Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 326 to 350 of 4946 results

326. Does Love Really Make the World Go ’Round? (Series: Real Faith for Real People)

1 John 4:7-21

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

What makes the world go ’round? Do you ever ask yourself that question? In our global economy, many people would say that money makes the world go ’round. How else can one explain our obsession with the stock market and the federal manipulation of interest rates? Some might say that power makes the world go ’round. That might be why two smart men would spend 2 million dollars each trying to be elected mayor of Nashville. A job, mind you, that pays $136,000 a year! Hunger for recognition and status is in ...

327. Clear Channel Voice

Proverbs 1:20-33

Sermon

Timothy J. Smith

One rather frustrating Sunday morning the teacher of the junior high class decided to try a little experiment with her students. What made the morning difficult was that some of the students were having a hard time concentrating on the lesson while other students were struggling to keep quiet. The teacher asked for three volunteers, explaining that all they had to do was talk, which certainly would not seem to be a difficult task for thirteen and fourteen year olds. Of the three students who volunteered, ...

328. Don't Go Near The Water

Matthew 7:24-29

Sermon

I grew up in California on the edge of the Pacific Ocean. Even as a child I loved the water. I did not, however, often get a chance to play in it. "Come home straight from school," my mother said every morning. This was because my route took me right past the beach. "If you go to the beach today," she would say on Saturdays, "leave your swimming suit at home." Even when she was with me at the ocean she would allow only my feet to get wet. "Be careful of the undertow," she would warn. "if you fall down, you ...

329. I'm Mad And I'm Not Going To Take It Anymore!

John 2:12-25

Sermon

King Duncan

It is an old story, but a good one. Former baseball manager Billy Martin told it in his autobiography titled NUMBER 1. He says he and Mickey Mantle were doing a little hunting down in Texas. Mickey had a friend who would let him hunt on his ranch. When they got there, Mickey told Billy to wait in the car while he went in and cleared things with his friend. Permission was quickly granted for them to hunt, but the owner asked Mickey to do him a favor. He had a pet mule in the barn who was going blind and he ...

330. How Do You Know the Good Guys from the Bad Guys?

Luke 16:1-13

Sermon

I'm going to dispense with the niceties and cut to the chase. Everywhere I turned this week commentators on this gospel told me that it is the most difficult of all the parables of Jesus. They told me how it has caused incredible problems for the church for 2,000 years now. Some said that the problems were caused because folks didn't understand what he was trying to say. I read so many of these that I got a class-A case of writer's block. I became stuck worrying that I'd come in here this morning with a ...

331. Keeping the Sabbath Holy

Jeremiah 17:19-27

Understanding Series

Tremper Longman III

Observe the Sabbath: God now directs Jeremiah to issue a challenge concerning the Sabbath. To many modern readers, Sabbath observance may seem almost trivial in relationship to the other charges God through Jeremiah levels at Judah: murder, child sacrifice, idolatry. However, the Sabbath was considered the sign of the Mosaic covenant (Exod. 31:13, 17). In a sense it was the pinnacle of the law during the Old Testament period. It was established at creation (Gen. 2:1–3) and mandated as the fourth ...

332. The Dangers of Going to Church

1 Samuel 3:1-10 (11-20)

Sermon

Will Willimon

In one of her books Annie Dillard notes the curious way in which we come to church on Sundays. Here we are, with padded pews and carpeted sanctuaries. Everything orderly, neat, tied down, and respectable. Yet, says Dillard, if you know much about the Bible and what it says about what it's like to meet God, then the ushers ought to be handing out crash helmets rather than hymnals! Now if you look at the weekly bulletin of one of our full program, successful churches, I think you might conclude that church ...

333. Keep Your Mind On The Spirit

Romans 8:5

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

Object: A basketball Lesson: For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. Good morning, boys and girls. Today I want to tell you a story about a young man who became a great athlete. His name was Ervin. He was a little black boy who lived in a poor neighborhood with his family. Most of the time Ervin and his brothers and sisters didn't get lots of presents for Christmas or ...

334. How Do You Remain Religious?

Mark 7:1-23

Sermon

Donald Macleod

Second Series Questions Jesus Provokes Now when the Pharisees gathered together to him, with some of the scribes, who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands defiled, that is, unwashed. (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they wash their hands, observing the tradition of the elders; and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they purify themselves; and there are many other traditions which they observe, the washing of cups and ...

335. What Does Jesus Expect of Us?

Mark 8:27-38

Sermon

Donald Macleod

And Jesus went on with his disciples, to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, "Who do men say that I am?" And they told him, "John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others one of the prophets." And he asked them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered him, "You are the Christ." And he charged them to tell no one about him. And he began to teach them that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the ...

336. Holy Living

John 6:51-65

Sermon

Donald Macleod

Years ago, Harry Emerson Fosdick, then at the height of his influence as minister of the Riverside Church, New York City, was making a tour of Palestine and other countries of the Near and Middle East. He was invited to give an address at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, where the student body comprised citizens of many countries and representatives from sixteen different religions. What could one say that would be relevant or of interest to so mixed and varied a group? This is how Fosdick began ...

337. Try Christianity

Luke 17:11-37; Matt 6:25-34

Illustration

Donald Macleod

The famous American editor, Horace Greeley, told of receiving a letter from a woman who wrote: "Our church is in dire financial straits. We've tried everything to keep it going: a strawberry festival, an oyster supper, a donkey party, a turkey dinner, and, finally, a box social. Will you please tells us, Dr. Greeley, how to keep a struggling church from disbanding?" Dr. Greeley wrote back to her a message in two words: Try Christianity! What did he mean by that? Look at it in this way. The ancient world ...

338. I'll Keep Curling the Radishes

Illustration

Jeanette Clift George

Many years ago Jeanette Clift George, the actress who played Corrie Ten Boom in the movie The Hiding Place, was speaking at a luncheon held in the civic auditorium of a city in Oklahoma. She says: I settled myself at my place at the head table. I picked up my fork and noticed that two rose-petaled radishes adorned my salad plate. Someone had take the time to pretty up two radishes, just for me. Then I noticed that each salad at the head table had two neatly curled radishes. I turned to the lady sitting to ...

339. A Homecoming To Remember

1 Kings 8:22-61

Sermon

Timothy J. Smith

In the heart of our nation's capital, in sight of the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials, is the Holocaust Memorial Museum. The Holocaust Memorial Museum is unlike any museum you are ever likely to visit, for it presents the history of the 6,000,000 Jews and millions of others who suffered and died at the hands of the Nazis during the Second World War. Upon entering the museum, visitors are issued an identity card bearing the name and picture of a Holocaust victim, matching the person's age and gender. The ...

340. Good News! You Are Going To Be Tortured

Matthew 18:21-35

Sermon

Roger G. Talbott

Some of you may be familiar with the two-minute radio program, Ask Dr. Science. Dr. Science, as the initiated know, isn't a real doctor. He has a master's degree . . . in science! This disclaimer always runs at the end of the program, however. In the meantime, the announcer asks Dr. Science a question sent in by a listener like, "Why can I only see the stars at night?" Then Dr. Science answers the question in an annoying know-it-all voice that conveys the unspoken message: "This is a highly complex subject ...

341. Boldly Going . . . Nowhere

Philippians 3:14

Children's Sermon

King Duncan

Object: Bring a token metal with a ribbon to go around the person's neck. These can be purchased quite inexpensively in a craft/hobby store or ordered from a craft magazine. How many of you like to go to track meets? We can watch them on television or actually go to a track meet. Have any of you ever been in a track meet? What do you think is the hardest thing about running a race? Training and hard work. Do you win every time? No. Suppose you tripped and fell, therefore losing a race one week, would you ...

342. Get Up and Go

Matthew 2:13-18

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

A primary Sunday school class invited their pastor to view their Christmas art work. On the bulletin board were posted pictures of the Holy Family at the manger, angels singing to shepherds in the field, and wise men bringing their gifts to the Christ child. One drawing, however, puzzled the pastor. It was a picture of the Holy Family boarding a jet plane with the pilot already in the cockpit. “Tell me about this picture," said the pastor. The little boy who drew it spoke up and said, “That is Mary and ...

343. The Kingdom Belongs to Those with the Guts

Matthew 13:44-46

Illustration

Will Willimon

Robert Louis Stevenson's "Treasure Island" is a favorite book to many. The adults in "Treasure Island" were unlike many adults we know--grownups who staked all, risked everything, for nothing more than some map scrawled on a piece of paper. The adults most of us know stay home, keep their heads down, go to work in the morning and then they come back again in the evening. But in "Treasure Island," they risked, they lied if needed, and they had great lives and exciting deaths. A speaker at a graduation ...

344. Whom Shall I Send, and Who Will Go for Us?

Isaiah 6:1-13

Sermon

Arthur H. Kolsti

R.S.V.P. Sometimes it is interesting to take a biblical passage and just go through it line by line, letting the sparks fly out. This is the way I have opted to deal with today's first reading. Isaiah is one of the prophets who has given us an account of a turning point experience in his life. Some of his imagery will seem strange to us. But if we can get behind it there is something powerful here to which we can relate as well as a piercing word to us in the here and now. Listen! Isaiah begins: "In the ...

345. Are You a Gold-Painted Rock?

Matthew 7:15

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

Object: Some ordinary rocks and pebbles Lesson: "Beware of false prophets who come to you disguised as sheep but underneath are ravenous wolves." Well, boys and girls, we’re together for the last Sunday in July. It seems as if the summer months just started yesterday and now we only have one more month of summer before school starts again. That doesn’t sound so good at first to all of you who go to school, but it’s almost terrible for the brothers and sisters who have to stay at home because they’re not ...

346. Enough Spirit to Go Around!

Acts 10:44-48

Sermon

Ken Lentz

A minister once received a bottle of apricot brandy from one of his parishioners under the condition that the minister thank the donor for his gift in the Sunday bulletin. On the following Sunday, the notice read: "The pastor thanks Mr. Jones for the apricots and the spirit in which they were given." Some Bible readers look at the words from Acts 10, "While Peter was still speaking, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who heard the word" (v. 44), and conclude, "Aha! A Pentecost story!" Then the words of verse 45 ...

347. When You Gotta Go

Humor Illustration

Archie Bunker on Death: When you gotta go, you gotta go. You go because He wants you. And when He wants you. And He don't want no quack doctors putting new hearts into you and keeping you here against His will, ''cause it throws Him off His schedule. It throws Him off. Now, you do that to Him...throw His schedule off like that, and when you get there, you'll have to answer to Him, won't you? Because He'll want to know why you didn't come up when you were called. Why you were late. Why you ignored Him.

348. Which Way You Go

Illustration

Michael P. Green

In Alice in Wonderland, at one point Alice says to the Cheshire Cat, “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat. “I don’t much care where,” said Alice. “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat. As with Alice, so with us and the church. Without objectives, we will have nowhere to go, and we’ll just keep wandering aimlessly.

349. I Wonder Why My Prayers Go Unanswered?

Luke 11:1-13

Sermon

Charley Reeb

Warren Wiersbe tells of the time when he was helping to paint the outside of his neighbors’ home. His neighbors had a small black dog that had a ritual of going to the back door of the house. Once the little dog took up his station at the back door, he would bark and bark until someone finally got the message and let him out. One day Wiersbe was painting the outside of the house when no one was home. The neighbor’s dog started his ritual at the back door and barked and barked all day long. The sad thing, ...

350. What Keeps Us Running

John 6:63

Children's Sermon

Object: Some gasoline in a can. Good morning, boys and girls. Today I want to tell you a little bit about the spirit. How many of you have ever heard someone talk about "spirit," your spirit? (Let them answer.) That's good, it is a word that all of us have heard. How many of you know what I mean when I talk about your spirit? (Let them answer.) Those are pretty hard questions, aren't they? We have heard of our spirit and the Spirit of God, and we know that we have one, but it is very hard to talk about. ...

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