Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: Levi, disciple, evangelist, tax collector, the 12, the twelve, apostle, sermon on the mount, jewish audience, beatitudes, lord's prayer, great commission, parables, olivet discourse, mount of olives, olivet, synoptic

Showing 326 to 350 of 2815 results

326. The Good Son

Matthew 21:28-32

Sermon

Frank Lyman

... choice to be King, yet he misuses that authority through sexual abuse and murder. The prophet Nathan now enters the picture. Nathan was a smart prophet. He knows you just don't go up to a king and call him a philanderer and a murderer. Instead, he tells David a parable. He tells of a rich man and a poor man. The rich man had many flocks. The poor man had one little lamb which he dearly loved. When a visitor comes to the home of the rich man, rather than serve a lamb from his great flock, he slays the ...

327. Is There Hope for the Hapless Wedding Guest?

Matthew 22:1-14

Sermon

Darrick Acre

... come to this miserable fellow, like the Jews of old meeting a leper on the road, they give him a wide berth. Luke, in relating this same parable, doesn’t even mention him. Passes over him in silence. I guess that is why I’m drawn to him, as I am to lost puppies ... , upon God! God is angry! God is incensed! Too holy to abide a failure like me! Which is precisely what is going on in this parable. What we have here is not so much a description of God as He is, but God as He is perceived by the one who ...

328. God’s Greatest Gamble

Mark 12:1-12

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... puppets on a string or as naked chickens, so He could get from us just exactly what He wanted. But the God of the Bible, the God of Jesus Christ, did not do that. God created us and gave us freedom...and accountability. That’s the point of the parable in the 12th chapter of Mark. We are not naked chickens, not puppets on a string, not robots who can be programmed to always produce the same results. We are human beings. And that is what makes our lives so exciting...and dangerous; both to ourselves, and to ...

329. Beware of Crowds

Mark 1:29-39

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... , when Christians, or even non-Christians, reach out and touch somebody in compassion. This morning we had the privilege of highlighting the Befriender Ministry in this church, which is simply people reaching out to other people in need. Each of those encounters is a parable of the Kingdom. But let me tell you of another. This was told to me by Jan Thomas, who is a member of this church. She has given me permission to tell you about it. Because of the mental illness of a family member some years ago, Jan ...

330. Proper 11

Genesis 28:10-22, Romans 8:1-17, Romans 8:18-27, Matthew 13:24-30, Matthew 13:36-43

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... needs to have patience and forbearance of the weeds among the wheat. THEOLOGICAL REFLECTIONS Gospel: Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 1. Kingdom of heaven (v. 24). The wheat (good) and the weeds (bad) are in the kingdom, not in the world. We could understand it if the parable applied to the world where there are all kinds of people. The kingdom of heaven is the kingdom of God, and the kingdom of God is God's realm, God's people, the church. The church of God consists of good and evil, wheat and weeds. 2. Sleeping ...

331. Proper 23

Psalm 106:1-48, Philippians 4:2-9, Matthew 22:1-14, Exodus 32:1-33:6

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

... the confrontation between the king and an improperly attired guest. (7) Verse 13 reports the king's condemnation and rejection of the careless guest. And, (8) verse 14 is a pronouncement that comes arguably either from Jesus or the king in the parable, but most likely Jesus (as the punctuation of the NRSV indicates). Significance. The difficulties for interpreting this passage abound: How can the guests who refused the invitation be unworthy of attending (v. 8) when they are dead (v. 7)? How can the slaves ...

332. The Lost and Found Celebration

Luke 15:15-24

Sermon

James W. Moore

... us out of God’s presence. Observation #2 God is not so much interested in hearing our excuses as forgiving our sins. We don’t need a scapegoat… we have a Saviour. Christ came to show us that forgiveness is at hand. We see it powerfully in the Parable of the Prodigal Son. Go read it in Luke 15. The prodigal comes home rehearsing his confessions all the way. When he comes face to face with the father he begins to blurt it out… but look! (Don’t miss this!) The father interrupts him. He doesn’t ...

333. It's Time to Go to Work

Matthew 25:14-30

Sermon

James Merritt

... It's not what you have, it's what you do with what you've got that counts with God. Now the emphasis of this parable is not on the faithful servant, but on the unfaithful servant. Notice how he responds: "Then he who had received the one talent came and ... matter how much you try to come up with an excuse, the Master is not going to buy it. Now we learn the hard lesson of this parable. What you do for God now reaps an eternal reward later. But what you don't do for God now is lost forever. "Therefore take the ...

334. Luke 15:1-10

Luke 15:1-10

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... searching, finding and ecstatic rejoicing as God's unexpected response to lostness. Just as the shepherd image was both traditionally familiar and yet a little too sweaty for the elite Pharisees and scribes, the image of the woman in the "lost coin" parable personally challenges Jesus' listeners to identify with an individual whose status is well beneath their own. On the first level of narrative (between the author and the reader), this identification of a woman in the divine role of "searcher" is also a ...

335. Minority Report

Matthew 13:1-9; 18-23

Sermon

James Merritt

... saint—it's you and me. That's what God has called every Christian to be—a seed sower. Ps. 126:6 says, "He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." But the real focus of this parable is not on the sower or the seed, it's on the soil. Even the best sower, with the best seed, will never have a harvest unless he has good soil. Now the soil is the soul, or what you and I would call the heart. Jesus said in verse ...

336. God and the Minimum Wage

Matthew 20:1-16

Sermon

James Merritt

... they would be able to provide for their families. Now these first workers were hired at six o'clock in the morning. You notice we are told, in verse 2, that they had an agreement for what pay they would make. In fact, you are going to see in this parable there were two kinds of workers. These were men who were hired early, but they would not work until they knew how much they would make. The word "agreed" is somewhat of a legal term, and so in effect what they had was a verbal contract. They would work for ...

337. Only the Lonely

Luke 14:1, 7-14

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... that was important and he couldn't come. Another said he had just purchased oxen for his farm and he couldn't come. A third said he had just taken a wife and he couldn't come. These excuses sound reasonable to us, but the pricking point of the parable is that these excuse-makers did not put a priority on the host and his invitation. They did good things, instead of the one thing needful. That's what was happening as Jesus announced the coming of the kingdom of God. Many were choosing good things over the ...

338. Welcome, Rich and Poor

Luke 16:19-31

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... to God, and he didn't notice Lazarus, the needy man right outside his door. Dives tried to live as a good citizen. He may have gone to the temple for worship. He probably thought that he would be rewarded in heaven. But, like the Pharisees to whom this parable was addressed, Dives didn't pay enough attention to the Word of God which teaches that God is our help, our only hope for salvation. The name "Lazarus" means, "God is my help." Unless we make that discovery, we are not the people we were created to be ...

339. Why We Need the Pledge of Allegiance

Matthew 13:31-35, Matthew 13:44-46, Matthew 13:47-52

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... good world in such a way that even the very cells of her body no longer worked as they should. But though healing did not come in that instant of boyish spiritual lisping, the prayers did not go unheard, and his mother was not lost forever or forgotten. So the parable of the net reminds us of our marching orders in the kingdom of heaven. We are not saved so that we may politely pat ourselves on the back and smile at one another in the tiny corners we occupy. No, we are part of a net that seeks and engages ...

340. Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Luke 15:11-32

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... no doubt stunned by the unmerited mercy and compassion expressed by this father, every generation after the resurrections hears a foreshadowing of the Divine Father’s Son who, though “dead” rises, and is made “alive again.” If the father in this parable continually reacts in surprising and gracious ways, the behavior of the older son when he returns to find the “welcome home” party in full swing is predictable and ill-mannered. He throws a temper tantrum. Every aspect of his words and actions ...

341. The ME and the WE

Luke 15:8-10, Luke 15:1-7

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... animal safely to the waiting flock. However, after her arduous search it doesn’t take much to imagine that the woman’s lost coin was clasped tightly to her chest (maybe even kissed!) when it was recovered. It is the conclusion of both of these lost-and-found parables that specifically addresses the “grumbling” of Jesus’ critics. Both the shepherd and the woman call together friends and invite them to celebrate the recovery of what had been lost. Although it is not specifically cited in these two ...

342. Luke 16:1-13

Luke 16:1-15

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... -rate, one-time “deal.” It’s an offer designed to get in their good graces. The dishonest manager continues with dishonesty by offering to “cook the books” in favor of those who owe substantial amounts to his master. What is shocking about this parable Jesus tells is not that it condemns the “way of the world,” but that the master actually praises his self-serving servant for acting, once again, in his own best interest. We hear nothing about this servant’s soul. We hear nothing about this ...

343. Table Talk

Luke 14:1-14

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... elevated to honor (1:51–53). It is a world upside down. 14:11 all those who exalt themselves will be humbled. This concluding summary (which will be repeated in 18:14; see also Matt. 23:12) confirms the subversive, rather than merely prudential, interpretation of the “parable” in 14:8–10. It repeats the sense of Jesus’s maxim in 13:30: “There are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.” The kingdom of God is full of surprises. 14:12 Jesus said to his host. His ...

344. Face-to-Face with the Kingdom

Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

Sermon

Tom Garrison

... to try to see all the good people in the world and then pattern our lives after those people. The problem with this is that we can always find the flaws in any person. The solution to the kingdom approach is what Jesus did in Matthew 13. He told parables that would allow a person to view the kingdom in a way that would give us a sense of what the kingdom does and how it spreads. Not only that he emphasized how important this line of kingdom thinking is, and therefore told these stories about finding great ...

345. Jesus at a Pharisee's House

Luke 14:1-14

Understanding Series

Craig A. Evans

... ), but they have failed to heed the various warnings against arrogance and presumption throughout the OT (Isa. 13:11; Jer. 13:15; 50:29–32; Prov. 15:25; Sir. 3:17–20). (Jesus also criticizes the Pharisees for their pride in Luke 11:43; 20:45–47.) Jesus’ parable is simple enough on the face of it. Guests at a wedding feast would be wise not to assume that the host considers them to be as important as they may be in their own eyes. But Jesus intends far more than mere advice for proper behavior at ...

346. The Bramble King

John 15:1-17, John 15:18--16:4, John 16:5-16

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... , and they went and made Abimelech king beside the terebinth tree at the pillar that was in Shechem. Now when they told Jotham, he went and stood on top of Mount Gerizim, and lifted his voice and cried out. And he said to them [a prophecy. He told this parable]: “Listen to me, you men of Shechem, That God may listen to you! “The trees once went forth to anoint a king over them. And they said to the olive tree, ‘Reign over us!’ But the olive tree said to them, ‘Should I cease giving my oil, With ...

347. When Payday Comes

Matthew 20:1-16

Sermon

Steven Molin

... is that, in the kingdom of heaven, workers were called to work, not just sit in the back row with Jesus. Working in a vineyard certainly must have been hard work; lots of bending, lots of reaching, lots of sun, heat, and cold. Those people in the parable were not invited by the landowner to sit in the shade and watch the work of others; they were called to work. And so are we. So are you. How have you served God over these past months of summer? Have you fed the hungry, clothed the naked, visited the ...

348. The Blind Guiding The Blind

Psalm 92:1-15, Luke 6:46-49, 1 Corinthians 15:35-58, Isaiah 55:1-13, Luke 6:37-42

Sermon Aid

William E. Keeney

... that the righteous produce fruit like a flourishing tree. The psalmist declares that the upright Lord is the rock on which he is founded. These two images of the tree and the rock are found in the last half of the gospel reading. Context of Luke The four parables are the concluding section of what is often referred to as the Sermon on the Plain. It has many parallels to what is called the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). Luke has echoes of the Sermon on the Mount scattered through chapters 6 to 16. The ...

349. Proper 17

Psalm 81:1-16, Hebrews 13:1-25, Jeremiah 2:1-3:5, Luke 14:1-14

Sermon Aid

William E. Keeney

... . They had less to do with how to behave in polite society. They had to do with the proper relationship to yourself and to others. His advice had more to do with the attitude of pride expressed by where persons wanted to sit at the table. The parable for today deals more with the spiritual state shown at the table than how to know the conventions of civilized eating. CONTEXT Context of Luke 14 Luke reports in chapter 14 about three different types of meals and Jesus' actions or accounts of them. Luke 14:1 ...

350. The Spreading Word

Matthew 13:1-23

Sermon

Marc Kolden

... who take it seriously, and live it. Now, you ask, what's wrong with that? What's wrong is that this is not what Jesus' original parable was about. The focus is no longer on the sower and the seed, on God and the word, but on ourselves. What kind of person am ... a secondary focus is on other people: look at them -- rocky, thorny, hard -- I'm glad I'm not like them. In the original parable the focus is on the sower who spreads the seeds around with such liberality that no ground is missed. So what if a small ...

Showing results