Sermon and Worship Resources

Antonyms: keep, claim, continue, stick by, self-control, power through, achieve, defend, bear, hope, acquire, quick visit, adopt, continue along, adhere, remain, pursue, support, take up, keep up, reuse, advocate, stay, persevere, cherish, keep going, carry on

Showing 3626 to 3650 of 4490 results

3626. Spare Change

Exodus 20:1-21

Children's Sermon

B. Kathleen Fannin

Object: Two quarters and a nickel. Lesson: Honesty; discipleship; integrity. Text: "You shall not steal." "How many of you know there is a soda machine downstairs?" I begin. Every one of the assembled children raises a hand. "Oh, good!" I continue. "Since all of you know the church has a soda machine, you probably also all know how much a soda costs." "Fifty cents!" comes their unified response. "That's right," I agree. "And already this morning, I have been downstairs to buy a soda. I put one dollar into ...

3627. Plan Your Leisure - Jesus Did His!

Mark 6:30-44

Sermon

Charles R. Leary

Our son who has a two-engine plane took his wife and two children on a three day out-of-state trip during the Fourth of July week-end. I called, expecting to hear a relaxed voice. Instead, I heard a tense and anxious voice. I said, “How was your little trip?” “Oh, it was fine. The weather was good. [Weather is a primary concern to a pilot.] We saw the people we wanted to see. I took Dave and Jim on an air tour over the mountains with an occasional swoop into the valley. We took pictures of the farm and ...

3628. There Is Healing in the Touch

Mark 5:21-43

Sermon

Charles R. Leary

The idea for this sermon, “There is Healing in the Touch,” comes from two sources. In the Gospel Jesus makes a house call at the home of Jairus, President of the Synagogue Council. We would call him Senior Warden. “My little girl is dying,” he said. “Will you come and put your hands on her?” When Jesus entered the room, he took the little girl’s hand and said to her in his own native language, “Wake up, little girl!” At once she jumped to her feet and walked around the room. The other source is a book my ...

3629. In Search of a Leader

Sermon

Robert Noblett

Anyone who has served on a nominating committee knows how crucial talented leadership is to any group, including the body of Christ. God, our story reminds us, shares that concern. God is unhappy with Saul’s leadership and sends Samuel on a mission to secure a replacement. Look Who Is Doing the Calling Perhaps the most salient features of this story is the fact that it is God who is doing the calling, with Samuel as his agent. Leaders in the church vary in their understanding of the call to ministry, but ...

3630. The Banquet

John 6:25-59

Sermon

Robert Salzgeber

The people argued, "How can this man give us flesh to eat?" To eat and drink the Lord's portion of an offered sacrifice was considered (later on in the Jewish tradition) a desecration or offensive because it was believed that the sacrifice belonged to God. To consume the life force, to consume God, was believed to be a sacrilege. But despite the religious calcification of the covenant tradition, the heart and spirit of the covenant tradition did break through at various times. One such time was when David ...

3631. Advent 3

1 Thessalonians 5:12-28, Isaiah 61:1-11, John 1:19-28, John 1:1-18

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

Theme For The Day: Joy and anticipation concerning what God was about to do. Isaiah promises the oil of gladness (Isaiah 61:3) as God brings the captives of Israel back to their homeland. In Thessalonians, Paul charges the church always to rejoice (v. 16). In the Gospel, John delineates his message as pointing to the One who was to follow him: the One who would be much greater than he. All of these messengers were filled with a sense of joyful expectancy. The third Sunday in Advent has in some traditions ...

3632. Epiphany 7

2 Corinthians 1:12--2:4, Isaiah 43:14-28, Mark 2:1-12

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

Theme: Forgiveness of sins. In the First Lesson God identifies himself as the one who "blots out your transgressions." In the Gospel Jesus heals the paralytic by pronouncing the forgiveness of his sins. COMMENTARY Old Testament: Isaiah 43:18-25 The prophet announces that the Lord is about to accomplish a new thing: he will free Israel from captivity and restore them to a more idyllic existence. The image here is that of a new Exodus, as God provides for his people, as he leads and guides them back home (vv ...

3633. The Lord Will Return

Isaiah 61:1-11

Bulletin Aid

James Wilson

Call To Worship Leader: Come, let all who love the Lord enter God's house for worship! People: But many are poor and wounded and do not know of Christ's Love. Leader: Then we must proclaim for all to hear the news of Jesus the Christ. People: And what shall we tell the poor and wounded in the world? Leader: Christ died so ALL might have life and is coming again to lift them up. All: Blessed be the name of the Lord! Collect God, in Your wonderful and gracious way You sent Christ to call us to a oneness with ...

3634. An Outcast · The Woman Of Samaria

John 4:1-26

Sermon

Gordon Pratt Baker

Intent on avoiding even the appearance of competing with John, whose disciples the Pharisees had goaded into a quarrel with his own, Jesus decided to withdraw from Judea to pursue his mission in Galilee. To do so, however, he must either travel by way of Perea, fording the Jordan twice as many of his countrymen did, or cross the full length of Samaria, which divided the two provinces. It was a choice of no mean significance inasmuch as the Jews and the Samaritans had long since severed relations with bad ...

3635. Surprised By Grace

Matthew 20:1-16

Sermon

Donald Dotterer

Let us pray: Gracious and eternal Father, we come to you this day seeking to understand the ways in which your Spirit moves in our lives. Lord, in these moments, may we be moved by love in our hearts and receive wisdom in our minds. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address has been called America's "greatest gathering of words."1 Lincoln's message was given over 130 years ago on the Civil War battlefield in Pennsylvania named Gettysburg. The burial of the Union dead was still ...

3636. The TV Revolution

Sermon

Michael Rogness

As the dominant medium of social expression, television is pervasive in a profound way that we seldom recognize fully. Because most of us get most of our information about the society most of the time from television, it becomes the primary social fact of our lives.2 -- James Monaco Preaching Today While visiting many congregations I am constantly astonished to hear how much complaining there is about preaching. Faithful churchgoers find themselves wondering, "What's happened to good preaching?" "Where ...

3637. Easter 4

John 10:1-21

Bulletin Aid

Dennis Koch

Gospel Note The focus of this passage is not the image of "sheep," which seems more than a little demeaning, but that of the shepherd, who (1) is deeply committed to his charges and (2) is willing to sacrifice himself for them. The polemical edge to this passage comes in the last verse, which asserts that Christ's death was voluntary, not coerced. Liturgical Color White Suggested Hymns Praise The Lord, Rise Up Rejoicing I Know That My Redeemer Lives The Lord's My Shepherd O God Of Jacob Prayer for Easter 4 ...

3638. Prayers for Divine Signs

Mark 13:1-31, 1 Samuel 2:1-11

Bulletin Aid

B. David Hostetter

Call to Worship Let us proclaim how mighty are the deeds of God, how glorious is the majesty of God's realm. Prayer of Confession Glorious God, Divine Human, Eternal Spirit, we get so mired in the stuff of every day that we rarely see visions and dream dreams. We are busy about daily routines for making a living and so preoccupied with the immediate that we do not look for signs of your judgment nor the changing seasons of divine history. Forgive our sins and wicked deeds for the sake of Christ's offering ...

3639. The Wisdom In Waiting

Luke 12:35-48

Sermon

W. Robert McClelland

"Fear not!" Jesus says. These are the same words spoken by the angels to the Bethlehem shepherds on the occasion of his first coming. Now they are used to speak of his second coming. The reason why we need not fear is because God's good pleasure is to give us the kingdom. We cannot earn it. We cannot build it. It is a gift of grace. Despite all the evidence to the contrary and all attempts to oppose it, the promise has been made. The kingdom of God is on the way. We are to wait for it and be ready. The ...

3640. Confusion Over a Questioned Book

Daniel 7:1-14

Sermon

George Paul Mocko

Were you confused by that passage read from the Book of Daniel? Don't feel bad. You are in good company. Daniel has been confusing people ever since it was written. It confused those rabbis who in the year 90 met in the coastal town of Jamnia to cast their votes on which of the historical writings were to be designated "sacred scripture." Daniel made it into the Bible by a majority vote, but many of those rabbis felt it should not have. It confused early Christians, many of whom were as unsure of its value ...

3641. Love Is The Message

1 Corinthians 1:24

Children's Sermon

Object: a bottle with today's verse printed on a paper, folded and placed in the bottle. Good morning, boys and girls. If you were on a ship, and you wanted to send a message, could you put it in a bottle like this and put it in the water? (Let them respond.) You probably could. But it might take a long time for someone to find it. Your bottle could break on the rocks. Or it could wash up on shore on an island where no one lives. Or it could float around forever. How many of you have heard of the word ...

3642. Proper 16

Luke 13:22-30, Isaiah 28:1-29, Isaiah 66:1-24, Jeremiah 28:1-17, Hebrews 12:1-13

Sermon Aid

George Bass

THEOLOGICAL CLUE Depending on the lectionary being followed and the calendar of this particular year, Holy Cross Day will soon be celebrated. It's a festival that is relatively new to many Protestants, but quite familiar to Roman Catholics. To celebrate the cross and the crucifixion of Christ in August or September seems like a liturgical anachronism; Jesus' passion and death are remembered annually in the spring of the year, along with Easter, of course. But Holy Cross day comes at a propitious time in ...

3643. An Invitation to Rest

Mark 6:30-44

Sermon Aid

Wayne B. Keller

Liturgical Color: Green Theme: Jesus' invitation to the disciples to leave the crowd and to rest; peoples' unwillingness to leave them alone; Jesus' compassion toward them. Pastoral Invitation Suggestion: Begin, what do you expect to happen today? God promises that if we expect little, we will receive little; if we expect much, we will receive much. The decision is in the eye of the beholder. Continue with this litany: Pastor: The call of Christ is not an easy one. People: It is an invitation to self- ...

3644. The Season of the Holy Spirit

John 18:28-40

Bulletin Aid

Wayne B. Keller

Theme: Pilate's question: "Are you the Jews' king?"Jesus' response: "You say so ... I bear witness to the truth." Pilate's perplexity: "What is truth?" THE COMMUNITY GATHERS TO CELEBRATE Suggestion: Begin, are you here? I mean, really here this morning? Are you here to hear the truth as God's Spirit reveals the truth? If not, wake up. (Use an alarm clock, or some kind of sound to wake the people up.) (pause) Now, are you awake? On your mark, get set, let's get going. Continue with this litany between ...

3645. Where To Go When You Grieve

Matthew 14:1-12

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

Death in Mid-life This funeral sermon was preached for a forty-year-old member of my congregation; he died after an illness of six weeks, leaving a wife and two teenage daughters. What do you do and where do you go when a loved one dies? Where do you go when you have a pain in your heart that no physician can cure? Where do you go when you feel like you've swallowed a stone? Where do you go when the heaviness of your grief is like a staggering load? Where do you go when tears run down like rain on your ...

3646. The African Foundations Of Christianity

Exodus 4:1-17

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

In surveying the vast and rich history of African-American people, we must go beyond the shores of America to the continent of "Alkebulan" or Africa. We are indebted to the late Dr. Carter G. Woodson and members for the study of Negro Life and History for designating February as a time for observing the outstanding contributions of black people, not only to American but also to world history. A great tragedy of our times is that many people, both black and white, think that Black History began four hundred ...

3647. A Handful Of Dandelions

Drama

Timothy W. Ayers

Topic: Mother's Day, motherhood, joy of children Characters: One woman Props: Bouquet of dandelions Scene: A house, no scenery needed Mother: (She is holding a bunch of dandelions in her hands) All through high school, I couldn't wait until prom night when I would get a corsage of beautiful flowers. They smelled so sweet. I still have some of those things pressed away in Webster's Unabridged Dictionary. Filed under the letter of the boy who took me. I guess I'm a little silly about it all. I think it's ...

3648. Are You Born Again?

John 3:1-15

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

It was late, almost bedtime, when the Jewish leader came to Jesus' residence. Into Jesus' presence came Nicodemus, one of the best-known Jewish professors in all of Israel (a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin). Nicodemus finally reached the short ruddy-faced leader of the disciples, and he said to him, "Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him (John 3:2)." However, Jesus then said something very strange. It really amounted to a put- ...

3649. From Inferiority To Fulfillment

Isaiah 62:1-12

Sermon

Ron Lavin

A counselor was listening carefully to a teenager. She was speaking about her troubles. She felt out of sorts with everyone and everything. She was depressed. Everything was going wrong. Her recent marriage was on the rocks. There was trouble with the baby who had been born recently. Her job was not working out. After listening to her litany of troubles for a long time, the counselor asked her, "Do you believe that God loves everyone?" "Yes," she said, "I'm a Christian. I believe that God loves everyone ...

3650. Everything Except God

Amos 5:1-17

Sermon

Richard Hasler

Robert Coles, a child psychiatrist who taught at Harvard University, decided to travel to the South in the early days of the civil rights struggle to see for himself what effect the tension was having upon little children. He soon developed a special interest in Ruby Bridges, a six-year-old black girl in New Orleans. She walked bravely to class each morning accompanied by federal marshals who protected her from the ever-present abuse of an angry mob. How was she able to stand such tension? Where did a ...

Showing results