Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 3701 to 3725 of 4935 results

3701. Wade In The Water

2 Kings 5:1-27

Sermon

Frederick C. Edwards

The lives of the rich and famous hold a strange fascination for those of us who do not find ourselves in that category. From a very surface view it is easy to envy their glamorous and opulent lifestyles. How we’d like to be like them. We could really enjoy having their money, or their influence, or the adulation of the people who crowd around them. How nice it would be to have the athletic prowess of Michael Jordan, or the good looks and acting talent of a Tom Cruise or Geena Davis, the voice of Luciano ...

3702. Stewards and the Hungry

Matthew 25:31-46

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

So God called into existence his creation and then, according to Genesis 1:28, he said to us humans, "I’m putting you in charge." That makes us caretakers of all which God has given to us. That includes the Earth and all its natural resources. In the days ahead, we’ll discover that being a caretaker and steward involves a lot more than whether we tithe or not and what we put in the church offering plate. It involves our caring for our bodies, how we use our skills, how we apportion our time, and what we do ...

3703. 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. ...

3704. How Can We Meet Grief?

2 Samuel 18:19--19:8

Sermon

Edward Chinn

Across thirty centuries, comes this cry of grief from David, whom God called from being a shepherd of herds to be the shepherd of His people, Israel. David had a son named Absalom. Absalom had murdered his brother because that brother had raped his sister, Tamar. After being accepted back into the family, Absalom had led a rebellion against his father, the king. That rebel son had won the Israeli army to his side. In a dramatic showdown in the woods of Ephraim, Absalom rode through the forest away from his ...

3705. Bonhoeffer of Berlin

Acts 5:17-42

Drama

Michael L. Sherer

"We must obey God, not men ..." Acts 5:27-32 Characters: Lector Announcer Antagonist Protagonist (Participants enter and take their places in the chancel. As they come forward, the congregation sings the hymn "Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus." When the hymn is completed, the drama begins.) LECTOR: The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from death, after you had killed him by nailing him to a cross. God raised him to his right side as Leader and Savior, to give the people of Israel the opportunity to repent and ...

3706. Not Far From the Kingdom

Mark 12:28-34

Sermon

Warren Thomas Smith

"You are not far from the kingdom of God." (v. 34) It was a discussion on the Great Commandment. We call it the "controversy source." An unnamed scribe, one of the straightforward individuals in the gospel narrative, came to Jesus asking a question. It was a candid inquiry, asked by a guileless person. Let us recall, first, that the man was a scribe. His business was recording the scripture. Long before the invention of printing by the Chinese, all documents were executed by hand. What a tiresome, ...

3707. What a Star Can't Tell You

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

William G. Carter

“Hi, Pastor! How are you?” She waved a glove from the other end of the parking lot. Pushing her shopping cart back to the front entrance of the supermarket, she wore a red parka from L. L. Bean. Her hair was pulled back in a hair band and her cheeks were flushed. “I’m sorry I haven’t been to church this winter,” she said. “I bought a ski pass, and the lines are the shortest on Sunday morning.” I stood there with an artificial smile, trying my best to look cheerful. One of the frustrations of being a pastor ...

3708. The Devil Made Me Do It

Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Have you ever gone to a restaurant, hung up your coat, and noticed a sign warning that the management is not responsible if it gets lost or stolen? Ever read the small print on your airplane ticket? The airline takes no responsibility for any delays or missed connections, and if your baggage is lost, they only have to pay an amount agreed upon at a convention they held in Warsaw in 1955. Park your car in some high-priced garage or lot, and a sign will tell you that management is not responsible for any ...

3709. Year-Round Christmas

1 Kings 17:1-24

Sermon

David E. Leininger

"When elephants fight, the grass suffers." So goes an old African proverb.(1) The elephants in question here, Yahweh and Baal - gods competing for a nation's allegiance with the original weapons of mass destruction: drought and disaster; the grass, this widow and her son, caught in this cosmic struggle between fertility and famine. We meet one of faith's greatest heroes as this story begins. Elijah - no question whose side he is on; his name means YAHWEH IS MY GOD. He gets no introduction other than the ...

3710. Tragedy and Triumph

Matthew 7:24-29

Sermon

David E. Leininger

I am sure you have been hearing the reports coming from western India these past few days. Horrible earthquake, the worst in that nation in 50 years - 7.9 on the Richter scale, strong enough to be felt 1,200 miles away in Calcutta and Bangladesh, both well acquainted with tragedy themselves. Funeral pyres lit the night sky Saturday and officials said the rapidly rising death toll could reach 15,000.(1) Who knows how many more injured. It is terrible. In the midst of those reports you may have also heard a ...

3711. When Evil Wins

Mark 6:14-29

Sermon

David E. Leininger

You are familiar with David Heller's delightful little book, Dear God: Children's Letters to God.(1) There are some wonderfully witty observations. For example, • Dear God, What do you think about all those movies made about you around Easter time? I think they're kind of corny, myself. Your buddy, Charles (age 9) • Dear God, What do you do with families that don't have much faith? There's a family on the next block like that. I don't want to get them in trouble, so I can't say who. See you in church. ...

3712. True Excellence

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

One day at a particularly quiet moment in the normally noisy newsroom where he worked, young H. L. Mencken shouted at the top of his lungs, "It's coming in the doors!" Needless to say, everyone stopped and looked in his direction. "It's up to the bottom of the desks!" said Mencken as he rose to his feet. "It's up to the seats of our chairs!" he shouted as he jumped onto his chair. "What are you talking about?" asked one of his incredulous colleagues. "It's up to the tops of our desks!" shouted Mencken as ...

3713. Messies Anonymous

Philippians 3:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

Mary couldn't get her leaky faucet fixed because she was ashamed to let a plumber see the inside of her cluttered home. Jane was pregnant and didn't know where she would put her new baby because she had so much "stuff" piled in every room of her apartment. Lorene's house was so messy she couldn't bring her terminally ill husband home from the hospital to die. These people (whose names have been changed to protect the sloppy) and thousands more have been aided by a self-help group appropriately named ...

3714. Come To The Feast

Luke 14:1-14

Sermon

Eric Ritz

The Academy Award winning movie, BABETTE'S FEAST, is based on a book by Isak Dinesen. Dineson wrote the book on which the movie, OUT OF AFRICA, was based. In BABETTE'S FEAST the author very creatively weaves the story of Phillipa and Martina, two daughters of a well-known Lutheran pastor in a village in the north of Denmark in the late 1870s. Their father's very rigid and strict religious discipline has shaped the entire community~s approach to life and to the expression of their Christian faith. The ...

3715. Finding Calm In The Storm

Mark 4:35-41

Sermon

King Duncan

Did you know that the bathtub was invented in 1850? The telephone was invented in 1875. "Just think," someone said, "You could have sat in the bathtub for 25 years without the phone ringing." (1) It never fails, does it? Just when you think you will have some peace and quiet, the telephone rings, or the baby cries, or a water pipe breaks, or the boss calls you into her office. Peace is a precious commodity and it is so, so elusive. Dante, the great poet of the Renaissance, was exiled from his home in ...

3716. Walk With Confidence

Ephesians 6:10-20

Sermon

King Duncan

Some years ago TIME magazine reported on a nervous motorist in Lambertville, New Jersey. This man, on being stopped by the police, explained that he had been driving on two hundred and twentyfour consecutive learner's permits over the last twentyfive years. He had flunked his first driver's test and had been unsure of himself ever since! (1) Our theme for today is "Walk With Confidence." Our Scripture lesson is St. Paul's famous admonition, "...Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on ...

3717. I'm Mad And I'm Not Going To Take It Anymore!

John 2:12-25

Sermon

King Duncan

It is an old story, but a good one. Former baseball manager Billy Martin told it in his autobiography titled NUMBER 1. He says he and Mickey Mantle were doing a little hunting down in Texas. Mickey had a friend who would let him hunt on his ranch. When they got there, Mickey told Billy to wait in the car while he went in and cleared things with his friend. Permission was quickly granted for them to hunt, but the owner asked Mickey to do him a favor. He had a pet mule in the barn who was going blind and he ...

3718. The Secret Of Happy Marriages

Ephesians 4:17--5:21

Sermon

King Duncan

For the women in the congregation, I am not even going to attempt to justify St. Paul's words: "Wives, obey your husband..." except to say this: There are some parts of the Scripture that are applicable at all times in all places. There are others that were appropriate to a specific place and a specific time, but now have been superseded by the Holy Spirit. If that were not so, we would all still be eating kosher ” following the dietary laws of the Hebrew scriptures. Within the culture that St. Paul lived ...

3719. A Misplaced Holy Day

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

King Duncan

John A. Davis mailed a Christmas card to his brother in December 1942. Nearly 55 years later it showed up at a post office in Tinley Park, Illinois. Davis had long ago figured the card, sent from Jackson, Miss., to Maryville, Tenn., got lost. The long-lost card raised eyebrows at the Tinley Park post office, and Davis' family learned about it through a newspaper account. The supervisor had sent the card on to Maryville but got it back when Davis contacted him. "There is a lot of nostalgia in this thing. I' ...

3720. Don't Look Down

Matthew 14:22-36

Sermon

King Duncan

You may have missed it in the news. A bridge is being built in the Sea of Galilee at Capernaum at the site where Jesus walked on the water 2,000 years ago. Notice that I did not say this bridge will be built OVER the Sea of Galilee. This bridge will be built IN the Sea. It will be slightly submerged so that visitors walking on the bridge will have the illusion that they are walking on water just like Jesus. The bridge will not have rails, but lifeguards and rescue boats will be stationed nearby in case of ...

3721. In The Middle Of The Night

Luke 9:28-36

Sermon

King Duncan

Life has a way sometimes of slipping up behind and slapping us in the head. Sometimes it is a gentle slap. Other times it is not. A man was driving down the road. He passed a traffic camera and saw it flash. Astounded that he had been caught speeding when he was doing the speed limit, the man turned around and, going even slower, passed the camera again. It flashed once more. He couldn't believe it! He turned, going a snail's pace, and passed the camera one more time. Again, he saw the camera flash. He ...

3722. Light For A New Year

Isaiah 60:1-22

Sermon

King Duncan

To help us get this New Year off to a good start, I thought you might like to hear one person's resolutions--not for this year but for New Year's past. Resolution #1 1994: I will try to be a better husband to Marge. 1995: I will not leave Marge. 1996: I will try for a reconciliation with Marge. 1997: I will try to be a better husband to Wanda. Resolution #2 1994: I will read at least 20 good books a year. 1995: I will read at least 10 books a year. 1996: I will read 5 books a year. 1997: I will finish [ ...

3723. The Grateful Samaritan

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

King Duncan

Everyone knows about the Good Samaritan. He is one of the best-known characters in history. We know he belonged to a despised people--Samaritans--people who did not keep the laws in the prescribed way and who had intermarried with foreigners. We know he was the surprise hero in Jesus' parable that bears his name. We know he was a generous and compassionate man who paid an innkeeper out of his own pocket for the upkeep of a stranger who had been stripped, robbed, beaten and left for dead beside the road to ...

3724. The Edge Of Night

Philippians 2:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

Gloria Swanson was one of Hollywood's top actresses from the 1920s to the 1950s. She was quite ambitious. Early in her career, Swanson was quoted as saying, "I have gone through enough of being a nobody. I have decided that when I am a star, I will be every inch and every moment the star! Everybody from the studio gate man to the highest executive will know it." And Swanson made sure of that. Before returning from a trip to France, Gloria Swanson sent a telegram to her film studio informing them that she ...

3725. How Did You Do On The Test?

1 Corinthians 10:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

Fred was a young man from the mountains of eastern Tennessee. He was a general ne'er-do-well. When he was called up for duty in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, Fred had high hopes that he would be turned down because of his double vision. The doctor said, "See that chart on the wall over there?" "Not very well, Doc. It's all blurry," said Fred. "You've passed," said the doctor. Fred protested, "How can I pass when I told you it's all blurry?" "That," said the doctor, "was your hearing test." Have you ...

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