Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 3351 to 3375 of 4946 results

3351. Explore the Evidence

Acts 1:1-3

Sermon

James Merritt

I heard a story the other day about a man that went on vacation to the Holy Land with his wife and mother-in-law. Half way through their trip, the mother-in-law dies, so this guy goes to an undertaker who explains that they can ship the body home, but it will cost $5,000 or they can bury her in the Holy Land for $150. The son-in-law says, "Let's just go ahead and ship her home." The undertaker said, "Are you sure? That is an awfully big expense and I can assure you we do a very nice burial here." The son- ...

3352. A New Hope

Jeremiah 18:1-10

Sermon

James Merritt

Amazingly, George Lucas, who created one of the most famous villains of all time in Darth Vader, could not resist the storyline that even with the Darth Vader there is always "A New Hope." There is always the hope that anyone who has gone over to the dark side, no matter how far or how deep, can once again reemerge to the light side and the right side. Thousands of years ago God told the Prophet Jeremiah of a land that we could call "The Land of New Hope". To illustrate that land, He told Jeremiah to go ...

3353. WeatherProofing Your Home

Matthew 7:24-27

Sermon

James Merritt

Even in a home, a storm can come up almost without warning. In fact, homes are especially susceptible to storms. There are violent, vicious, visible storms that can destroy a marriage, devastate children and decimate a family. You see homes are just like restaurants. Every restaurant has a certain atmosphere and so do homes. To show you how men and women are different, when men go to a restaurant they are concerned about the quality of the food. Women are not so much concerned about the food - they want ...

3354. The Sign of God

Amos 7:7-17

Sermon

Stan Purdum

Most of us have wrestled with questions like these at one time or another: What career should I pursue? Whom should I marry? Where should I attend college? What church should I attend? Should we have another child? Should I accept a job offer that moves my family far away from our hometown? What community responsibilities should I accept? And so on … You recognize, of course, that questions of this sort are much more significant than simple ones like, "Should I wear my green shirt or my gray one today?" ...

3355. Compliments Of The House

Psalm 23:6

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

An elderly man in Florida calls his son in New York one November day. The father says to the son, "I hate to tell you, but we've got troubles here at home. Your mother and I can't stand each other anymore, and we're getting a divorce. I've had it! I want to live out the rest of my years in peace. I'm telling you now, so you and your sister won't go into shock later when I move out." He hangs up, and the son immediately calls his sister in the Hamptons and tells her the news. The sister says, "I'll handle ...

3356. Never Too Old For God: Abraham And Sarah

Genesis 18:1-15

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

A husband and wife were on long trip when they got into a large-sized argument over a small-sized issue. We've all done that haven't we? Well, the air was so icy between them, they probably could have turned off the air conditioner. And for a number of miles they refused to even speak to each other. The strained silence continued until they drove past a couple of mules grazing in a pasture. The husband finally broke the silence: "Are those some of your relatives?" And his wife answered, "Yes, they're ...

3357. To Live in Joy

Revelation 1:1-3

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

In an article in The New York Times, one of my favorite editorial columnists, James Reston, said, “A top flight reporter keeps asking, ‘What’s not getting reported? What’s the big story we’re all missing?” When I read that, lights began to flash in my mind. That’s the task of preaching, I thought to ask the question, “What’s not getting reported? What’s the big story we’re all missing?” I thought of Reston’s words again as I began to prepare for this day with you. This is probably the only time I will ...

3358. Right-Handed Sinners!

Mark 9:42-50

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

For the above title, I reach back across Matthew's more detailed record of the same message where he recalls that Jesus specified the right hand, "If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off" (Matthew 5:30). That might be significant because research indicates the somewhere around 85% of humans are right-hand dominant, and it could mean that Jesus is not just saying that a sinning hand should be excised but that even if it is the dominant hand that sins it must go! Let us think about it, and ...

3359. Envision: A Church After God’s Heart

Matthew 22:34-40

Sermon

James Merritt

It doesn’t happen very often. When it does happen it is so different from everything else that can happen that you realize that it has “this is a God thing” written all over it. At least, for me, on very rare occasions, an opportunity comes along that you realize only God could have put before you. You know it because only God could have engineered all of the circumstances that were necessary to coalesce and come together for this “God thing” to happen. It works like this: God begins to stir your heart and ...

3360. If You Are Looking for a Savior...

Matthew 11:2-11

Sermon

James L. Killen

When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?" Jesus answered them, "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me." As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: "What did you ...

3361. Against the Grain

Mark 3:13-19, Isaiah 28:1-29

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Everyone here has probably heard the phrase, “to go against the grain.” The idiom means, to do something contrary to one’s natural inclination, to go in opposition to one’s natural direction, to do something different than the norm. It may mean taking a difficult path, the road less traveled, as Robert Frost said in his famous poem about roads converging in a wood. It might mean going up against the rules or society’s expectations, behaving differently, counter-culturally, ruffling some feathers by doing ...

3362. Polite Disobedience

Matthew 21:23-32

Sermon

Steve Molin

The title of this sermon is “Polite Disobedience.” I was going to call it “The Gospel of Eddie Haskel” but that reference is from so long ago, I figured half of you are too young to know of it, and the other half of you are too old to remember it! Eddie Haskel was the best friend of Wally Cleaver on the “Leave it to Beaver” TV show of the 1950’s. Eddie was the kind of kid you’d just kind of like to punch in the nose sometimes. Because whenever he was around adults, he was as polite and charming, and as ...

3363. Dynamic Preaching January 2024 Sermons

Sermon

King Duncan

[Note: While King Duncan is enjoying a well deserved retirement we are going back to his earliest sermons and renewing them. The newly modernized sermon is shown first and below, for reference sake, is the old sermon. We will continue this updating throughout the year bringing fresh takes on King's best sermons.] Original Title: Preparing for a Royal Visit New Title: Getting Ready Mark 1:1-8 January 7, 2024 (Baptism of the Lord) A little boy attended his first symphony concert. He was excited by the ...

3364. A Letter in Time

1 Peter 3:18-22

Sermon

John B. Jamison

Let’s just be honest about it. What we are all trying to do here is difficult. We can pretend it isn’t. We can pretend that it gets easier. We could stand here and say, “If you just try harder, and believe more, the bad stuff will all go away and the really good stuff will start to happen. It will all get easier if you just believe.” The problem with that is that, for a lot of us, we spend most of our time wondering, “Okay, just when is that going to happen? How much harder do I have to try? How much more ...

3365. Why Pass By?

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29) Why didn’t they stop? Why did they pass by? One was a priest and one was a Levite, a member of the priestly class. Their high status was that of the holiest, most revered men in their community. It wasn’t that they didn’t see him there, bleeding, perhaps moaning, dying by the side of the road. That is made clear in the story. They saw him and, intentionally passed by on the other side. Why? Why did they pass by? Maybe ...

3366. Then There Was One

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

J. Will Ormond

Does not Jesus say to the ten lepers, "Go and show yourselves to the priests"? He does not say anything about coming back to tell him what the priests said or did; he does not mention that he expects the lepers to return and thank him for their healing. Yet when one does come back to thank him, he asks, "The other nine, where are they?" The one who returns gives no answer to that question. But he could have said, "They are following your instructions. They are on their way to show themselves to the priests ...

3367. Learning to Live Without Jesus

John 16:5-16, John 15:18--16:4

Sermon

William G. Carter

Everywhere you looked, you saw people in tie-dyed t-shirts. Mothers gave drinks of apple juice to their children, while men in gray pigtails sipped Budweiser and tossed the empties beneath somebody's car. Teenagers spread blankets on the asphalt and took naps in the summer sunshine. Middle-aged hippies danced freely throughout the Philadelphia parking lot. Hundreds of mourners spontaneously gathered outside the Spectrum to bid goodbye to rock guitarist Jerry Garcia. Whenever Jerry Garcia and the Grateful ...

3368. The Pageant

Luke 2:8-20, Luke 2:1-7

Drama

Jerry Eckert

[Comment: Emmanuel Church in Horicon was nothing like Faith Church, Milwaukee. There was talent galore, except, it appeared, in theatrical skills. Only one person in the church was active in a community theater and no one seemed to think it should be part of church life. There was no stage in the fellowship hall and the sanctuary was not particularly conducive to plays because there was no lighting except the normal room lights, which gave little flexibility for variations. There was a resistance to ...

3369. Are You Convinced?

John 16:5-16

Sermon

Larry Powell

Someone has astutely observed that our culture does not handle "endings" very well. "Beginnings," on the other hand, seem to come off quite nicely. Weddings, beautiful and memorable in themselves, are also occasions for parties, bridal showers, gift bearing, and other happy kinds of experiences which we usually associate with the celebration of two persons in love beginning a new home. When a home is blessed with a newborn, balloons, flowers, photographs, gifts, a host of well-wishes, and perhaps even a ...

3370. Lent 5

John 11:1-16, John 11:17-37, John 11:38-44, John 11:45-57

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

"Get a life!" is the new catch phrase for the 90s. It is said that it replaces the slogan of the 80s, "Have a nice day." Now, they say, the smiley stuff no longer works in the present when times are harder and people have to knuckle down and get serious about doing what they have to do. "Get a life" - where does one get life? Is it earned? Is it a gift? In today's miracle, raising Lazarus from death to life, Jesus gave him life. Can anyone give life other than Jesus? Why did Jesus bring Lazarus back to ...

3371. Seeking What Matters

Matthew 13:44-46

Sermon

"... in his joy ... he sells all ..." - Matthew 13:44 Have you ever thought of it? The process of our living involves a lot of trade-off and barter. We are forever giving up some things in order that we might have others; we are perpetually sacrificing this so we may have that. We do this in our marriages; we do this in our occupational choices; we do this in the matter of having children; we do it at almost every juncture of the journey we make. In most of our choices we are actually giving up certain ...

3372. Jesus Makes House Calls

Matthew 14:22-36

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

Pentecost XII Then he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up into the hills by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat by this time was many furlongs distant from the land, beaten by the waves; for the wind was against them. And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were ...

3373. When?

Revelation 21:11

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

Object: A Christmas tree ornament, a pair of swimming trunks, and a birthday candle. Good morning, boys and girls. What day is your very favorite day? What day do you enjoy more than any other day in the year? [Let them answer.] Some of you say Christmas. How about your birthday or the first day that school is out for vacation? I know how you feel. When I see a Christmas tree with all the beautiful ornaments and lights, or a birthday cake with all the candles, or a swimming pool, I think about all the good ...

3374. Jarius' Daughter

Mark 5:21-43

Sermon

Brett Blair

Mark makes it clear that Jairus was no ordinary individual. Indeed, he was a very important person. He was one of the rulers of a local synagogue, probably Capernaum. He was charged with correct administration and the due conduct of worship. His decision to go to Jesus could not have been an easy one. This scene was early in Jesus’ ministry, but already the opposition is beginning to crystallize against the Nazarene. Jairus thus had many reasons not to go to Jesus, but he had one overriding reason to go to ...

3375. The Battle For Control

Romans 7:7-25

Sermon

King Duncan

Have you ever battled for control of your own life? Some of us fight that battle every day. The discouraging truth, however, is that our main adversary is not someone in our family or someone at work or someone who is angry at us. As Pogo once put it: "We have met the enemy and he is us." I was encouraged to read that the French writer, Victor Hugo, author of the book on which the Broadway hit LES MISERABLES is based, had a habit of asking his servant to steal his clothes every morning. This meant Hugo ...

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