Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 3501 to 3525 of 4508 results

Children's Sermon

King Duncan

Object: The society section of a newspaper Good morning, boys and girls. I brought with me the society section of our newspaper. I wanted to read about some of the important people in our town who are having parties. Would you like to get dressed up in a tuxedo or an evening dress and go to a fancy party? In New York I understand the fanciest group in town is limited to only 400 people. The reas...

3502. To Receive or Worship?

Sermon

Jon L. Joyce

1. The Master needs them [Matthew 21:2] There is much talk of priorities today, the placing of things in their proper order of importance, with first things coming first. When Christ needed the donkey to ride into Jerusalem, it was enough to say to the owner that the Master needed the beast. Christ was to have first call on its use, as a matter of course. This should be the case in Christ’s reque...

3503. Supper's Ready!

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

Let's pretend! Let's pretend that you've been invited by the Queen of England to attend a banquet at Buckingham Palace. Close your eyes for a moment and think. What would you wear? What would you talk about at the dinner table? Should you arrive ten minutes early, take a taxi, or will you be nervous? Better still, would you turn down the invitation? When John Kennedy was president of the United St...

3504. An Invitation to a Wedding

Sermon

King Duncan

An older couple was being married. Both had lost their spouses to death and had grown children. The combined children sent out this wedding invitation in their behalf: “Phil, Richard, Karen and Allison, and John, Matt and Steve request the honor of your presence at the marriage of their Mother and Father. Because they are combining two households, they already have at least two of everything. So ...

3505. The Marvelous Style Of Jesus: Truth And Love

Sermon

Joseph M. Freeman

Jesus' use of parables is his way of communicating a striking truth with significant love. In my own journey as a Christian person, the most amazing quality of God which has been so instructive to me, is that He approaches us with equal doses of love and truth. How different He is than us. When I see someone in error and that error has personally hurt me, I go for that person's jugular, to deliver...

3506. The King's Reception (What Are You Wearing to the Wedding?)

Sermon

Brett Blair

Perhaps you have heard of the family that moved into the neighborhood and the little country church decided to reach out to the family. When they arrived at the doorstep the members of the church were surprised to find that the family had 12 kids and were for the most part poor. They invited the family to services and said goodbye. Later that week the church responded to their need. They delivered...

3507. Dressed For The Wedding

Sermon

King Duncan

Lyn Cryderman decided he was tired of the dark, depressing clothes that he had become accustomed to wearing clothes that most men in business wear every day. So one day he worked up enough courage to tell his wife, Esther, he needed a new look. Maybe something that wasn't so conservative. So Esther, with unbounded style-threatening enthusiasm, went on a sartorial mission for her beloved husband. ...

3508. Invited To A Feast

Sermon

King Duncan

A first grade teacher gave her 6-year-olds an assignment. The next day they were to bring in a symbol of their religion. The next morning she called on Isaac, who stood up and said, "I am Jewish and this Star of David is the symbol of my religion." The teacher then called upon Mary, who stood up saying, "I am Catholic and this Rosary is a symbol of my religion." Next came Bobby. "I am [Presbyte...

3509. I Don't Have Time For A Banquet

Sermon

King Duncan

The Toronto Star invited teachers to submit excuses they had received from their students. They received these examples: A student explaining why he was late: "I was kidnapped by aliens and interrogated for three hours." Another student, telling why he had failed to turn in his essay: "The bus driver read it and liked it so much he kept it to show to his passengers." Another: "I got mugged on the...

3510. Is Jesus The Only Way?

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

It may surprise you to know what many Americans consider to be the most serious sin. No, it’s not murder. Even murder can have mitigating factors. According to an article by Daniel Taylor in “Christianity Today,” many Americans consider the worst sin to be intolerance. And guess who are the worst sinners, in the minds of many Americans.... We evangelical Christians! One writer said, "Christians a...

3511. Wedding Guests

Sermon

Kristin Borsgard Wee

When I was a college student, I would sometimes bring a friend home for a weekend. I always had to warn the friend that my dad was a practical joker. Once when we were all sitting at the dinner table, my dad passed the butter plate to my boyfriend. As my friend put out his hand to receive it, my dad gave the plate an extra shove and my friend ended up with his thumb stuck in the soft butter. My da...

3512. Dressed for the Banquet

Sermon

Chris Ewing

When Vince Lombardi was hired as head coach of the Green Bay Packers in 1958, the team was in dismal shape. A single win in season play the year before had socked the club solidly into the basement of the NFL, and sportscasters everywhere used it as the butt of loser jokes. But Lombardi picked and pulled and prodded and trained and discipled the players into become a winning team. They were NFL ch...

3513. You Are Invited to a Banquet

Sermon

King Duncan

In his book A Scent of Love Keith Miller tells a hilarious true story about a mother back in the 1960s who took her children to an animal farm--a place where they could pet animals that roamed free . . . and even ride an elephant. She put her kids in her Volkswagen Beetle (remember those?) and drove off to the animal farm. No sooner had they arrived than she discovered there wasn’t a space left i...

3514. God Enjoys AND Enjoins Us

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Director/actor Woody Allen is known for a lot of quotes. But maybe his most famous quote is this one. Anyone want to guess what it is? “Ninety percent of life is just showing up.” But Woody Allen is famously wrong. Ninety percent of life is what we do AFTER we show up. Why do we want to believe Allen’s computations so badly? We eagerly embrace Woody’s calculus because it takes us off the hook f...

3515. Run Away Bride

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Better is a dish of vegetables where love is than a fattened ox served with hatred. Proverbs 15:17 If you are a fan of Facebook, you know that by looking at someone’s “status,” you can find out some things about a person: whether they are male or female, where they live, and most intriguingly, their “relationship status.” That is, of course, if they have filled in those blanks and answered those ...

3516. Proper 23

Bulletin Aid

B. David Hostetter

READINGS Psalter - Psalms 106:1-6, 19-23 First Lesson - Aaron and the people succumb to idolatry in the absence of Moses, who is communing with God on the mountain. Exodus 32:1-14 Second Lesson - Paul urges the Philippians not to get bogged down in petty quarrels but to find joy in the appreciation of good qualities in people and in themselves. Philippians 4:1-9 Gospel - Jesus continues speaking i...

3517. Proper 23/ Pentecost 21/ Ordinary Time 28

Bulletin Aid

Amy C. Schifrin

Prayer Of Confession And Absolution Leader: We hold back your goodness from one another. We hold back, pretending it is our own. All: Break open the tombs of pride and fear that we build, so that in giving what is yours, we might find what we truly need. Silence for reflection and self-examination Leader: The Lord is your shepherd: you shall never be in want. Such goodness and mercy will seek yo...

3518. Proper 23

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

Theme: The importance of accepting God's gracious invitation to the feast of life. COMMENTARY Old Testament: Exodus 32:1-14 Moses is meeting with the Lord on Mount Horeb and is away from the people for a long time. The people suspect that something perverse has happened to their leader and so they petition Aaron to make gods for them. Taking their jewelry, he fashions a gold calf and proclaims i...

3519. Living in God

Illustration

Thomas Kepler

In A Journey with the Saints, Thomas S. Kepler has written: "The secret of the revolution in the lives of the saints lies in the fact that their lives are centered in God. They never seem hurried, they have a large leisure, they trouble little about their influence; they refer the smallest things to God. They live in God." That is the great secret to successful living: the realization that when on...

3520. Diverted by Lesser Things

Illustration

Julian M. Aldridge

Some years ago, Hollywood produced an exciting film titled The Bridge on the River Kwai. The setting was during the Second World War in a Japanese Concentration Camp for prisoners of war. One of the prisoners, the Senior British Officer, talked the Japanese into letting the prisoners build a bridge over the River Kwai. The officer realized that it would boost morale, give life some purpose, engend...

3521. I've Got Religion

Illustration

Ben Sharpe

I think that one of the problems we have with evangelism is that we don't show the lost a true picture of the joy of God's kingdom. Certainly in the southern United Methodist Church I grew up in this was the case. It kind of reminds me of the story of the woman who was visiting the church one Sunday. Not being a regular attendee of the church, when the pastor made a good point in the sermon, she s...

3522. Lord, Excuse Me

Illustration

Philip W. McLarty

Luke tells the same parable in a simpler, less militant way. (Luke 14:16-24) According to Luke, the host invited three friends, but each was predisposed. One had just bought some land, another five yoke of oxen, and another had just gotten married. Given the particulars, each had a reasonable excuse. Years ago, a friend of mine put this together in a song and sang it to the tune of "The Beverly...

3523. Throwing away Treasure

Illustration

Richard J. Fairchild

A legend tells the story of a fisherman called Aaron. Aaron lived on the banks of a river. Walking home with his eyes half-closed one evening after a hard day's work, he was dreaming of what he could do if he were rich. As he walked his foot struck against a leather pouch filled with what seemed to him to be small stones. Absent mindedly he picked up the pouch and began throwing the pebbles into t...

3524. Don’t Turn Down a Sure Chance

Illustration

Bill Bouknight

One of the most popular places in Memphis is Tom Lee Park, a beautiful open space alongside the mighty Mississippi. If you have lingered there long enough to read the plaque, you know that the park was named for an African-American man named Tom Lee. One day in 1925, a steamer with lots of passengers aboard sank in the river, just below Memphis. Tom Lee saw the tragedy. He jumped into his small b...

3525. Taking Off the Episcopal Robe

Illustration

A number of years ago a Cardinal Lege was the Catholic Archbishop of the diocese of Montreal. He stunned the Roman Catholic Church by announcing he was stepping down from his position, taking off his Episcopal robe, to go serve in a leper colony. How do you explain it? Here was a prince of the church going to do the work of the most humble parish priest. Said Cardinal Lege: Only those who love und...

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