Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 3451 to 3475 of 5000 results

John 3:1-21

Sermon

Robert V. Dodd

... father prayed nearly two thousand years ago when he brought his sick child to Jesus for healing. "Lord I have faith, but help me when my faith falls short."2 1 Paul M. Lamhourne, editor, Selections from the Journal of John Wesley. Nashville, 1967, The Upper Room, p. 8. 2 Mark 9:24 NEB, adapted.

3452. Nothing More to Say

John 20:19-23

Illustration

A certain medieval monk announced he would be preaching next Sunday evening on "The Love of God." As the shadows fell and the light ceased to come in through the cathedral windows, the congregation gathered. In the darkness of the altar, the monk lighted a candle and carried it to the crucifix. First of all, he illumined the crown of thorns, next, the two wounded hands, then the marks of the spear wound. In the hush that fell, he blew out the candle and left the chancel. There was nothing else to say.

3453. Overlooked, but Not Forgotten

John 14:15-31

Illustration

Lee Griess

... he has? We know how it is to feel forgotten and unappreciated. We've been down that road. But the good news this morning is that God will not forget us. God tells us that we are somebody -- and in baptism God calls us by name. God puts God's mark upon us and makes us God's own. God sends us the Holy Spirit, to comfort and counsel us in life.

3454. Members of a Family

John 17:20-26

Illustration

John M. Braaten

... and instead begin standing with one another and working together to bring people to Christ and to become an answer to prayer for those who cry out to God for help. However, if your family is like my family, your day-today operation is not marked with constant good will and cooperation. Parents can disagree with each other, or the children, or the youngsters with each other. There are so many possibilities for dissension - goals will vary, opinions often differ and wills may clash. I think the reason for the ...

3455. Holy Trinity Sunday

John 16:12-15

Bulletin Aid

H. Burnham Kirkland

... mists of uncertainty that enfold us until we recognize that it is the Lord. When we are overwhelmed by our weakness and failure, come to us as a Friend of sinners. If we feel no need of prayer, reveal your fingerprints upon every gift and the marks of Christ's sufferings upon the world's sorrows and broken hopes. When we seek your face and remember grievances which keep a brother or sister from your altar and fellowship, show us the way of reconciliation. When anxieties press in to suffocate the breath of ...

3456. Pentecost, The Exciting Birth of a Church

Acts 2:1-13

Illustration

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

... than coliseums of praise for a living God. They have lost the spirit of Pentecost! They have lost their enthusiasm. They have lost their joy for Jesus and find themselves suffering from what William Willimon calls "Institutional and Spiritual Dry Rot." Pentecost marks the beginning of a new spiritual movement in Christ; a movement birthed through the fires of the Holy Spirit; a movement steeped in the spirit of hope, renewal, and spiritual transformation. It is a movement where souls are on fire with the ...

3457. If I Should Die Before I Wake

Lk 11:1-13; 12:22-34; Mt 6:5-15

Illustration

Brett Blair

You're are familiar with the childhood prayer "Now I lay me down to sleep, " but I was little surprised to learn that it is a shortened version of an Old English prayer, which goes like this: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, bless the bed that I lie on. Before I lay me down to sleep, I give my soul to Christ to keep. Four corners to my bed, four angels there aspread, two to foot, and two to head, and two to carry me when I'm dead. ...

3458. People Get Ready!

Luke 12:35-48

Sermon

Brett Blair

... . When Russia collapsed in the early 90’s, loosing its status as a world power, they were forced to change their positions. I remember going in to the Zondervan book stores in the late 80’s and seeing a picture of Mikhail Gorbachev with his characteristic birth mark on the top of his bald head on the cover of a prophecy book. The author had it all worked out. He had charted the biblical prophecies and decoded the symbols and proven that Gorbachev was the anti-Christ. I never bought into it for a minute ...

3459. Seeking What Matters

Matthew 13:44-46

Sermon

... , things to be cherished and desired, as you and I usually see them, are but pale suggestions of the supreme desirability of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom is what we need. The Kingdom is for me, for you, for each person of humankind. Jesus once said (Mark 2:27), "The Sabbath was made for man ..." Well, the whole Kingdom is - made in our interest, made for our highest good. Again and again in his many parables, Jesus said, "The Kingdom is like ..." It is like this, it is like that, it has many aspects ...

3460. Life's Third Dimension

Matthew 20:1-16

Sermon

... , we put things in the balances to see how they tip. We think in terms of more or less of this and that. Obviously, the Lord does not think this way. Remember the time when Jesus sat by the temple watching people cast their money into the treasury there? (Mark 12:41, Luke 21:1). He saw rich people put in large amounts, and apparently he just quietly sat and observed all of this. Then came a poor widow who cast in two copper coins, together worth a penny. Instantly responding to her act, Jesus sprang to life ...

3461. Mission to Unbelievers

Luke 16:19-31

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... good bluff to really live. I owe the ability to live to her, and to her you owe the things you like in me. She calls me her masterpiece. Christian faith directed to the unbelieving sorts like Dives, his brother, and their contemporary counterparts, will have something of that which marked the life of ida Lou Anderson: admirable personal qualities that help to open the doorway to belief, trust, and life.

3462. Grateful For The Giver

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

... cleansed by a special ritual. If they did come to a synagogue, they had to sit in a special place. You and I might have felt sorry for them - but their families probably not. Their rabbis taught that leprosy was God’s punishment for some gross sin. The marks of their sickness etched into their bodies were big signs reading, "Here walks the scum of the earth." So their misery did not excite pity but scorn. Yes, they all had the same living conditions. They all even shared a trust in Jesus. They all went to ...

3463. Do I Give Up Praying Too Soon?

Luke 18:1-8

Sermon

... find; knock, and it will be opened to you. In the language Luke used to report Jesus’ words, it actually reads: Keep on asking, and it will be given you; keep on seeking, and you will find; keep on knocking, and it will be opened to you. In Matthew and Mark there’s a vignette, a sketch of how to do it: how to hang on, how to keep on asking, how to keep on seeking, how to keep on knocking. It’s about a woman. That in itself was against her. How could a woman in that culture approach a ...

3464. Lord, Teach Us to Pray

Luke 11:1-13

Sermon

... happy render others happy proclaim your joy love passionately your miraculous life do not listen to promises do not wait for a better world be grateful for every moment of life switch on and keep on the positive buttons in yourself, those marked optimism, serenity, confidence, positive thinking, love pray and thank God every day meditate smile laugh whistle sing dance look with fascination at everything fill your lungs and hearts with liberty be yourself fully and immensely act like a king unto Death feel ...

3465. The Man, the Message, and the Mission

Luke 12:49-53

Sermon

George Bass

... calls us to ministry and mission under false pretenses. When the disciples wanted places of honor next to him, he asked, "Are you able to drink the cup that I drink?" and "Are you able to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?" Mark reports that he said, "You will be baptized ..." - die for the faith - and with the exception of John, they were all martyred for the gospel’s sake. To follow Christ is a costly venture. It may mean expulsion from the family circle, ostracism by friends, or ...

3466. An Encounter With Two Old Friends

Luke 18:9-14

Sermon

... and tune in on their conversation with their God, some differences emerge that tempt our passion for instant analysis. What happened, for example, to this Pharisee in childhood that he felt the need to list his virtues in the presence of the Lord. Was this the mark of an inferior emotion, an attempt at bold bravado to convince himself, to justify himself? Have we misread him, or is this, in fact, a pride that has been cultivated by so much applause that he believed he was a cut above the rest? Was this ...

3467. Believing is Seeing

Luke 23:26-43

Sermon

Alton F. Wedel

... people. Vaunted claims of inclusiveness result in subtle exclusiveness. Sin is upgraded to the level of "that’s how it is these days," and forgiveness is a word reserved for pious liturgies. In ways like these, and many others, we try to make a mark, increase the numbers by decreasing faith’s commitment, win people to the rolls of membership without the cost, manage programs of social improvement that are blowing in the wind without concern for spiritual growth. The last thing we would look for is a ...

3468. One Nation, Under Mercy

Sermon

... living faith that he has breathed on us. We give thanks for the bounty of his blessing, for the special care he gives his people, for the fellowship of prophets and apostles and the Holy Catholic Church, and for all the company of heaven. All this is marked by mercy flowing through all aspects of our relationship with God - the forgiveness of sins, the assurance of the kingdom, and the solid hope of everlasting life. But it is right and proper that we also gather in our house of worship on this holiday and ...

3469. The Nearest Hand

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

Carveth Mitchell

... God took that hand and touched the stricken traveler in the ditch. Jesus said of himself, "The Son of man came not to be served, but to serve." (Matthew 10:28) He said of us who follow him, "Whoever would be great among you must be your servant." (Mark 10:43, 45) When God touches people he takes the nearest willing hand and uses that. This is one of the basic outgrowths of the Christian faith. When we forget that basic principle some dire consequences result. One such consequence is that we fail to see the ...

3470. I Voted for God

Luke 14:25-35

Sermon

Carveth Mitchell

... Christ, save yourself and us." Discouragement, disillusionment, but not discipleship. Tradition and church history tell us that all of Christ’s disciples save one died a violent death for their faith. Only John escaped martyrdom.* Not discouragement, not disillusionment, but discipleship. The mark of a great leader is that he sets the terms of his discipleship. In his Idylls of the King, Tennyson tells us that King Arthur bound his knights "by so straight vows that they were dazed as if half blinded by ...

3471. No Snap Courses

Luke 17:1-10

Sermon

Carveth Mitchell

... nature and the cost of discipleship. There was a discussion even among the twelve as to who should be greatest among them. (Luke 9:46) James and John were interested that they should sit one at his right hand and one at his left when he came into his glory. (Mark 10:35-45) When Jesus said, "The foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head" (Luke 9:58), one would-be follower backed off, saying, "Suffer me first to bury my father." He meant that he couldn ...

3472. Working and Praying Go Together

Matthew 14:13-21

Sermon

... work is a problem for many, so for others prayer is the problem. Some folks say they have been praying for a long time, and quite in earnest, but nothing happens. Prayer doesn't work, they claim. It is not effective. That always reminds me of the passage in Mark Twain's unforgettable story of Huckleberry Finn. At one point in the story Twain puts these words into Huck's mouth: Miz Watson took me into a closet and prayed, but nothing came of it. She told me to pray every day, and whatever I would ask for, I ...

3473. Saving Sinners

Matthew 9:9-13

Sermon

... a degree that surprises us and catches us off guard. We have calculated our spiritual forces for good and we have surmised that we can handle moral challenges and potentially explosive moral situations quite well. But then we are amazed when the darts and arrows of Satan hit their mark and we are laid low. With the Apostle Paul we shake our heads at our own failure and exclaim, "The good that I would, I do not, and the evil that I would not, that I do. O wretched man that I am!" Such awareness of moral and ...

3474. You Are Worth Much!

Matthew 10:1-42

Sermon

... did. He was feeling pretty good behind the wheel and eventually rammed into a tree while turning down the street toward home. The accident left him with a neck and back injury which at this moment makes his ability to work in the future somewhat of a question mark. His spiritual problem was one of self-worth and it attacked his mind on two counts. How could someone be worth very much when he gets racked up through such a foolish accident? And how can a forty-five year old man be worth much to himself, to ...

3475. Don't Try So Hard!

Mark 8:31--9:1

Sermon

"For the man who wants to save his own life will lose it; but the man who loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it." (St. Mark 8:35 TEV) "We're only number two; we try harder!" I'm sure you've all seen the magazine ad of the car rental agency that uses this slogan. In a way the slogan strongly reflects some of our national thinking. One of the key doctrines of our American ...

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