Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 3701 to 3725 of 4508 results

3701. All the Little Things

Illustration

John P. Jewell

All of us know people who get all tangled up in the web of "little things" and thereby miss the "big things." There is the young professional couple with two little children who were simply trying to get ahead and provide for their young family. "I woke up one day," the mom said, "And my son was on his way to college and my daughter in her last year of high school. There is the older couple in...

3702. Defining Love

Illustration

Frank G. Adams

What does the word Love mean today? How do we define it? In answer to my question, Sherry, my son's wife, sent me the results of a question-and-answer session held by a group of professional people with a bunch of 4 to 8-year olds, where they asked them, "What does love mean?" Some of the answers I selected will both amuse and startle you. Karl, age 5, says: "Love is when a girl puts on perfume a...

3703. The Complexity of the Situation

Illustration

The Constitution of the United States started off with only 7 articles and 21 sections that took up only four handwritten pages including signatures! 4 pages! But to that we added 27 amendments. Today, the United States Code, which is all of the laws in this country, fills up around 80 volumes of books, nearly 800,000 pages, and this doesn't even include the Federal Regulations. In 1942, the Virg...

3704. Loving Ourselves

Illustration

James McCormick

She was a beautiful Scandinavian girl. She had come to the hotel room of Dr. and Mrs. Walter Trobisch for counseling, just one day after they had given a lecture at one of the universities of northern Europe. As they talked about her problems, one basic issue kept coming up – one that seemed to be at the root at all her problems. She could not love herself! In fact, she hated herself so much that ...

3705. The Right Kind of Devotion

Illustration

In order that we may know how to love ourselves, an end has been established for us to which we are to refer all our action, so that we may attain to bliss. For if we love ourselves, our one wish is to achieve blessedness. Now this end is to cling to God. Thus, if we know how to love ourselves, the commandant to love our neighbor bids us to do all we can to bring our neighbor to love God. This is ...

3706. The Word Love

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

In his commentary on Matthew Professor Douglas Hare writes: In an age when the word 'love' is greatly abused, it is important to remember that the primary component of biblical love is not affection but commitment. Warm feelings of gratitude may fill our consciousness as we consider all that God has done for us, but it is not warm feelings that Deut. 6:5 demands of us but rather stubborn, unwaveri...

3707. Love of Christ

Illustration

G. Curtis Jones

Legend has it that a wealthy merchant traveling through the Mediterranean world looking for the distinguished Pharisee, Paul, encountered Timothy, who arranged a visit. Paul was, at the time, a prisoner in Rome. Stepping inside the cell, the merchant was surprised to find a rather old man, physically frail, but whose serenity and magnetism challenged the visitor. They talked for hours. Finally the...

3708. Setting the Tone for the Day

Illustration

William G. Carter

A few years ago, a radio station ran a contest. Disc jockeys invited their listeners to tune in their clock radios. "Just for fun," they said, "when you wake up to the sound of FM-106, call and tell us the first words you spoke when you rolled out of bed. If you're the third caller, you'll win $106." It didn't take long for the contest to grow in enthusiasm. The first morning, a buoyant disc jock...

3709. The Center of the Christian Universe

Illustration

William R. Boyer

There is no question, in the Bible, or in the history of the church, that love is the center of the Christian universe. It is one of three things, along with faith and hope, that lasts forever, and is the greatest of the three. It is the dynamis, the power that moves the world. It is the basic magnetism holding everything together: God's love for us, and our love for him and for each other. Just a...

3710. Chip It Away!

Illustration

James W. Moore

There is a story about a man who had a huge boulder in his front yard. He grew weary of this big, unattractive stone in the center of his lawn, so he decided to take advantage of it and turn it into an object of art. He went to work on it with hammer and chisel, and chipped away at the huge boulder until it became a beautiful stone elephant. When he finished, it was gorgeous, breath-taking. A nei...

3711. You Can Read All Day

Illustration

Philip W. McLarty

The story is told of a little boy whose father taught mechanical engineering at a prestigious university. One day he came in the back door and asked his mother, “What time is it?" She wasn't wearing a watch; plus, she was busy, so she said, “Your father's in the living room, go ask him." The little boy shrugged his shoulders and said, “Never mind. I don't want to know how to make a watch; I ju...

3712. Creative Love

Illustration

James A. Carpenter

The Quaker philosopher Rufus Jones, in his autobiography, relates a childhood incident that seems trivial in itself, but, seen in the light of what he eventually became, it was probably the turning point in his life that made him the great man he was. One day his parents told him to stay home and weed the turnip patch while they were gone. He had just begun when some friends came along and persuad...

3713. What Is the Will of God?

Illustration

Rudolf Bultmann

"What, positively, is the will of God? The demand for love. "You shall love your neighbor as yourself!" as the second greatest commandment belongs together with the first: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength" (Mk. 12:28-34) There is no obedience to God which does not have to prove itself in the concrete situ...

3714. Staying in Line

Illustration

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

At the entrance to the harbor at the Isle of Man there are two lights. One would think that the two signals would confuse the pilot. But the fact is, he has to keep them in line; as long as he keeps them in line, his ship is safe. It is the same with these commands of Jesus: the love of God, love others, and love of self. When we keep them in line, we remain safe and well in the channel of the Chr...

3715. Two Most Important Questions a Christian Can Answer - Sermon Starter

Illustration

Brett Blair

Isidor Isaac Rabi, a Nobel Prize winner in Physics, and one of the developers of the atomic bomb, was once asked how he became a scientist. Rabi replied that every day after school his mother would talk to him about his school day. She wasn't so much interested in what he had learned that day, but how he conducted himself in his studies. She always inquired, "Did you ask a good question today?" "...

3716. Just a Person across the Way

Illustration

Brett Blair

Edgar Guest, a renowned American poet at the turn of the century, tells of a neighbor by the name of Jim Potter. Mr. Potter ran the drug store in the small town where Edgar Guest lived. Guest recalled that daily he would pass his neighbor and how they would smile and exchange greetings. But it was a mere casual relationship. Then came that tragic night in the life of Edgar Guest when his first bo...

3717. Love Is More than We Can See

Illustration

Brett Blair

A man once observed a young boy out in a field flying a kite. He noticed that there was something odd about the way the boy was standing and holding on to the string. He walked up to the boy and then learned that the boy was blind. He said, "Do you like flying kites?" The boy said, "I sure do." This piqued the man's curiosity and he asked, "How is that when you cannot see it?" The boy answered,...

3718. Rule of Love

Sermon

Albert G. Butzer III

Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest? — Matthew 22:36 In one of her books, the eloquent Episcopal priest, Barbara Brown Taylor, wrote these words about the Bible: “My relationship with the Bible is a marriage, not a romance, and one I am willing to work on in all the usual ways.”1 What she meant, of course, was that her relationship with the Bible was like any other serious relat...

3719. Faith in the New Frontier

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Do you believe in ghosts? That’s the question on every dimly lit street and cozy room corner during the month of October, when kids and adults alike sit by the fire telling ghost stories and witnessing to strange phenomena they have experienced in their own lives –things that occurred that just didn’t make sense and couldn’t be explained away. We are fascinated by ghosts. No doubt you share sto...

3720. Dignity and Respect

Illustration

King Duncan

Arthur F. Sueltz told about a man he knew who bought a lovely house in the suburbs. On the day he moved in, the man's new neighbor came running across the yard in an obviously belligerent state. "Did you buy this house?" asked the neighbor. "Yes I did," was the reply. The neighbor continued, "Well, I want to tell you something. You bought a lawsuit. You see that fence of yours? It's at least sev...

3721. Give Me Jesus

Illustration

King Duncan

Dr. Paul Wee, a staff member of the Lutheran World Federation, recalls standing at the bedside of dying archbishop, Janis Matulis, of Latvia. A visitor had just sung, at Matulis' request, an old spiritual with the words, "Oh, when I am alone, when I am alone, give me Jesus." Matulis then asked those around his bed: "Do you know why this song means so much to me? Three times war passed over Latvia...

3722. Taking Christ’s Love into the World

Illustration

King Duncan

Many years ago two young men with long records of crime and delinquency robbed the YMCA on the lower east side of New York City. On their way out of the door they noticed a man at the telephone switchboard. Fearing that he would call the police, the young men grabbed him and beat him savagely with brass knuckles and a black jack. Thinking that he was dead, they then stuffed him behind a radiator n...

3723. Love Is Not in Vain

Illustration

King Duncan

In 1977, Guideposts reported the story of a man hiking in the mountains. He was taken by surprise by a sudden snowstorm and quickly lost his way. Since he was not dressed for the chilling temperature, he knew he needed to find shelter fast or he would freeze to death. Despite all of his efforts, time slipped by and his hands and feet became numb. He knew his time was short. Then he literally tripp...

3724. Love for God Is a Commitment

Illustration

King Duncan

An old Russian woman lay on a sofa. Multiple sclerosis had twisted her body almost beyond recognition. The simplest tasks had become almost impossible for her. Corrie Ten Boom visited her at night, using the cover of darkness to escape detection by the Lithuanian authorities. Corrie kissed the woman's wrinkled cheek. The old woman could respond only by rolling her eyes and smiling because the atro...

3725. Love without Borders

Illustration

King Duncan

Most of you know the name Corrie ten Boom whose story, The Hiding Place, has inspired millions. Not many people know of her equally courageous nephew, Peter van Woerden. During the days of Nazi occupation in Holland, Peter transported Jewish children under the cover of darkness from their home in Harlem to other secret hiding places where they were saved from the Nazis. He was eventually caught a...

Showing 3701 to 3725 of 4508 results

3701. All the Little Things

Illustration

John P. Jewell

3702. Defining Love

Illustration

Frank G. Adams

3703. The Complexity of the Situation

Illustration

3704. Loving Ourselves

Illustration

James McCormick

3705. The Right Kind of Devotion

Illustration

3706. The Word Love

Illustration

Brian Stoffregen

3707. Love of Christ

Illustration

G. Curtis Jones

3708. Setting the Tone for the Day

Illustration

William G. Carter

3709. The Center of the Christian Universe

Illustration

William R. Boyer

3710. Chip It Away!

Illustration

James W. Moore

3711. You Can Read All Day

Illustration

Philip W. McLarty

3712. Creative Love

Illustration

James A. Carpenter

3713. What Is the Will of God?

Illustration

Rudolf Bultmann

3714. Staying in Line

Illustration

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

3715. Two Most Important Questions a Christian Can Answer - Sermon Starter

Illustration

Brett Blair

3716. Just a Person across the Way

Illustration

Brett Blair

3717. Love Is More than We Can See

Illustration

Brett Blair

3718. Rule of Love

Sermon

Albert G. Butzer III

3719. Faith in the New Frontier

Sermon

Lori Wagner

3720. Dignity and Respect

Illustration

King Duncan

3721. Give Me Jesus

Illustration

King Duncan

3722. Taking Christ’s Love into the World

Illustration

King Duncan

3723. Love Is Not in Vain

Illustration

King Duncan

3724. Love for God Is a Commitment

Illustration

King Duncan

3725. Love without Borders

Illustration

King Duncan

Showing 3701 to 3725 of 4508 results