Sermon and Worship Resources

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Matthew 27:11-26

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

Our scripture lesson for today describes a classic courtroom confrontation. On this Passion Sunday it is altogether appropriate that we consider it. Courtrooms are often places of high drama and suspense. Judge Ito's courtroom in Los Angeles has dominated America's attention since January. Enormous power is wielded in courtrooms, power to levy large fines, power to ...

327. Derailed Dreams

Genesis 37:12-36, 50:15-21

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... by and the ingrate didn't even send Joseph a note. I'm not sure, and it's certainly not in the scriptures, but Joseph may have invented country music. Can't you just hear him singing those Folsom Prison Blues? Joseph had a right to sing that old classic, "If the juke box took tear drops, I could dance all night long." But Joseph had the grace and grit to wait. Remember his philosophy: Never give up; use what you have; trust that God will find a way. NOTICE A FINAL TRUTH FOR ALL PEOPLE WITH DERAILED DREAMS ...

328. "Hands Off!"

Exodus 20:1-21, Luke 19:11-27

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

No one ever painted Americana with more accuracy and charm than did Norman Rockwell. Some of us who are older than most of us can remember his classic paintings which adorned the covers of The Saturday Evening Post. One of them focused on the buying of the Thanksgiving turkey. The turkey is lying on the scales and the butcher is standing back of the counter, apron pulled tight over his fat stomach, a pencil tucked behind his ear. ...

329. With What Shall I Come?

Micah 6:1-8

Sermon

James Bjorge

... is to walk humbly with God. Jesus wore this gift with beauty. We remember so well the Gospel account when he took a basin of water to wash the feet of his disciples. No work that will help men is too low or dirty for God. In classical Greece the ideal seemed to be the "high-mindedness" of Aristotle. Humility did not fit their thinking. Gladstone said it well, "Humility was a sovereign grace in the creation of Christianity." Joseph Sizoo says that some years ago a man and his wife were visiting Rome and ...

330. Solomon and the Outline for Renewal

2 Chronicles 7:11-22

Sermon

Don Yocom

... He meant by it that God is like a loving father, and wants His children to love Him. The universe is built on cooperation like that. It is a known psychological fact that we become like the things we seek and with which we cooperate. Remember Hawthorne’s classic story, THE GREAT STONE FACE? The boy, Ernest, grew up in that New England community with the legend that someday there would be found a man who looked like that stone face. Ernest sought for that man all his life, until in his old age the people ...

331. Well, What Did You Expect?

Acts 12:1-19a

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

... forth to God. That sounds rather ridiculous to us, but whether we whirl a prayer wheel or mumble a routine prayer that we heard or learned as a child, the principle is always the same - WE HAVE NO EXPECTATION IN IT! But consider James Montgomery’s classic words that go to the very heart of it: "Prayer is the soul’s sincere desire, Unuttered or expressed A motion of a hidden fire That trembles in the breast." That is praying! Certainly the direct opposite of the vain repetition about which our Lord warns ...

332. Molehills and Mountains

Matthew 6:25-34, Mark 8:31--9:1

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

... of making mountains out of molehills. We need to remember that, equally tragic, is the process of making molehills out of mountains. Real living demands selectivity. There are just so many things that we can do in a lifetime. We can spend our time reading tabloids or classics - we can’t do both. We can listen to either the sap or the sage - not both. We can see just so many things, either the cheap and the gaudy and the tawdry, or you can catch a vision of the beautiful, the excellent and the eternal ...

333. Perhaps Next Summer...

Acts 24:1-27

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

... of these days." Or we could have it in the form of a limerick: "A godless young man in the Nation Put his faith in Procrastination. He said, ‘Wait till tomorrow,’ Till, alas, to his sorrow He died without regeneration." Well, perhaps the classic example in Scripture is the character Felix, the Governor of Caesarea, before whom Paul had to defend himself against the false charges that had been brought against him. Instead of defending himself as in a trial, the little apostle stood before the great Felix ...

334. Chapter IV

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Frank H. Seilhamer

... Grandmother’s house, the day took on an aura of grimness. We were to go to church, keep on the good clothes, sit on the porch and read the comics, or go for walks. When the radio played it was to be tuned to religious broadcasts, or music that was classic and sedate. Though it was not intended to be so, the whole day used to seem like an undeserved punishment. I must confess that I used to be glad to see it come to an end, at last. What sticks in my mind as I look back on those days ...

335. Chapter VII

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Frank H. Seilhamer

... that expression of their love for one another is good in itself. Even God called it that. The idea that hangs on in some people’s minds that sex, and sexual feelings, are base or low is not biblical. It is inherited largely from the classical Greek world, where the mind was exulted and the bodily desires were down-graded. Sexual urges, in that scheme of things, belonged to the lower levels of man’s nature. Unfortunately this pagan attitude often is carried into Christian circles. It often surfaces at ...

336. Chapter VIII

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Frank H. Seilhamer

... he taken such a chance in a situation as crucial as that one? "I don’t know why he took off like that," the sportscaster said. "But even though he had lead in his feet he had larceny in his heart!" That quip, which has since become a classic, describes what is going on every day in our society. There are signs everywhere that more than base runners have larceny in their hearts. Today there is more stealing going on than ever before. That is true not just because there are more people to do the thieving ...

337. DOCTOR OF THE LAW

Luke 5:17; Acts 5:34

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

... that affected almost all of the people. It was through the work of these men that was built up the Talmud - "the Instruction," or, "the Recitation." This is an extraordinary work, made up of two divisions. The first is the Mishnah, which is written in classical Hebrew; it is the basic canonical legal code, and its 63 tractates cover the whole field of human activity. The second is the Gemara, an immense commentary of the Mishnah; it was written in Aramaic, and there are two recensions, the Jerusalem and the ...

338. Broken and Beautiful

Luke 18:9-14, Psalm 51:1-19

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... or that other people would find out. One day Jesus slanted one of his parable-stories at those people who were convinced of their own righteousness and regarded other persons with contempt. I wonder if that describes us. Jesus, the master storyteller, paints a classic portrait of two men at opposite ends of society, religiously and socially, who came to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, a man who was part of the most religiously devout group in the country. He came to the temple three times each ...

339. Defeating Giants

1 Samuel 17:1-58

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... . He cursed and threatened the boy, hoping to intimidate him. "What am I?" he asked. "A dog, that you come after me with a stick?" Goliath was watching the wrong hand. It was the slingshot in the other hand he should have worried about. David's little speech was a classic. He said, "You come to me with a sword and a spear, but I come to you in the name of the Lord.. .Today the Lord will conquer you and I will strike you down...The battle is the Lord's and he will give you into our hand." I ...

340. Advertised Goodness

Matthew 6:1-2, Matthew 6:5-6

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... , my motivation is out of line. Jesus calls us to search our motives, to spot unworthiness that sneaks into our motivation, to ask for the help of the Holy Spirit in cleansing and purifying our motives. Remember those words of Thomas A. Becket in the classic, "Murder in the Cathedral:" "The last temptation is the greatest treason: To do the right thing for the wrong reason." Chuck Swindoll tells a story about a German machine tool company that developed a very fine bit for drilling holes in steel. This tiny ...

341. The New Birth

John 3:1-21

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... Jesus quickly cut to the bottom line. He said, "No one can see the Kingdom of God without being born again." "What?" asked Nicodemus, "is there a way to return to my mother's womb and experience physical birth again?" Here you have a classic miscommunication. Nicodemus was thinking in physical terms, while Jesus was declaring spiritual truth. It reminds me of the pastor who was delivering a children's sermon about Jesus curing lepers. He tried to describe to the children what the disease of leprosy was. One ...

342. Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone?

Luke 9:18-27

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

In Douglas Southall Freeman’s classic biography of the famous Southern commander, Robert E. Lee, he tells about a young mother who brought her baby to him to be blessed. General Lee took the infant in his arms, looked at it, and then said to the mother, “Teach him that he must deny himself.” Both of ...

343. How Could A Love So Right Go Wrong?

Genesis 24:1-67, Genesis 27:41--28:9

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... , do you routinely ask, “Is there any guidance about this in the Bible?” There are biblical principles that apply to almost any challenge you may face. A third reason why families fail is when parents show favoritism among their children. Isaac and Rebekah are classic examples of what not to do. He catered to Esau, the boy who liked hunting and the outdoors. Rebekah preferred Jacob who was more of a management specialist and a schemer. Parents, it is not unusual to be able to relate to one of your ...

344. Friction Points

John 17:6-19

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... to God for them. "They're going to be hated by the world, " says Jesus, "just as I was hated." Jesus asks two specific requests for the infant church. "Protect them from the evil one" and "sanctify and consecrate them in the truth." Then note St. Paul's classic admonition as recorded in Romans 12:02, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will." Here ...

345. Forgiveness

Luke 23:26-43

Sermon

Burton F. Blair

... of God? ... Believe that God loves you as you cannot conceive; that He loves you with your sin, in your sin."1 And Jesus prayed for us, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing" (23:34). 1. Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov (New York: Signet Classic Books, 1957), p. 56.

346. I Believe In Heaven

John 14:1-4

Sermon

Robert Allen

In 1816, Lord Byron wrote a narrative poem that has become a classic. The poem is titled, "The Prisoner of Chillon," and it is the story of a man incarcerated in the dungeon at the Castle of Chillon near Lake Geneva, Switzerland. The prisoner was in a narrow, cramped dungeon cell for such a long time that he began to think of it ...

347. You Can Go Home Again!

Jeremiah 3:6-4:4

Sermon

Frederick C. Edwards

... re-takes. The promise is that the Lord is merciful and "will not be angry forever." In other words, there is the promise of reconciliation. Each Christmas season for the past several years a television film called The Gathering, has aired. It is truly a classic tale with Edward Asner in the role of a man who realizes almost too late his need for reconciliation to the family he loves, but nearly all of whom he has alienated by his hypercritical, arbitrary and beligerant manner. When he discovers he has only ...

348. Peter’s Second Sermon

Acts 3:11-26

Sermon

Durwood L. Buchheim

... in the breeze - in the midst of this beauty and wealth, Peter and John were confronted by a dirty, crippled beggar. The beggar was probably covered with rags and flies. As he had been doing for years, the beggar asked for money. To this request, Peter gave this classic answer, "I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give to you: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk." We are told, "Jumping up, he stood and began to walk, and he entered the temple with them, walking and leaping ...

349. Christian Courage

Acts 4:1-22

Sermon

Durwood L. Buchheim

... persisted in breaking the law. He told Justice Keeling, "If I was out of prison today, I would preach again tomorrow, by the help of God." So it was back to prison. This time for twelve years. And again for six months. John Bunyan, who gave us the great classic, Pilgrim’s Progress, spent one fifth of his life in jail. This was not an easy decision for him, to break the law for the sake of his conscience. John Bunyan was poor. He had a wife and four children who were dependent upon him. He had little ...

350. The Ten Commandments - Part 1

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Brett Blair

... , the Bible does speak of happiness. In the Beatitudes, the word blessed can be interpreted happy. Out happiness is not seen as a pursuit, but rather as a byproduct of a life centered in God. C Third is the false gods we create through idolatry. Idolatry in its most classic sense is shaping wood or stone or even metal into an image and calling it a god. Worshiping something we make with human hands and calling it a god sounds silly to modern ears but the practice is not dead. One need only go to the East to ...

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