Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 3476 to 3500 of 5000 results

Revelation 7:9-10

Children's Sermon

... famous Americans, don’t you? All of them are very famous. Let me see now how smart you really are. Can you name for me a saint in the Christian Church? Someone whom you’ve heard called a saint. St. Peter, why he was one of Jesus’ deciples. And St. Mark, why he wrote one of the books in the Bible, and St. Paul was both an apostle of Jesus and a writer. Why, you know lots of famous Christians too. But do you know what? You forgot to tell me the name of an American and a Christian saint that ...

3477. How Was Jesus' Death Different?

John 19:28-37, John 19:17-27

Sermon

... have been any more dead than they were. Why then do we Christians make so much of the cross of Jesus? How is Jesus' death different from all other deaths? We tend to make a special issue out of Jesus' cross. We wear it as jewelry. The cross is a mark of our religion. We even sing, "In the Cross of Christ I glory." When we look at the place of The Skull, we must remember the words of our text: "... and with two others, one on either side, and Jesus between them." His Death Was No Different Was Jesus' death ...

3478. Fasting: Foolish or Fruitful?

Matthew 6:16-18

Sermon

... man would repent and show his repentance sincerely by putting on sackcloth, put ashes on his head, and engage in a fast. That is why the first day of Lent was called "Ash Wednesday." It was a special day of repentance. People went to church where they were marked with ashes while the priests intoned: "Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, and dust to dust" to remind the people that the wages of sin is death. Thus, people were called from their sin and urged to return to God. Fasting is identified with a change of ...

3479. Born Naked With A Cross

Sermon

... something greater: "The very stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner." Baptism is the time when a person is born again of God. The candidate renounces the Devil and all his personal evil past. He begins a new life in Christ under the mark of the cross. He takes off his clothes of the past and stands stark naked before God, to begin a new life. "Nothing in my hand I bring ... naked, come to thee for dress." While making the sign of the cross on the forehead of the candidate, the ...

3480. If Only We Would Let God Mold Us ...

Jeremiah 18:1--19:15

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... . Irenaeus, one of the early church fathers, wrote about our being the work of God. He advises: "Keep thy heart soft and pliable for Him; retain the form in which the Artist fashioned thee, having moisture in thyself, lest, becoming hard, thou shouldest lose the marks of His fingers." The potter and clay image has caught the imagination of many through the years. One was Adelaide A. Pollard who wrote the beloved hymn, "Have Thine Own Way, Lord." She pictured the ideal response to God as a willingness to be ...

3481. If Only We Would Accept Responsibility ...

Ezekiel 33:1-20

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... the police. The church’s security system had alerted the police, and they asked the pastor to meet them at the church. By the time he arrived, a "visitor" had been apprehended as he was leaving the building. He was carrying a bag of tools and one door showed the marks of his crowbar. "What were you doing in there?" a police officer demanded. Holding his bag of burglar’s tools, the thief replied, "I broke in to pray. That’s what God told me to do." "You can try that out on the judge, but as far as I ...

3482. God's Time is Different

2 Peter 3:8-9

Children's Sermon

... . That's really different. One day is very important to us and none of us will ever live to be one thousand years old. But the Bible says that they are the same to God. Let me show you what I think this means. Do you see the one-pound mark on the scale? When something weighs one pound, it shows up here on the scale. If I take this rock and put it on the scale it weighs one pound. Just one rock weighs one pound. But, if I want paper to weigh one pound, I have to put this ...

3483. Dear Mrs. Day

Luke 15:1-7

Sermon

Thomas C. Short

... , there is great joy. How true. I don’t know about the joy in heaven but I know about the joy in my heart. The parts of my life fit together now and my sense of wholeness brings me great peace and joy. Dag Hammarskjold has a couple lines in Markings in which he says what I am trying to say: "For man shall commune with all creatures to his profit, but enjoy God alone. That is why no human being can be a permanent source of happiness to another."1 That’s it. In our relationship with our creator God ...

3484. A Good Picture of Bad People

Luke 16:1-15

Sermon

... from Oregon and Romney from Michigan) had refused to vote with the majority who supported the war. This year the White House wanted NO dissenters. Momentum gathered, and it became obvious that the governors were going to overwhelmingly support the president’s request. Governor Mark Hatfield shared with some of his colleagues that he could not vote for the statement, and most of these friends pleaded with him to change his mind or at least not be present while the vote was being taken. They advised that it ...

3485. The Confessions of a Younger Brother

Luke 16:19-31

Sermon

... to laugh if I tell you?" she questioned. He promised not to laugh, and the little girl got up, went into another room, and brought back a worn-out, tattered doll that looked like a refugee from the trash pile. There was a crack in the arm, a missing nose, marks all over the body and a bald head. The man did not laugh, but unable to hide his surprise, he asked, "Why do you love this one the most?" She replied, "Because she needs it most. If I didn’t love her, nobody would." In the attitude of this young ...

3486. Whoever Would Be King

2 Samuel 5:1-5

Sermon

... . Uriah and Bathsheba and Absolom shall forever be linked with his name along with his psalms. Even as David died, the borders which he had enlarged were not Israel’s beyond dispute. At its height, David’s kingdom was a pattern of fragility, a fragility marked by fraternal strife between the northern and southern parts of the kingdom, which led to a final dissolution of the kingdom forever, after the reign of Solomon. But for a moment, fleeting as it was, in David there was a glimpse of the beginning of ...

3487. Good Friday

John 18:1-19:42

Sermon

Kendall McCabe

... picture taken, as it were, from four angles. The same person, but the emphasis will vary. Matthew wants us to see a new Moses, leading his people from the slavery of sin into the promised land of new life through the wilderness of Golgotha and the tomb. Mark portrays a Christ whose life is characterized by lordly deeds, none of which can be understood without the knowledge of his greatest deed, his death on the cross. Luke tells of a man who sides with the poor and the outcast, even to the point of carrying ...

3488. The Seventh Sunday of Easter

John 17:1-5

Sermon

Kendall McCabe

... be true even in the day of judgment. The Jesus who judges is the same Christ who prays for us in today's Gospel. The one who shall judge us will be the same Jesus, unchanged, weak, helpless, quietly, full of love as ever, with the same wounds, the same marks of the cross. He will not be changed, but we will be, because he will allow us to share in the glory which is his with the Father and the Spirit. We will see his glory because we will see the Truth of his life. And we will know there ...

3489. A New Plan for Lent

Joel 1:1-12

Sermon

... if the depth of a Christian's anguish was no longer great, the length of it could still be. Within a few hundred years, the fabric of the Christian calendar's spring season was changed. The natural flow from Lenten intensity to Easter joy became marked with artificial seams, human requirements of preparations for joy and demonstrations of faith. The Mardi Gras, at which we scoffed earlier, came from this time. It was a patch sewn on for decoration. The feast of Mardi Gras is a preparation for Lent as surely ...

3490. Preaching Your Life

Acts 2:14-41

Sermon

... The purpose of preaching is to tell you that portion of your story lived by Christ. A dignified elderly lady first helped me see this. A few Sundays after I was installed in my first parish, I preached a sermon which I thought had all the marks of great oration - at times witty, at times forceful, with pacing and grammar impeccable. After the service this lady came to me and, with a single phrase, both deflated and inspired me. "Pastor," she said, "we would see Christ." We would see Christ. Since Peter, on ...

3491. God in a Glimpse

Acts 17:16-34

Sermon

... s not across an impossibly wide chasm. For Christ promises "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe." And the heart of this blessing is that God himself will advance the faith-building if we can only say the initial, "My Lord and my God." As St. Mark puts it: "0 God, I believe; help thou my unbelief." Part of the responsibility for faith lies with you. We are like those Greeks to whom Paul preached - we haven't seen God so clearly that believing in him is easy and automatic. But we do see enough ...

3492. Why Look To Heaven?

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

... is this switch in our roles. No longer are we to leave the world to be in Christ's presence; now we are to enter the world knowing Christ is present in us. "Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world." The Ascension marks a dramatic shift in our relationship with God. Before the Ascension, as the Bible traces, the most dramatic acts of faith were the entering into God's presence: Abraham standing on the altar of sacrifice with Isaac; Moses nearing the burning bush and later receiving the Ten ...

3493. The Preposterous Prescription

2 Kings 5:1-27

Sermon

... touch of the flu." We become experts at making excuses for our shortcomings. Even as young children we learn how to pass the buck or put the blame on someone else. There have been many definitions of sin; among them, selfcenteredness, pride, rebellion or missing the mark. Whatever your definition of sin may be, I’m sure that you have been touched by the greed or selfishness of someone else. Others, in turn, have been hurt or affected by our selfishness. "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and ...

3494. Parable of Association

Matthew 7:15-23

Illustration

... , "I see farmer Brown has another pig in his pen. He now has ten pigs." But Jerry stood up indignantly and hollered, "Hey, I'm not a pig, I'm a boy." In this day of social mixing and down to earth living there is still a real need for marking yourself for what you are. It is often difficult to tell Christians from non-Christians because people fail to identify themselves and the pig likes to drag others down to his level. There are some who say, "I can be a Christian without going to Church. I can be a ...

3495. Parable of the Road Signs

Matthew 12:38-45

Illustration

They were heading down the highway of life and the story of where they were going was written on the road signs they passed. Each was pursuing the pattern he had chosen with his own purpose in mind. As they passed a sign marked, "Three Die Here Daily" they began to think, "What am I doing with my life?" Does that road sign have any warning for me? Is God trying to say something to me?" The first sign on the road said, "Men Working" and they asked, "What am I working for?" The ...

3496. Parable of the Road Map

1 Samuel 15:1-35

Illustration

"Mother, what is this?" said Ralph holding up the road map. "That is a map of our state," said his mother. "What is a map? What is it for?" "Well a map shows where we live and these road numbers are marked on the map and on the roads as you drive along and if people follow the right numbers, they can get where they want to go." "How does it work?" asked Ralph. "Our town is on this route number 14 and if you are in another town, you watch for ...

3497. Believing Is Seeing

John 20:24-31

Sermon

Dean Lueking

... in our world - things we would never see without the undergirding of faith. This came home to me strongly some time ago when I wish you could have been with me for an evening with several hundred of Chicago’s lay Christian leaders. Senator Mark Hatfield was speaking. He portrayed much of what he sees as a "late afternoon" mood among our people - tired out and worn down by seemingly intractable problems of economy, moral compromise, and the threat of nuclear holocaust. Then he began to really take hold ...

3498. Whose Meal Is It?

Exodus 12:1-30

Sermon

... preparations in the upper room and they gathered and celebrated the Passover. As one said to the other, "Remember...?" Jesus added this new dimension. I paraphrase his words: "I am the lamb who will be slain. I am the one whose blood will be poured out and you will be marked by my blood. Take this cup and drink it. Do it in remembrance of me." Likewise, he took the bread and broke it and said, "This is how my body is going to be. It is going to be broken for you. Remember ... I am the lamb who will be ...

3499. There's Only One Right Way

Matthew 24:1-35

Children's Sermon

Object: A maze. Draw a maze with many false paths. The center should be marked GOD. If you wish you may make a copy with the correct path colored in and lettered THE CHRIST. Good morning, boys and girls. It is nice to be at the beginning of some things, don't you think? I like beginnings. I like to begin games and begin to ...

3500. Making a Choice

John 16:5-16

Children's Sermon

... , I brought along some things that I got from a good friend of yours. First of all, I brought Terry Teeth with me. The dentist gave Terry to me to show you what you need to know. Let's imagine that Terry has a small cavity right here. [Using a marking pencil, draw a black area on the teeth to illustrate.] Now the cavity doesn't hurt yet, but when you see your friend the dentist, he tells you that the cavity has to be fixed or you will have a sore mouth. You must now ask yourself whether you want ...

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