Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 3526 to 3550 of 5000 results

3526. Decaffeinated Christianity

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

There is an old legend about a pig and a chicken who were walking through a poverty stricken area. Full of compassion the chicken said, "These people need a good breakfast. Let's give them some ham and eggs." The pig replied, "Wait a minute. For you to provide eggs would require only compassion. For me to supply ham would require total commitment." Both compassion and total commitment are essential to the Christian lifestyle. Jesus said, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and ...

3527. Much Obliged

Hebrews 12:14-29, Psalm 116:1-19

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

There is a quaint expression that you often hear in the rural sections of our country. Instead of saying "thank you," folks say, "Much obliged." It's really a beautiful expression. "Much obliged" means that I am much obligated to you for what you have done for me. I want to declare that we are a "much obliged" people this morning. I call us to do exactly what that old beloved hymn from the brown Cokesbury hymnal advised, "Count your blessings, name them one by one, count your many blessings, see what God ...

3528. Christ Shall Return

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

One of you told me recently about a pastor who one day visited a dear elderly member of the church. He decided to check on her salvation. He said, "Aunt Susie, do you believe in the hereafter?" She replied, "All the time, preacher, all the time. I go to the kitchen and think to myself, 'Now, what am I here after?" That little story reminds us all that we have to specify what kind of hereafter we're talking about. This morning I'm talking about the long-term future of our world. I'm not referring to where ...

3529. This Adulterous Generation

Matthew 5:27-30, Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

A cartoon in a national magazine showed Moses with two stone tablets under his arm coming down from Mount Sinai. He said to the Israelites, "I have good news and bad news for you. The good news is that I got Him down to ten. The bad news is that adultery is still in there." The seventh commandment is very simple: "You shall not commit adultery." The word adultery means the sexual involvement of a married person with someone other than his or her spouse. In the original Hebrew it meant to add something to a ...

3530. Adultery, Cure and Prevention

Proverbs 7:1-27, John 8:1-11

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

Sometime ago a lady wrote to the famous advice columnist Ann Landers and asked this question, "Do all men cheat on their wives? I have been suspicious of my husband for some time. I even hired a private detective to trail him, but he couldn't come up with a thing. I went to a lawyer. He told me to grow up and accept the fact that all husbands fool around. Do they?" Ann Landers very wisely replied, "No. There are plenty of married men who never cheat, and your husband could be one of them. The only thing ...

3531. God's Best Gift in the Worst Times

Micah 5:1-4, Micah 5:5-15

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

On Hampton Plantation in coastal South Carolina there used to live an elderly sharecropper, illiterate but very wise. One of his favorite sayings was this: If you ain't in trouble, your prayers ain't got no suction." The Bible declares that our extremity is God's opportunity. God is most likely to be found at your wit's end, just when you need Him most, when you have run out of answers and almost out of hope. Consider the great prophets of the Old Testament: Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Amos, Hosea, and Isaiah. ...

3532. The Master at Prayer

Luke 22:39-46

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

Recently I dropped by one of my favorite restaurants for breakfast. I noticed that my customary waitress was not her usual bubbly self. I asked if everything was okay. She said, "No," and then proceeded to tell me about her family and financial problems. I asked if it would be okay to offer a prayer. She agreed, so I did as she stood there beside me holding a coffee pot. About a month later I was back in the restaurant. She looked absolutely overjoyed. Before I could ask why, she said to me, "Hey, your ...

3533. How God Guides

Exodus 13:17--14:31

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

On a hunting trip a few years ago, I went into a remote area I did not know very well. I was alone and stayed longer than I should have. Darkness was falling quickly as I tried to find my way out. Before long I knew I was walking in circles and was utterly lost. A shiver of anxiety ran through me because it was a cold night and I was not suitably dressed to spend the night in those woods. I stopped and prayed. In the silence, off in the distance, I heard an automobile. Therefore, I knew the direction of ...

3534. Night Fighters

Sermon

James Bjorge

Night can be beautiful when dreams of sugar plums dance through your head. When worries have wandered away and left you relaxed, the descending darkness comes like a billowy blanket of down. God has washed behind your years and you feel clean and content as you slip into the freshly washed sheets for a long winter’s nap. No doubt about it, night can be nice. But it is not always that cozy and comfortable. Night can be blacker than a hundred midnights in a southern swamp. Anxiety, fear and pain become like ...

3535. God Got Personal

Sermon

James Bjorge

"In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world" (Hebrews 1:1-2). "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory of the only Son from the Father" (John 1:14). God has spoken in many ways. "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). And this created order cries out ...

3536. God Stood Up

Sermon

James Bjorge

As you sit before your television set, the program, "To Tell the Truth," flashes on the tube. The host, Gary Moore, introduces the panel members and the game is soon underway. Three persons come onto the stage and all claim to be the same person. Two are pretenders; one is the real person. The object of the game is for the panelists to discover the right one so they ask questions and then attempt an educated guess. As they toss out their questions, the audience both in the studio and at home is also ...

3537. Unwrapping Presents ... and People

Sermon

James Bjorge

A profusion of gifts stacked neatly under a green tree is one of the visions of Christmas. To young and old alike the fancy wrappings keep the real gifts hidden from the eyes of the would-be-beholders. If only the gifts could jump forth from the wrappings they would be free for us to enjoy! However that burst of freedom must wait until the signal is given; whether it be on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day morning. Then they are unwrapped, unbound, set loose. And what a grand time it is when that which is ...

3538. Christmas Concern

Sermon

James Bjorge

The other morning after picking up the mail at the post office there was an abundance of Christmas cards. Later on in the morning I was sitting in my church office and the coffee urge arose in me. So I called my wife and announced, "Say, wife, I’ll be home in a few minutes for some coffee and Christmas cookies ... and, by the way, I picked up the mail and there’s a real bunch of Christmas greetings." She replied, "Great, see you soon!" I couldn’t help but retort, "Are you glad because you will see the mail ...

3539. Samson, the Bully

Judges 16:1-22

Sermon

Don Yocom

"And he knew not the Lord had left him." The Old Testament story of Samson is a profile of a man who was a prankster, an arsonist and a bully, a strong man who did not know his strength, all rolled into one human being. He was emotionally immature and morally unsound. Yet his life indicates something to us worth noting. His name is legion today, if we count the multitudes who have never grown up spiritually, and who have little contact with God but may not even be aware of it. In addition to what we have ...

3540. Nebuchadnezzar and the Feet of Clay

Daniel 2:24-49

Sermon

Don Yocom

Not foretelling, but forth-telling, that is prophecy at its best. In the prophetic utterances of the Old Testament, the Bible contains much worth noting. The message of the prophet Daniel is so valuable that we can gain insights into events of our day as well as of the day when it was first written. The prophecy, based on a dream of a huge image with feet of clay, is quite appropriate for the last third of the Twentieth Century. In fact, how many nations or persons do not have "feet of clay?" King ...

3541. Jeremiah and the Potter

Jeremiah 18:1--19:15

Sermon

Don Yocom

"... says the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand ..." God wanted the so-called weeping prophet, Jeremiah, to see a parable, so he sent Jeremiah to a potter’s house. There the prophet observed a powerful message which he proclaimed in his oracle of doom to Israel. It is well worth our study also. If the clay were in the proper condition to be molded, the potter was successful in what he was making. But, if it did not work out well after being molded by the potter, it ...

3542. Solomon and the Outline for Renewal

2 Chronicles 7:11-22

Sermon

Don Yocom

This text in Scripture is the one on which the hand of President Dwight D. Eisenhower rested when he was inaugurated as President of the United States of America. It is such a striking passage of the Bible, it deserves our consideration for renewal needed in our day also. The background story involves the time of the dedication of Solomon’s temple. Solomon had prayed all night to God in an act of personal dedication; and as the highest representative of the nation, his prayer was also an act of national ...

3543. Lying Makes It Easy

Drama

Sarah Walton Miller

CAST: Elise, 15, her Mother and Father, and her friend Sandra, also 15. STAGING: Table and chair left, chair right - any chairs will do. PROPS: Small weekend case. Phone on the table rigged to ring. ELISE enters right, goes to imaginary door left, admits Sandra, who is carrying a weekend case. SANDRA: [excited, gushing] Oh, Elise, I can never thank you enough! Here are my things. Just put them in your bedroom, there’s a doll! I have to phone Carl I can make it. ELISE: [unhappily] I still don’t feel right ...

3544. Last Ditch Stand

Drama

Sarah Walton Miller

This is actually a brief play. It is planned for discussion afterward, preferably in small groups so that all will share. It is a play about conviction. For more impact, let adults play the adults. The cast: Dr. John Whitney, a surgeon; Helen, his wife; Nancy, their fifteen-year-old daughter; Rod, her seventeen-year-old boyfriend. The play takes place in the living room of the Whitney home. However, all you really need is some folding chairs, two put together as a sofa. Props needed are an ashtray and a ...

3545. God's In the Middle

Ephesians 3:7

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

Object: A football huddle. Good morning, boys and girls. Today we are going to have some fun while we are learning about the way in which God shares himself with us. How many of you ever watch football games on television or go to the stadium to see your favorite team play? A lot of you. We are going to do something that you see the men who play football do forty or fifty times during a game. We call this a huddle. How many of you know what a huddle is? [Let them answer.] That’s right, it is the way that a ...

3546. THE MARK

Drama

Jerome W. Nilssen

A woman in black, calling. It is dusk, and imperceptibly the lights dim, until the last four or five speeches are given in almost total darkness. A single pool of light may be used. EVE Cain! Cain! Ca-a-a-i-n! (No answer) That’s all right - I know you can hear me. That’s perfectly all right. Well, they rip you to pieces when they’re born, and they keep at it until you’re dead - it’s the natural, inborn ingratitude of children. They watch out for themselves. Cain! You watch out for yourself! You do, don’t ...

3547. THE RECEPTIONIST

Drama

Jerome W. Nilssen

A travel agency. There may be several large, exotic travel posters in the background. GRACE WILLOW, in her early twenties, a receptionist, is behind a desk or counter. SETH is on the other side, facing away. SETH (Singing) Tall in a grove of willow trees A tower stands, white as tombs; Tall is my Daddy, tower tall, He has a castle with many rooms. The linen’s starched, still and white, The tower’s eye is desert red; White sand sifts into the rooms - I stand at the door and scratch for bread. Daddy above, ...

3548. SALLY JANE

Drama

Jerome W. Nilssen

Dusk; JAREL is sitting on the front steps of an old farmhouse, a building once almost elegant, now genteelly collapsing, its midwestern rococo gingerbread hanging in many places by a single, disinterested, rusty nail. The porch behind JAREL is small; its only piece of furniture is an ancient, unravelling wicker table, also seedy, with several wine bottles on it. JAREL is wearing funeral black - but she has not at all muted her makeup, and she wears plenteous beads and bracelets. JAREL (Calling into the ...

3549. SURVIVAL IN THE RAT RACE

Psalm 46:1-11

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

Dear friends, I know what I am supposed to do up here in this pulpit. I’m supposed to startle you with some stabbing statement of Scripture. I’m supposed to challenge you with some call of Christ. I’m supposed to impress you with some imperative of the Gospel. But, do you know something? I don’t want to do any of those things today. I just want to tell you to relax, to rest, unwind, sit loose, take it easy, let your mind wander, if you will. In fact, you don’t have to listen to what I’m saying, if there’s ...

3550. A Time for Tears

John 11:17-37

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

During this past week, I was confronted by an impossible task. I was asked, by her friends, to see a young woman in an attempt to cheer her up, or bring her out of her time of bitterness and depression from which she was suffering. Get the picture, please. Just about two years ago, this attractive young mother had her leg amputated in a motorcycle accident. She still suffers the pain of learning how to walk on an artificial leg. Then, just a week ago, her husband, the father of her two children, was ...

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