Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 3651 to 3675 of 5000 results

3651. Resurrection: From Sin to a Second Chance

Psalm 23:1-6

Sermon

Leonard H. Budd

The afternoon sun was waning as the shepherd boy, David, led his sheep down the well-worn path that led from the green pastures to the pool of still water where his flock would quench their thirst before heading back to the fold. He glanced back at the flock following him; then stopped and looked more closely. Where was Ayin, his big ram? One of the lambs was gone, too. The shepherd boy shaded his eyes against the late afternoon sun. In the distance he saw the big ram lumbering down the hill along a ...

3652. Resurrection: From Brokenness to Wholeness

Matthew 15:29-39

Sermon

Leonard H. Budd

His name was Jahmai. In the ancient lineage of his people Jahmai was one of the sons of Tola (1 Chronicles 7:2), a worthy man and father of a great tribe by the days of King David. But the Jahmai of our story lived much, much later in the Hebrew lineage and his grand namesake was long forgotten. The Jahmai of our story was a youth, and this day he walked behind the crowds that followed Jesus. His walking was slowed because of his left leg being bent, never going straight. It meant that he would step-slide ...

3653. A Man Who Lost His Head

Matthew 11:1-19

Sermon

R. Blaine Detrick

In the last chapter, we considered Daniel, a prophet who lived in captivity in the land of Babylon. After the inhabitants of Judah had been carried away as slaves into Babylonia and remained there for a period of approximately seventy years, some of them were permitted to return to the city of Jerusalem. The city had been destroyed and left in ashes. Under extremely difficult circumstances, they began to rebuild: the walls ... the temple ... the city. Some of the outstanding leaders of that period were ...

3654. A Man With a Scalpel and a Pen

Acts 16:6-10

Sermon

R. Blaine Detrick

The favorite man of the Bible for this chapter is one who is rarely mentioned in the Scriptures, yet is an important Bible personality. Not only is he a biblical character; he is also one who was responsible for writing part of the Bible, one who helped to bring the New Testament into being. His name is Luke. Luke, the Doctor We could call him Dr. Luke, because we read that he was "Luke, the beloved physician" (Colossians 4:14). Actually, we know very little about the man. We do know that he was a doctor. ...

3655. Martin Luther: the Shape of Grace

Children's Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

Objects: a law book and a Bible with a chain around it Good morning, boys and girls. Today we will talk about another saint who shaped the church. His name was Martin Luther. He lived in Germany almost 500 years ago. He was the greatest reformer of all time. On hallowed eve, which we now call Halloween, he nailed a notice on the doors of a village church and began the Reformation. I brought two things that tell us about Martin Luther. The first is a law book. The second is this Bible with a chain around it ...

3656. John Calvin, God’s Man

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

Picture a police officer, like Dan Dusenbery* of our congregation, arriving on the porch of Dr. Ralph Dorner* one evening, putting him under arrest, and taking him to the new Polk County jail. Can you imagine his then being taken to the courthouse by prosecutor Dan Johnston* and tried before our church council for heresy because he did not believe as we did? Can you further envision his being found guilty by Judge Leo Oxburger* in spite of attorney Phil Miller’s* pleas, brought to Nollen Plaza mid-morning ...

3657. John Wesley: Religion of the Heart

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

His mother was the daughter of an Anglican priest, and his father was an unsuccessful pastor in the Church of England. He had been raised in the parsonage - one of nineteen children. He, too, became a priest, but he sensed something missing. Religion to this "preacher’s kid" seemed cold, cruel, and intellectual. Then came May 24, 1738. Early in the morning he read in his Bible: "In this way he has given us the very great and precious gifts he promised, so that by means of these gifts you may escape from ...

3658. Shepherds and Bathrobes

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

Thomas Long

Sometimes the events described in the Bible bowl us over with their sheer size. The picture in Genesis of God commanding light and darkness to go their separate ways, summoning the seven seas like chargers, and, with a word, drawing up the massive continents from the primordial ooze of the formless earth. That’s scale! Or, hundreds of thundering Egyptian chariots dashing headlong after the fleeing Hebrew slaves. Suddenly the once dry gap in the sea is invaded by a violent wall of water, foam filling the ...

3659. Knowing the Secret

Mark 1:9-13

Sermon

Thomas Long

One of the decisions every good storyteller has to make is when to tell the story’s secret to people. Every story has a secret, and the spinner of tales has to decide whether to let them know about the secret early in the story or to surprise them with it at the end. Mystery writers often hold back the secret until the last chapter, keeping us eagerly turning the pages to discover who really poisoned the heiress or pushed Colonel Whitington down the elevator shaft. The same is true of soap operas. "Will ...

3660. An Understated Masterpiece

Mark 1:21-28

Sermon

Thomas Long

Some people are masters of understatement. They are able to communicate the size, power, or importance of something, not by flapping their arms wildly and loudly piling one hyperbolic adjective on top of another, but by the slight arch of a single eyebrow and the deft choice of a muted phrase. Masters of understatement. There are, for example, relatives of mine in the South who still describe the American Civil War, a war of immense destructiveness and tragic proportions, by pursing their lips and speaking ...

3661. A Tempting and Lonely Place

Mark 1:35-39

Sermon

Thomas Long

There is nothing more tempting than a lonely place. A lonely place where phones do not ring and loud voices all shouting at once do not compete for our attention. A lonely place where we can hear ourselves think, feel our own calmed breathing, rediscover the inner rhythms which seek in vain to regulate our lives. A lonely place where we can listen to the wind rippling through the trees or, perhaps, to the full and wise sound of stillness. A lonely place free from the cant of television and the condemnation ...

3662. Living in the Future Present

Mark 9:2-13

Sermon

Thomas Long

Back to the Future is a highly imaginative motion picture which prospered at the box office several years ago. The film features a madcap scientist who perfects a machine capable of achieving the human dream of traveling through time. A teenaged boy uses the machine to journey to his hometown as it was in the 1950s, before the boy was born. What happens in the movie from that point on is, of course, ludicrously good fun. The boy meets his parents and discovers what they were like in their awkward teenage ...

3663. What’s In It For Me?

Mark 8:31--9:1

Sermon

Richard A. Jensen

Peter was always doing it. He was always out in front of the other disciples. He was always putting his foot in his mouth. "Who do people say that I am?" Jesus asked his disciples one day. The disciples answered that some people thought he was John the Baptizer or Elijah or one of the prophets. "Enough of what other people think," Jesus said. "What about you? Who do you say that I am?" This time Peter answered. "You are the Christ," he said. Christ was the Greek word for Messiah. Peter thought that Jesus ...

3664. The Crucified Ruler

John 19:17-27

Sermon

Richard A. Jensen

I must confess that my knees trembled just a bit. I had never met a king before. I would probably never meet another monarch as long as I lived. It took place many years ago when I was a missionary in Ethiopia. The King of Ethiopia at that time, Haile Selassie, invited the YMCA chorus to sing Christmas carols for him and his family at his palace. We were all excited about the opportunity. As we entered the palace, we were awestruck. It was a fabulous place. High ceilings. Marvelous light fixtures. Plush ...

3665. The Easter Story Is Our Story

John 20:1-9

Sermon

Richard A. Jensen

It was before sunrise on the day we call the first Easter. The garden was quiet. Jesus’ tomb was silent. The world stood still. Through that early morning hush there walked a solitary figure. Mary Magdalene was her name. She had come to visit Jesus’ tomb. Surprise shattered the early morning stillness. The stone had been rolled away from his tomb! She was startled by her discovery. She ran to tell Peter and the Beloved Disciple. "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb ..." she told them. The men sprang ...

3666. Doubting Thomas

John 20:24-31

Sermon

Richard A. Jensen

"How can you believe in God in such a world as this, anyway?" Melvin asked. "I mean it’s crazy. Just look around you at the world. Does it look like a world that comes from the hand of a loving God? No way! No way! It looks like a world gone mad, a world gone out of control. I just can’t believe in God, I tell ya. I can’t believe in God’s so-called Son either. I’ve just got too many doubts about the way this world works. Too many doubts." Jeanie was beside herself. She did not know what to do. Sunday was ...

3667. Not of the World

John 17:6-19

Sermon

Richard A. Jensen

The preacher urged his television congregation to tithe. "Give 10¼ of your income to the Lord," he said. "But why should I tithe?" someone asked him. "To get," the preacher replied. "We tithe in order to get. I want to get healed, I want to get well, I want to get money, I want to get prosperous." This popular form of Christianity was recently written up in Time magazine. The "prosperity Gospel." That is what it is called. There are many who peddle its wares. You might have heard some of them on radio or ...

3668. Discipleship - Path to Fulfillment

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

James W. Robinson

"Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you." It was with that abrupt request that disciples James and John one day approached Jesus. I don’t know how that strikes you, but, to me, it smacks of impertinence. How would you have responded? In kind, I suspect, with "Oh, you do, do you!" But Jesus, always the gentleperson, made patient reply: "What do you want me to do for you?" Perhaps he smiled indulgently as he spoke. "Grant us to sit, one at your right hand, and one at your left, in your ...

3669. Blind Bartimaeus - Model For Healing

Mark 10:46-52

Sermon

James W. Robinson

His name was Bartimaeus. He occupied the lowest rung on society’s ladder, a poor man of Bethany, who eked out a living begging at the side of the road. In his sightlessness, he was forced to depend on others to guide him to his place of business. He had never seen the smile on the lips of a child, the blush on a maiden’s cheeks, the love in his mother’s eyes. His eyes had never feasted on a sea of flowers in a field, a sky spilling over with stars, or the glorious glow of the setting sun. He had heard, but ...

3670. Take a Close Look (At the Widow)!

Mark 12:41-44

Sermon

James W. Robinson

Mark is a marvel when it comes to storytelling. He is the O. Henry of the New Testament, a magician with words, who squeezes a novel into a paragraph or two. His skill is nowhere more evident than in his account of the widow with the two coins at the temple treasury. It is a gem of a short story. He makes it so easy for us to visualize the woman as she waits patiently in line to drop her offering into the chest with the trumpet-shaped tube. Without going into a detailed character study, he makes us feel ...

3671. Happiness Is ... the Kingship of Jesus

John 18:28-40

Sermon

James W. Robinson

Events were chasing each other like chips in the churning rapids of a racing river. Jesus was helpless in the raging "current of events." He could scarcely keep his head above water. He was doomed to perish in cascading falls that crashed a short distance downstream. Or so it seemed to both bitter foe and disillusioned friend. The Last Supper, the agony in Gethsemane, the betrayal and arrest, and the trial before the Sanhedrin had occurred so quickly that their recollection made the heads of the disciples ...

3672. Where Can We Find Wisdom?

Proverbs 2:1-22

Sermon

Edward Chinn

"Dad, have you cut all four of your wisdom teeth?" asked the teenager. "Yes, son," replied the father. "I have bought a used car, accepted a nomination, been chairman of the civic association, and married your mother." That man obviously thought that he had cut his "wisdom teeth" by chewing on four tough experiences. The four "third molars" have been given that name "wisdom teeth" because they usually appear during late adolescence or early adulthood. Wisdom, however, does not automatically come to us with ...

3673. All Dressed Up and No Place To Go

Isaiah 61:1-11

Sermon

Thomas D. Peterson

It was in the sixties that a dynamic music teacher came to the local Junior High School. You will remember that was the decade in which youth began dressing in the sloppiest possible way. Hundreds of young people were attracted to the charm of this man and joined his many projects. We were present at the program featuring the chorus. I was so impressed with the number of youth who filed onto the risers that I counted them - roughly two hundred. Some spark in this teacher ignited a latent sense of beauty ...

3674. The Remnant Year

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

Thomas D. Peterson

With this Sunday we leave the Christmas Season and enter into a New Year. We all go through a peculiar sadness as we put up the ornaments, eat up the leftovers, and silence the sounds. Perhaps we have already put away the openness and ready affection that marked us during these weeks. If the house looks bleak and sterile, maybe we do a bit ourselves. We are in the process of shaking our heads and getting back to regular living as we meet the year ahead. How nice it would be if we could take some of the ...

3675. Who Knows?

Jonah 3:1-10

Sermon

Thomas D. Peterson

Who knows what lies ahead? A widely used saying has it that if we all put our troubles on a pile and then picked out the ones we choose, we would pick out our own. Why? Because we can deal with them. If we actually had an opportunity to do something new, what would we do? Who knows? Most people, most of the time take their troubles with them or else find them waiting when they arrive. We tend to plug away at the same old things. Jonah was fleeing from God. He had every confidence he could escape and be ...

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