Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 3601 to 3625 of 5000 results

3601. A Diminishing Benediction

Illustration

William Goodin

A seminary president told me this story: When candidates are ordained into the ministry, they have one thing to do in the service. At the conclusion of the worship, the candidate stands, walks up the steps into the chancel, turns and gives the benediction. That is their first official act as an ordained pastor. One candidate stood, approached the steps, and ascended. But on the first step, he stepped inside the hem of his robe. Now, the obvious thing to do would be to step back out of the robe, but he didn ...

3602. When Towers Fall and People Perish

Luke 13:1-9

Sermon

Brett Blair

Once in every lifetime something happens on the world stage, which shapes the course of human events. That event occurred three year ago on the morning of Sept 11th. Consider for a moment what was set in motion by the terrorist attacks of that day: Our nations capital was attacked. Over 3000 people lost their lives (1). The Manhattan skyline was irrevocably changed. The financial trade center for 150 nations was completely destroyed. The world’s economy was greatly tested. We waged a war against the ...

3603. Forgive Us Our Debts - Sermon Starter

Matthew 18:21-35

Illustration

Brett Blair

As with so many of the stories of Jesus, the parable of the debtors arose out of a question that was posed to Jesus. Simon Peter said to him: "Master, if my brother sins against me, how many times should I forgive him? Seven times? Even as he asks that question my mind cannot help but think about children and how they will sometimes confess something they do wrong expecting to get praise from a teacher or a parent because they were so honest. In the same sense, Simon Peter by asking this question is not ...

3604. Restoring Our Sense of Priorities

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Donald Macleod

Whatever happened to the Ten Commandments? It is true, of course, that any one of them is trotted out on occasion to bolster an argument or to nail an offender with the rebuke, "Shame on you! Remember the Fourth (or Fifth or Sixth?) Commandment!" But what of the Ten Commandments as a whole? (The Decalogue, as biblical scholars and liturgists refer to it?) Rudyard Kipling, England’s poet laureate of a hundred years ago, sang in his rollicking poem, Mandalay: Ship me somewhere east of Suez, Where the best is ...

3605. Servant Worship

Psalm 116:1-19

Sermon

Donald Macleod

The season of Lent is drawing now to a close. On Ash Wednesday we said that Lent is not primarily a period when we "don’t do this" or "don’t do that;" rather it is intended to be a time of self-denial and self-discipline during which we tone up the moral fiber of our inner being and when we place greater emphasis upon the spiritual and less upon the material. As someone has said, "It is a matter of adding as well as subtracting." If we have been serious at all, our aim during the past few weeks should have ...

3606. The Vicarious Servant

Isaiah 52:13--53:12

Sermon

Donald Macleod

The beloved English cleric, Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy, wrote a poem, titled The Unutterable Beauty, which makes appropriate hearing on Good Friday: When Jesus came to Golgotha, they hanged him to a tree; They drove great nails in hands and feet and made a Calvary. They placed on him a crown of thorns; red were his wounds and deep, For those were crude and cruel days, and human flesh was cheap. When Jesus came to Birmingham, they simply passed him by; They never hurt a hair of him; they only let him die. ...

3607. Beginning with Easter - Then What?

Acts 4:32-37

Sermon

Donald Macleod

How often have we heard this remark: "What can you do for an encore?" Or, "That’s a hard act to follow!" Easter Day is now behind us: we’ve sung the great Alleluias, chanted hymns of victory, and put the blossoms and lilies on a sunny windowsill. But what of it all? Is it now a closed event? Or, more appropriately: Is it just the beginning? Charles Wesley in his Easter hymn sang: "Love’s redeeming work is done." How can we follow that act? Can there be an encore? This is exactly where you and I come in. ...

3608. Passing the Easter Miracle On

Acts 3:11-26

Sermon

Donald Macleod

Three short illustrations fit aptly into the pattern of our thinking today: 1. Mark Antony, in his eulogy at the funeral of Julius Caesar, had just whipped up the emotions of the crowd to fever pitch, and as they broke out into a vengeful mob seeking Brutus and the other traitors, Antony stood by and remarked: "There let it work!" 2. A visitor to the City of Rome was being shown the wealth and riches of the Roman Church - its monuments, shrines, gilded altars and diamond studded chalices - and the guide ...

3609. Unfulfilled Potential

Judges 16:23-31

Illustration

Larry Powell

Let us review some of the exploits of Samson: In the vineyards of Timnah, he "tore a lion assunder and he had nothing in his hand" (Judges 14:5-6). He went down to Ashkelon and killed thirty men because they had learned the answer to a riddle from his wife (14:10-19). He caught three hundred foxes, knotted lighted firebrands in their tails, and set them loose in the grain fields of the Philistines (15:1-5). He was bound by the Philistines with two new ropes, but the Spirit of the Lord came upon him and ...

3610. A Matter of Excess

Mark 6:30-44

Illustration

Larry Powell

Before commenting directly about Mark 6:30-44, allow me to direct your attention to two Old Testament stories. 1. The first story is found in 2 Kings 4:1-7 and concerns the widow of a prophet whose creditors were about to foreclose her outstanding debt. Additionally, her two sons were to be carried away as slaves. Beside herself, the widow cried out to Elisha for help. Elisha asked her if she had anything in the house of value which might be sold to provide money toward the debt. "Only a partially filled ...

3611. One’s Proper Service

Isaiah 58:1-14

Illustration

Larry Powell

I read that a member of a United Methodist church in North Carolina was once convicted in court for disrupting church services because of his atrocious singing. It was in 1873 that William Linkhaw was hauled into county court in Lumberton, Robeson County, N.C., by fellow Methodists who charged that Linkhaw’s singing repeatedly created havoc during worship services. Not only was his voice offensive to the ear, but he was given to singing long after the rest of the congregation had stopped. Things had become ...

3612. Beyond Ambiguity

Isaiah 42:1-9

Illustration

Larry Powell

In the 1500s, there lived a "prophet" named Nostradamus who upheld the Copernican theory that the world is round and circles the sun more than one hundred years before Galileo was prosecuted for the same belief. He was also widely known as a healer, a dabbler in the occult, and predictor of events far into the future. A present day book, The Prophecies of Nostradamus, purports to show that he predicted such specific events as the assassination of John F. Kennnedy, Hitler’s rise to power, the Blockade of ...

3613. Evil in the Trenches

Mark 11:12-19

Illustration

Larry Powell

In consideration of our scripture selection, the title as listed above appears to be unreasonably over-stated. In our mind’s eye, we conceive Jesus and the disciples striding directly into a well-laid trap. The priests are hunkering low in waistdeep trenches, the scribes located strategically in reinforced bunkers, their religious peers dug in somewhere behind barbed wire barricades ... "entrenched evil." But no, it was not to be that obvious. Evil entrenches itself in many ways. We will mention here some ...

3614. Sturdy Dreamers

Mark 10:35-45

Illustration

Larry Powell

Foe three weeks the minister announced in the church newsletter that a called meeting of the Administrative Board would be held to consider enlarging the church kitchen. For three weeks, the same announcement appeared in the Sunday worship bulletin and was repeated verbally from the pulpit. On the appointed date, the board met, deliberated the details, and voted to move ahead with the kitchen project. Construction was soon under way. One morning, a member of the board happened by the church and was curious ...

3615. And Their Eyes Were Opened

Luke 24:13-35

Illustration

Larry Powell

Some years ago, a movie titled Zapata depicted the engaging story of the famous Mexican hero, Zapata. He was to the Mexicans what "El Cid" was to the Spanish: a redeemer of his people. Those who loved Zapata were radically devoted to him and his cause. At the end, when Zapata was ambushed by government troops, the white horse upon which he had led countless charges, escaped into the hills. The peasants violently refused to believe that their leader would have allowed himself to be ambushed and killed, and ...

3616. Song of a Stargazer

Psalm 8:1-9

Sermon

Gordon Pratt Baker

The author of the Eighth Psalm is a nature lover who has spent many hours drinking in the beauty of God’s handiwork. The stars hold special fascination for him with their witness to the Lord’s majesty and might; and, like many another poet across the centuries, he cannot refrain from singing of their twinkling host. Two things stand out regarding this singer in the night. In the first place, he is one of Palestine’s profoundest thinkers; for his song is the overflow of long and serious contemplation. And ...

3617. Song of a Shepherd

Psalm 23:1-6

Sermon

Gordon Pratt Baker

The author of the Twenty-third Psalm is quite possibly an old man who has lived the better part of a lifetime. In his day he may have been a shepherd. But now the years have siphoned his stamina. So he sits and reminisces on what used to be. And as he does so he observes another shepherd silhouetted against the sky leading a flock to a greener pasture. Instinctively, the sight turns the poet’s mind to the numberless days and nights he tended his own flocks under God’s watchful eye; and once again, as has ...

3618. Song of an Historian

Psalm 78:1-72

Sermon

Gordon Pratt Baker

The author of the Seventy-eighth Psalm is a person with his eye on the events that have shaped Israel. Not that he is engrossed in the bare facts of her history. He is too strongly steeped in the traditions of his people in general and the prophets in particular for that. It is rather that he sees the happenings of her past as God’s footprints in the sands of time. History: A Sacred Trust The psalmist’s approach to his country’s story takes advantage of a poet’s license regarding it. So he departs from the ...

3619. Song of a Churchgoer

Psalm 92:1-15

Sermon

Gordon Pratt Baker

The author of the Ninety-second Psalm is a person who loves the church. Never is he happier than when he worships within her walls. It has been so with him all his life. Now, however, he has an additional reason for loving her. He has been on a sick bed where gloating enemies have taunted him. But God has confounded them and restored him to health. And that is not all; the Lord has called the singer’s hecklers to strict account for their actions (Psalm 92:10, 11). Special Moments with God How good it is, ...

3620. Song of a Pilgrim

Psalm 122:1-9

Sermon

Gordon Pratt Baker

The author of the One hundred and twenty-second Psalm is a religious pilgrim from the hinterland who delights in the quiet stateliness of Israel’s rebuilt Temple. To be sure, lacking gateways like flowing gold and with no broad, sweeping courts, it falls far short of the edifice which Solomon built so magnificently and which Nebuchadnezzar destroyed so violently in 587 B.C. Nevertheless, this rallying point of the faithful catches the poet up in visions of the grandeur that was and its heritage redeemed. ...

3621. Rules For Living

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Robert Allen

A couple of years ago, I was asked to serve on a panel to discuss the problems facing teenagers in our society. The panel included a school counselor, a Juvenile Judge, a drug counselor, a couple of other experts on teenage problems, and, I guess, I was the representative of the religious community. There were a variety of people in the audience, including the parents of several teenagers. During the question and answer period, there was one woman who acknowledged that she was at the symposium because her ...

3622. The Lord Is My Shepherd

Psalm 23:1-6

Sermon

Robert Allen

We were just completing our evening meal when the phone rang. The kids started laughing because the joke around our house is that we cannot sit down to eat without the phone ringing just once. Sometimes it is someone trying to sell us siding for the house ... or it’s a phone call for one of the kids ... or a phone call from someone just to chat. On this night, the call was to let me know that Bob had taken a turn for the worse. A family member was calling and asking if I could come to the hospital. I ...

3623. What Does God Expect Of You?

Micah 6:1-8

Sermon

Robert Allen

Ben Powers is the name of a man that may not be familiar to you today. But, several years ago, he made headlines around the world. For the last fourteen years, Ben Powers has worked for NASA. He has been working on the solid rocket motor design and is considered an expert in his field. In 1987 the ill-fated Challenger blasted off for outer space. This was a special mission which included six astronauts and one school teacher, Christa McAuliffe. The astronaunts were to carry out scientific experiments and ...

3624. A Season Of Joy

Luke 2:8-20

Sermon

Robert Allen

One evening I ran into the cleaners to pick up my shirts. They had told me they would be ready, but now they couldn’t find them. They began searching and I stood there thinking, "This is great. Every dress shirt I own is at the cleaners - except for the one I’m wearing." While I was waiting for them to find my shirts, a woman walked in carrying an old laundry basket. Inside the laundry basket, lying on a green towel were five little puppies. They were about five or six weeks old - cute little balls of ...

3625. Create Your Own Happiness

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Robert Allen

One night I was sitting up late watching the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. A guest on the program that evening was a 94-year-old man. He spoke of the changes that had taken place during his lifetime and he said he was against all of them. He spoke of the garden that he planted every spring. He introduced his 75-year-old girlfriend who drove him to the NBC studio for his appearance on the Tonight Show. He was an interesting guest and it was obvious that his remarks were unrehearsed. They simply bubbled ...

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