Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 3551 to 3575 of 4999 results

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

Allan J. Weenink

... the supreme work of the Holy Spirit to convince people - to convict them, to cleanse, to renew, and to make them over in the likeness of Christ. Pauls lists what he calls the "Fruits of the Spirit," "... love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control ..." The apostle would have us know that we do not make Christians of ourselves by merely cultivating the Christian graces, manicuring our souls or pulling ourselves up by our moral bootstraps. Rather, we open our lives ...

3552. Save It!

John 6:1-15

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

... you do not use the first time? [Let them answer.] I am a saver. I always think that I will find some use for everything. Some of the scraps that I save make very lovely things. Let me show you what I mean. I have saved little patches of different kinds of material for years, and when I have enough of them I am going to ask someone to make a beautiful patchwork quilt that will look something like this one that I have with me this morning. It is hard to believe that someone could take these scraps and make ...

3553. A Person on My Fishpole

Luke 5:1-11

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

... . First, you must know where there are fish, and then you need the right bait such as a worm, and then you must put the right kind of a weight on the line. When everything is done you must sit quietly and be ready. Jesus knew what it was like to be a ... of fish. Do you know what that means? I’ll tell you what it means. It means that Jesus wanted the disciples to do the same kind of good job telling people about God and his love that they did when they went to get fish. Jesus wanted them to bring people home ...

3554. The Good Samaritan Didn’t Leave His Name

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... Christianity forever, the way a dissatisfied customer reacts to a product that does not live up to its advanced billing. Yes, there will always exist a need for Good Samaritans. The Christian calling today is for dedicated men and women to perform acts of kindness without leaving their name. Many people in our world feel that God has forsaken them, that he hears not the words of their groaning. Today two percent of the nation’s population controls 33 percent of the nation’s wealth, while one-half of ...

3555. Virtue Won’t Hurt You

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... values was foolish; his scale of values in life was grossly out of focus. As we search the Scriptures, we find Jesus using the word "fool" to describe many people. Others he deems as "foolish." It is interesting to note that Jesus speaks very kindly to sinners and showers them with compassion. But he does not have much patience with "fools." In fact, he speaks very harshly of "fools," those people who have the wrong sense of values. The great psychologist Karl Menninger has written a book entitled Whatever ...

3556. The Win-Win Philosophy of Life

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... , "How do I confront the conflicts which do arise?" Unfortunately, almost all of us live on a win-lose concept of life. We learned it the first time, as a child, that we played a game of any kind; perhaps it was jack stones, little league baseball, cards, or cowboys and indians. We learned that in any kind of conflict or contest there has got to be a winner and a loser. We, of course, all wanted to be the winner. Some of us carried this philosophy into adulthood. When something upsets us or is contrary ...

3557. God Made Me Do It!

Genesis 45:1-28

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

... do, do with all your might." IN THE GOD-DIRECTED LIFE YOU CAN BE CLEVER AND WISE. Joseph did not reveal himself to his brothers until the proper time. He very cleverly put his silver cup in Benjamin’s bag so he could finally get a true picture of the kind of men his brothers had become - then he’d know how to deal with them. He used his head, as well as his heart, in handling this sticky situation. Why do we think, just because we are Christians, that we have to put our brains in cold storage? Jesus ...

3558. The Most Misunderstood Gift

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

... A VALID GIFT AND EXPERIENCE? Is speaking in tongues a valid gift and experience, or do you have to be some kind of a religious "nut" to practice and participate? No less a Christian than Bishop Fulton Sheen said: "We don’t communicate ... the peas taste funny - but it keeps them on my knife!" We must not say, "Well, I’ve never done it, so it’s not for me." That kind of illogic is akin to that of the two small girls who were playing together one afternoon in the park. "I wonder what time it is?" said one ...

3559. For Losers And Cowards

Judges 6:1-40

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

... is people are sinners - but even worse than that is that we are sinners and refuse to admit it. The most basic fact about humanity is that we are sinful, born in sin. Our most desperate need is for a Savior. Nothing else will do. We’ve tried all kinds of substitutes and delaying tactics to circumvent repentance for sin. But people and plans fail us. Let a person go to a psychiatrist to cure his sins - and all you get is an adjusted sinner. Let a person go to a physician to cure the disease of sin - and ...

3560. Defended By the Divine

Mark 14:1-11

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

... them good. But back to the beginning - The poignancy of this story lies in the fact that it tells us of almost the last kindness that was done to Jesus before his death. He was in the house of a man called Simon, the village of Bethany. In Palestine, ... to think: "I’ll give him a few extra drops, or a fourth of it, or half of it, and save some of it" - she just, with a kind of wild abandon, tipped it up, and gave him all of it! How sad that we are often afraid of doing "too much." How many times, in looking ...

3561. When We Mourn

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

... requires; The Kingdom of heaven belongs to them! "Happy are you when people insult you, and persecute you, and tell all kinds of evil lies against you because you are my followers" (Matthew 5:3-11). When Jesus first spoke these words, they ... good-night. That night we all learned again the blessedness of mourning. It is joy to be loved like that! We also learn, when we mourn, the kind and depth of comfort God will give if we allow him. I am amazed over and over again the way that God can step into a desperate ...

3562. For Those in Church: Joy and Service

Matthew 23:1-39

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

... it is so difficult, and we must be so very careful. There is a fine line between witnessing with enthusiasm and being so caught up with our Christ, so on fire with the good news, that we must share it, and a sort of pious, self-righteous kind of religion which calls attention to ourselves rather than to the heavenly father we are excited about. Carlton Van Ornum tells this story. A large crowd of people gathered near an enclosure in the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston as a peacock slowly spread his great tail ...

3563. The Unemployed Embalmers

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

... the dead, as St. Paul tells us, what a bunch of boobs we are! We don’t have any really intelligent or rational reason to go on living. But if Christ is risen from the dead, giving us the gift of eternal life, then we should live in a kind of joyful radiance. Back in the year A.D.125, a Greek by the name of Aristides wrote one of his friends about a new religion called Christianity. He was trying to explain the reason for its popularity and its extraordinary spreading and success, and he wrote: "You know ...

3564. Life: Sacred or Stupid?

John 20:1-9

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

... who has committed a dastardly crime has no useful or productive life ahead of him." That’s intelligent, isn’t it? I wonder if that Georgia prosecutor lived such a pure, sinless, and spotless life when he was a young man that he was able to say that kind of thing. And so it is that we who have been taught by Christ of the sacredness of any human life, no matter how apparently vile or sinful, must continue to struggle against those who would destroy it, even if they are of our states or law enforcement ...

3565. The Hard-to-Believe Promise

John 14:5-14

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

... ? Why don’t the widow get back the silver snuffbox that was stole? Why don’t Miss Watson fat up a bit? No, I says to myself, there ain’t nothin’ to it." Yes, Huck’s concept of prayer is too tragically common. Prayer, to many, is a kind of process of looking over a menu of what life has to offer and then ordering all the best things, with the full expectation that God, like an attentive waiter, will scurry around and provide them for us. And so, again and again, we wonder about our prayers. Many ...

3566. Grace, Salvation, and Redemption

Romans 8:18-27, 1 Corinthians 15:1-11, Romans 5:1-11

Sermon Aid

T. A. Kantonen

... Testament. He points out that the gospel stamps grace with a sense of its own, although the other connotations persist. Here is humble recognition of God in worship and fellowship. Men owe all blessings to the goodness, generosity, and forgiveness of God. This kindness is one of authority and majesty. As creatures we enjoy his free good will. This relationship has a moral character. It presupposes sin and the forgiveness of sin, not just fellowship with a friendly spirit. And it implies that we are under ...

3567. Hindering Riches

Matthew 19:16-30

Sermon

Herchel H. Sheets

... . I know what you’re talking about, what you’re leading up to. I’m on the side of adversity."4 A lot of people would take the opposite side. They would choose prosperity, not adversity. Adversity is not to be coveted, of course; it can have the wrong kind of influence, just as prosperity can. But it may not be as likely to. Prosperity may give one the wrong interests, and if it does, it will be a hindrance to entrance into the kingdom of God. If one is dominated by interests that are contrary to the ...

3568. Strained Gnats

Matthew 23:1-39

Sermon

Herchel H. Sheets

... reality and perceived clearly the things that mattered most and those that were less important. There was no straining out of gnats with him, because his pure interests gave him a perspective which ruled out such folly. And he can help us, too, toward that kind of perspective. F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote once to his high school daughter, "You have got to devote the best and freshest part of your energies to things that will give you a happy and profitable life."7 Straining out gnats and swallowing camels does ...

3569. Ghosts - 1951

Ephesians 6:10-20

Sermon

Kent Moorehead

... of the light. It is with ghosts as with men; some are good and some are, bad - and the good die young. Modern pragmatism, with its steely and philistine science, has invaded shadow land and massacred the innocents, the gentle and harmless credulities of childhood and ignorance. But the fiercer kind, the vicious, voracious, old maneaters, still keep their caves by day only to issue forth to raven among souls whenever the darkness settles down on the minds of fearful mortals. The good little ghosts, the ...

3570. The First Murder - 1940

Matthew 7:1-6

Sermon

Kent Moorehead

... ." Cain, realizing what he had done, and realizing what his blind passion had made him do and what the consequences were, cried out to God, "It is too much. I can’t stand it" (Genesis 4:13). Which is one difference between the first murder and other kinds. Instead of saying we can’t stand it, we very frequently build monuments to the most proficient. Let us note then the outstanding characteristics of this so-called bad man. His deed can’t be glossed over and so don’t think I am trying to whitewash ...

3571. Christians In A Warring World - 1941

Galatians 6:1-10

Sermon

Kent Moorehead

... it does look that way. I found out that my President and Congress and everybody else who said that murder and slaughter and lying and starving and sinning would bring peace and prosperity and a united world, were wrong - hideously wrong. Apparently they forgot what kind of a world this is - that you can’t sow evil and get good; you can’t fulfill the conditions of hell and get any semblance of heaven. Then I remembered reading somewhere a simple, shattering, statement of cosmic law: "Be not deceived; God ...

3572. EPISODE 1: THE FIRST WEEK IN LENT

Drama

Robert Clausen

... water into wine. You can turn stones into bread to feed the hungry. JESUS: You think this is my mission? JOHN: You fed 5,000 people once, but what good does that do if the next day they’re hungry again? JESUS: This is the kind of kingdom men want? JOHN: It’s the kind of kingdom men need. JESUS: Freedom from hunger, sickness, and fear? JOHN: This is what men are waiting for. Give it to them, Lord, and they’re yours. You’ll be the fulfillment of their hopes. You’ll be the king of the world. JESUS ...

3573. EPISODE 2: THE SECOND WEEK IN LENT

Drama

Robert Clausen

... had a chance to make a better world. But even if we held it in our hands, I doubt that men would take it. PETER: What kind of talk is that? It gets us nowhere. We’ve got to plan something, Lord. JESUS: There is a plan. JUDAS: What is it? JOHN: Tell ... be! We won’t let it happen! It would be the end of everything we’ve dreamed and hoped for ... liberty and justice and a new kind of world where we can hold up our heads. You promised us something new. We want the kingdom you promised us. You can’t let them ...

3574. EPISODE 4: THE FOURTH WEEK IN LENT

Drama

Robert Clausen

... him ... with a sick boy. MARTHA: What difference does it make? Lazarus is gone. JOHN: Where’s your sister? MARTHA: Mary’s in the church. The service is almost over. I couldn’t watch it to the end. Oh, John, why did it happen? Lazarus was a good brother ... always kind, always quick to make us laugh. He was the man of the house and we needed him so. Why did he have to die? JOHN: I don’t know, Martha. MARTHA: Just when it seemed like we had something to live for again. JOHN: I’ll go inside. MARTHA ...

3575. EPISODE 7: MAUNDY THURSDAY

Drama

Robert Clausen

... . JESUS: I understand. GOVERNOR: What have you done? JESUS: My work? GOVERNOR: To them. Why do they hate you? JESUS: Men hate the light and love the darkness. GOVERNOR: You talk to men about a kingdom? JESUS: Yes. GOVERNOR: What kind of a kingdom? JESUS: It’s not the kind you’re thinking of. GOVERNOR: You have no designs against the state? JESUS: To seize the government? No. GOVERNOR: What about the crowds that cheered you? JESUS: They meant it well. GOVERNOR: They called you "king." JESUS: I know, but ...

Showing results