

Some of you will remember the name of Joseph Campbell. Campbell taught in relative obscurity for many years until Bill Moyers discovered him, did a series on public television about Campbell's ideas about mythology and comparative religions, and thus elevated him into celebrity. Most of it posthumously since Campbell died shortly after that television series. The book that caught Moyers's attenti...

3278. Palm Sunday (Prologue)

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

Once upon a time, before television, there was radio. You know what radio is—television without pictures. Well, before television, one of the most popular daytime radio programs was called “Queen for a Day.” If I remember it correct-ly (and it was a long time ago!), each day four or five women from the studio audience would tell the host what they would like to have and do if they could be “Quee...

3279. Roll out the Green Carpet

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Before every “feast day” on the calendar—-Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, etc—-the local newspaper runs a reminder to its readers: Don’t include your pets in your over-indulgence! For Thanksgiving and Christmas the cautions are against letting Fido chow down on rich turkey skin, ham fat, giblets, gravies, and other greasy goodies. Your vet will tell you that there is always a huge spike in pets ...

3280. Prelude to the Passion

Sermon

King Duncan

It’s always fascinating to read about royalty. Recall the hoopla that surrounded the birth of an heir to the British throne last summer. The onslaught of popular interest reminded us that royalty don’t live like we live. Palaces, servants, untold wealth at their command. So has it forever been. Several years ago Queen Elisabeth II visited the United States. The newspapers reported in detail how la...

3281. God Works Through Opposites

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

God simply does not seem to do the sort of things we would expect our God to do. He does not always give us what we want. Most of us do not have everything we had hoped and dreamed for in life. He does not always answer our prayers. After all, we have all lost loved ones. Sometimes God seems so far away. We pray to him, and nothing is there (or so it seems). We look to God to intervene in our wor...

3282. Five Ways to be "Holy" During Holy Week

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

“Everyone else is doing it.” Do you remember those words? Do you remember begging your Mom or Dad for permission to do something they would ordinarily not permit by insisting, “But Ma, everyone else is getting to do it!” The typical parental response to such childish logic usually went something along the lines of, “Well, if everyone else jumped off a bridge would you do it too?” (Of course now ...

3283. When to Take the Shirt off Your Back

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

One of the most gruesome, hopeless places in early nineteenth century England was “debtor’s prison.” Charles Dickens described it, but thousands of England’s poor lived it first-hand. Everything the debtor owned was confiscated. Nothing was left. If any debts still remained, debtors were imprisoned until the balance owed could be paid. Which, of course, could never be, because the debtor was locke...

3284. Which Parade Are You In?

Sermon

King Duncan

A pastor was asked to speak for a certain charitable organization. After the meeting the program chairman handed the pastor a check. “Oh, I couldn’t take this,” the pastor said with some embarrassment. “I appreciate the honor of being asked to speak. You have better uses for this money. You apply it to one of those uses.” The program chairman asked, “Well, do you mind if we put it into our speci...

3285. The Triumph and the Tragedy

Sermon

King Duncan

On Palm Sunday April 9, 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant, General of the Union Army, at the village of Appomattox Court House, Virginia. This surrender ended the bloodiest war ever fought on American soil. State against state, brother against brother; it was a conflict that literally tore our nation apart. Five days later Good Friday, April 14, 1865 America’...

3286. The Lamb

Sermon

Lori Wagner

[Optional Prop: Door frame and Cross] If you’re like many people at this time of year, you are anticipating the great Easter Feast, especially if you gave up something you love for Lent. What was it for you? Was it chocolate? Did you go on a special diet? Those are the most popular. But I’ve heard a couple of really unusual ones too, like not using your curling iron for the duration of Lent. Or de...

3287. Still A Threat

Illustration

Lest we be too critical of Jerusalem, ask yourself this question: What city even today would not be shaken by Jesus' entry into it? Imagine Jesus entering New York, Belgrade, Washington, or even (add your city here). Oh, I'm sure we'd welcome him with our hosannas - at first, anyway. We'd line the streets and strike up the band and have a grand parade right down Main Street. But I'm equally sure t...

3288. Running into Jesus

Illustration

Joanna Adams

In the years that I've been a minister, I have known some winning churches and lots of winners in them. One who comes to mind is a young man in my first congregation, an advertising executive on the rise in his profession. Every Tuesday night he volunteered at the foot clinic for the homeless people who made their home in our church gymnasium. Robert was his name. He was the nattiest dresser I had...

3289. Lose Yourself

Illustration

Joanna Adams

I read about one of the fastest growing churches in the world, with branches in 32 countries already. It is called the Winners Church, and according to its leaders, it lives by a motto that comes from America's religious culture. Here's the motto: "Be happy. Be successful. Join the winners." People flock to that kind of church, I guess. But it all depends, doesn't it, on how we define winning? I w...

3290. Hi ho Silver, Away!

Illustration

Roger Griffith

It was Palm Sunday and Jesus was coming into Jerusalem. He was riding on a blazing white stallion and kicking up a cloud of dust as he rode along. He was looking for trouble. The people that he passed on his way were in awe of such a beautiful animal but they were even more awestruck by the man who was riding it.As Jesus passed by, you could hear the people say, "Who was that masked man?" There w...

3291. Palm Sunday: Historical Background

Illustration

David E. Leininger

The palm branches and the shouts harked back a century-and-a-half to the triumph of the Maccabees and the overthrow of the brutal Antiochus Epiphanes, the Saddam Hussein of his day. In 167 B.C. Antiochus had precipitated a full-scale revolt when, having already forbidden the practice of Judaism on pain of death, he setup, right smack in the middle of the Jewish temple, an altar to Zeus and sacrifi...

3292. Did You See, I Waved?

Illustration

Johnny Dean

Whenever I read the account of Palm Sunday, I remember how the event is depicted in one of my favorite movies, "Jesus Christ, Superstar." Have you seen it? In the movie, the Palm Sunday crowd sings, "Christ, you know I love you. Did you see, I waved?" But, you see, as your pastor, I take my responsibility to nurture your spiritual growth seriously. And you cannot grow being fed a steady diet of b...

3293. Nine Winners

Illustration

Here is an example of a different kind of power: Jesus, a young carpenter, riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. His disciples vie for the best seats and he takes a towel and basin to wash their feet. On the cross he meets their evil with a prayer of forgiveness. The one-time Methodist Bishop of Mississippi Jack Meadors tells a wonderful story of an incident that occurred during the Special Olympics...

3294. The Road from Palm Sunday to Easter

Illustration

Johnny Dean

It's not Easter yet, but it won't be long now, just seven short days. And what joy we will feel when we get there! But we have a big problem. To get from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday we have to walk through a graveyard in the dark. The only road from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday runs right through the middle of Good Friday. That road is not an easy road to walk. Those who don't have the stomach fo...

3295. Aw Shucks!

Illustration

A little boy was sick on Palm Sunday and stayed home from church with his mother. His father returned from church holding a palm branch. The little boy was curious and asked, "Why do you have that palm branch, dad?" "You see, when Jesus came into town, everyone waved Palm Branches to honor him, so we got Palm Branches today." The little boy replied, "Aw Shucks! The one Sunday I miss is the Sunday ...

3296. He Set His Face Steadfastly for Jerusalem

Illustration

Mark Trotter

I like that cartoon I saw a long time ago showing a huge desk, a huge CEO sitting behind the desk, in a huge leather chair. Standing meekly in front of the desk is a man in work clothes, obviously a lowly employee in that corporation. The worker says to the boss, "If it's any comfort, it's lonely at the bottom too." Life is difficult for everyone. Someone explained to me once why they don't like ...

3297. What’s the Bad News

Illustration

Maxie Dunnam

Good news-bad news jokes are somewhat passé. Even so there is one that makes a good point to introduce the sermon this morning. There were two fellows who lived and breathed baseball. They were professional players with the Atlanta Braves and you would think that playing for a living would be enough. But not so – these guys breathed, ate, and slept baseball. More than teammates, they were very clo...

3298. Lending Talent

Illustration

Bill Bouknight

One of my pastor-friends in the Memphis Conference is a wonderful preacher. Some years ago she was serving on a church staff in Cincinnati, as a layperson in charge of singles ministry. One day a layman and his wife took her out to dinner. The layman said to her, "I don't know how to lead people to Jesus, but I know how to make money. You know how to lead people to Jesus, so I want to send you to ...

3299. We Don't Have To Do Anything About It, Do We?

Illustration

Bill Bouknight

In his classic novel, "The Robe," Lloyd C. Douglas has a character called Marcellus, who had become enamored of Jesus. He wrote letters to his fiance Diana in Rome. He told her about Jesus' teachings, about his miracles, then about his crucifixion, and then about his resurrection. Finally he informed her that he had decided to become a disciple of Jesus. In her letter of response, Diana said, "Wha...

3300. What Is God Like?

Illustration

Mark Trotter

Legend has it that during Marco Polo's celebrated trip to the Orient, he was taken before the great and fearsome ruler, Genghis Khan. Now what was Marco Polo, a Venetian merchant and adventurer, supposed to do before this mighty pagan conqueror? One false move could cost him his life. He decided to tell the story of Jesus as it is recorded in the gospels. It is said that when Marco Polo related th...

Showing 3276 to 3300 of 4508 results