Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 3726 to 3750 of 4946 results

3726. Saving The Best Till Last

John 2:1-11

Sermon

Brett Blair

The Jews attached great importance to the high moments of life. Thus a wedding was not just a brief ceremony, but an experience shared by the entire community. The typical wedding feast could last up to seven days. That sounds strange to our modern way of thinking, but this offered a bright interlude in an otherwise dreary existence. The ceremony would begin on Tuesday at midnight. After the wedding the father of the bride would take his daughter to every house so that everyone might congratulate her. It ...

3727. The Diary of Horace Wimp (A Drama about Past Failures)

Drama

Dave Marsh

Director's Notes: No one in their right mind carries around a journal of every past failure they've had but many of us store them up in our heads. We need to realize that any sin is 'remembered no more' and is 'as far as the East is from the West" in God's eyes when we give our lives to him. As far as failures that have nothing to do with sin? Well, we just need to forget them, move on, and enjoy our walk with the Father. (Yes, this is the name of an old ELO song - in case you were wondering and you know ...

3728. The Power to Change the Past

Matthew 18:21-35

Sermon

David E. Leininger

You are no doubt familiar with the name Simon Wiesenthal, the famous Nazi hunter. Wiesenthal was a prisoner in a concentration camp in Poland. One day he was assigned to clean out rubbish from a barn the Germans had improvised into a hospital for wounded soldiers. Toward evening a nurse took Wiesenthal by the hand and led him to a young SS trooper, his face bandaged with filthy rags, eyes tucked behind the gauze. He was perhaps 21 years old. He grabbed Wiesenthal's hand and held on for dear life. He said ...

3729. Fish Bait

Luke 5:1-11

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Two guys go on a fishing trip. They rent all the equipment: the reels, the rods, the wading suits, the rowboat, the car, and even a cabin in the woods. They spend a fortune. The first day they go fishing they don't catch a thing. The same thing happens on the second day, and on the third day. It goes on like this until finally, on the last day of their vacation, one of the men finally catches a fish. As they drive home, they are both really depressed. One turns to the other and says, "Do you realize that ...

3730. Merry XMas

John 1:1-18

Sermon

David E. Leininger

This is a glorious time of year. I am looking forward to the cantata next week, the candlelight communion service on Christmas Eve, and of course, the Joy Gift Pageant tonight. One never knows what to expect at Christmas pageants. I read recently(1) of a heated discussion between some pleading grown-ups and a particularly adamant five-year-old. She would wear her new dress or she would not appear in the pageant. First, the Director begged her, "Please put on the costume. The people want to see you as MARY ...

3731. Role Models

Mark 14:12-26

Sermon

King Duncan

When the play Peter Pan first premiered in London in 1904, the author, Sir James Barrie began to hear from parents upset with the play. They asked him to make a change. In the original version, Peter Pan told the Darling children that if they believed strongly enough that they could fly, they would fly. Apparently, children who had seen the play had taken Peter's word literally and hurt themselves attempting to fly. Without hesitation, Barrie altered the script to include a cautionary statement that the ...

3732. Yearning For Rejection; Thriving On Insults

2 Corinthians 12:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

A young single man checked into a Hilton Hotel. A card left on his pillow said, "Turn down service available, 7-10 p.m." The message meant that a housekeeper was available to turn down the covers on the bed during those hours. This young man saw a different message. "Why would you ever want a service like that?" he asked. "A turn down service ” unless you have incredibly low self-esteem." He added, "Usually my turn downs come long before 7 p.m.." Have you ever been turned down? Rejected? Insulted? A group ...

3733. Lesson From A Blind Man

Mark 10:46-52

Sermon

King Duncan

Eugene was a wimpy prince; stunted in growth, ugly, sickly, pale and hunched back. Everyone in Louis XIV's castle had written him off and ignored him. The young prince wandered around in the shadows of the French monarch's castle going unnoticed among the nobles and royalty who attended the balls, ballets, and parties. Eugene's friends were the slaves. No one else would have anything to do with him. Eugene wanted to be a soldier so he went to Louis XIV and asked for a commission in his army. Louis wouldn't ...

3734. The Deal Of A Lifetime

Mark 10:17-31

Sermon

King Duncan

Many of you pride yourself on being good business people. Suppose someone reputable made you the following offer: You go into business with me. It will be expensive, but I guarantee it will be worth it. You dig up whatever cash you can find. Take out an equity loan on your house, cash in the value of your life insurance policy, pay the penalty, and take the money out of your IRA accounthowever you can come up with cash, do it. Then, if you work hard, and follow the company manual, sacrifice and give your ...

3735. Living Smart

Luke 10:38-42

Sermon

King Duncan

John Claypool, in one of his sermons, tells a parable about a young man who was applying for a job. As a part of the application process, the young man had to take an aptitude test. He arrived at the appointed time, was given instructions about the test, and then was ushered into the testing room. Immediately, though, the young man became enamored with the utensils at his disposal: he straightened the paper on the desk, sharpened his pencils and shined his chair. In fact, he became so engrossed in the ...

3736. The Fourth Person In The Trinity

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

King Duncan

A man named Kenneth Gibble tells of spending his after-school hours as a child in the feed mill where his dad worked. He enjoyed playing in the section of the warehouse where the bags of feed were stacked in deep rows. "I loved playing games of pretend," he says, "with the feed bags becoming in my imagination hills and valleys, boulders to hide behind, dark caves to hide inside." Sometimes one of the workers would come into the warehouse where Kenneth was playing. He would delight in spying on the worker ...

3737. Never Too Old for an Adventure

Romans 4:1-25

Sermon

King Duncan

James Michener was over eighty years of age when his epic book, Alaska, was released. He had been thinking about writing such a work for over forty years. Why did he wait so long? The explanation seems ridiculous, but at age 40, he was afraid he might be too old to withstand the rigors of an Alaskan winter, which hovers at 50 degrees below zero along the Yukon River. His rule had always been never to write about a place in which he hadn't lived. Thus he shied away from this challenging undertaking. The ...

3738. Preparing For The Second Part Of Life

James 1:1-18

Sermon

King Duncan

It was a familiar scene as the pastor shook hands with persons leaving worship. At the end of the line was a man who occasionally attended worship. As the man came to shake his pastor's hand he said, "Reverend, Reverend, what you said today in your sermon was exactly what I needed to hear. Thank you very, very much. It was so helpful to me. It revolutionized my life. Thank you, thank you." To be honest the pastor was surprised yet pleased that his words made such a profound difference in this man's life. " ...

3739. Nobody Wants To Make Cold Calls

Luke 10:1-24

Sermon

King Duncan

There is a terrible story about two young Mormon missionaries who were going door to door. They knocked on the door of one woman who was not at all happy to see them. The woman told them in no uncertain terms that she did not want to hear their message and slammed the door in their faces. To her surprise, however, the door did not close and, in fact, almost magically bounced back open. She tried again, really putting her back into it and slammed the door again with the same amazing result--the door bounced ...

3740. Good Neighbors

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

King Duncan

During his sermon, a pastor quoted Jesus, "Love your neighbor as yourself." To emphasize the point, he asked three times, with increasing intensity: "Who is my neighbor? Who is my neighbor? Who is my neighbor?!" Each time he asked this, a young boy in the congregation answered quietly: "Mister Rogers! Mister Rogers! Mister Rogers!" (1) Fred Rogers of children's television fame was a good neighbor. But the lawyer's question to Jesus is just as relevant today as it was 2,000 years ago. Who is our neighbor? ...

3741. Hey, Gang, We're Moving!

Genesis 12:1-8

Sermon

King Duncan

Over the years, a certain mythic status has been earned by White House telephone operators, who are rumored to be able to find anybody, anywhere, at any time. President John F. Kennedy once challenged a friend to name someone that the operators wouldn't be able to track down. The friend mentioned writer Truman Capote, who kept an unlisted number. Within thirty minutes, the operator had Capote on the line. The amazing thing about this feat is that Capote was not at his own home in New York at the time. He ...

3742. Secretary to Saint Peter

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

MARK’S GOSPEL IS THE MOST IMPORTANT BOOK IN THE WORLD! So says Prof. William Barclay of Scotland, the dean of New Testament Biblical commentators. Why? Because, says he, It is agreed by nearly everyone that Mark is the earliest of all the gospels, and is therefore the first life of Jesus that has come down to us. (Daily Study Bible, Phila: The Westminster Pres, 1956. P. xiii.) In other words, if there had been no Gospel of St. Mark there would have been no Gospels. Period. It is an intriguing thought. And ...

3743. Dealing with Our Doubts

Mark 9:14-32

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

David Heller is a young Boston psychologist who, as part of a continuing research interest, collects letters children have written to God. “Dear God: Children’s Letters to God” (New York: Doubleday, 1987) is Heller’s second publication on this subject. In it he reports the following letter: “Dear God, I have doubts about you sometimes. Sometimes I really believe. Like when I was four and I hurt my arm and you healed it up fast. But my question is, if you could do this why don’t you stop all the bad in the ...

3744. On the Singing of Hymns

Mark 14:12-26

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

“And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.” (Mark 14:26) This little verse in Mark’s Gospel which occurs at the end of the Last Supper account, has always intrigued me. It may well be one of the greatest pictures of quiet courage and confidence in all of literature. For Jesus and His students were singing in the very shadow of the cross! I. THEY WERE NOT THE FIRST NOR THE LAST TO DO SO. Scholars suggest that the hymn they may have sung was the famous hallel Psalm 118, which was ...

3745. Waiting for Godot?

1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Sermon

Fredrick R. Harm

As we embark on another Advent Adventure we pause to remind ourselves that this sacred season holds a twofold emphasis. Not only do we journey towards Christ's nativity but also we project our thoughts towards his second advent when the final curtain will be lowered on the world as we now know it. This twofold emphasis is underscored in Saint Paul's greeting to his friends in today's text. In Samuel Beckett's tragicomedy, Waiting for Godot, we are introduced to Vladimir and Estragon who are waiting for the ...

3746. Grace in the Midst of Suffering

2 Corinthians 4:1-18

Sermon

Glenn McDonald

For several years an earnest and energetic woman has been attempting to make August 8 a national holiday in the United States. She'd like to call it, "National Admit You're Happy Day." She has canvassed the governors of all fifty states, personally requesting their support. At least fifteen governors have responded positively. A good many others have been less happy with the idea -- including George Pataki, the governor of New York, who has said, "The state of New York has no official position on happiness ...

3747. Pentecost: The Neglected Factor

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

The book of the Bible most closed to modern Christians, I believe, is the book of Acts. It is actually the record of the Holy Spirit at work in the lives of those who were left to carry on that first century after Jesus’ departure from the earthly scene. It is the account of the dynamic released in the world through men and women of prayer. Jesus promised, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit is come upon you. And he told those scared followers to wait in Jerusalem for the promise. For John ...

3748. Put My Tears In Thy Bottle

Psalm 56:1-13

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

There are a lot of images in the Psalms -- powerful, descriptive, suggestive images. Listen. "My God is a strong rock.""In the shadow of his rock I will rest.""In the shelter of his wings I will take refuge." The images abound. God is seen as a safe harbor -- a shepherd's arms -- our life is one in which we pass through the valley of the shadow of death -- and we walk by still waters and rest in green pastures. The images are on every page. But there's one image in our Psalm today that I'm sure will at ...

3749. What Is Your Life?

James 4:13-17

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

When the historian H. G. Wells died in 1946, many of the newspapers reporting the event quoted the last words he ever spoke. Friends and nurses were fluttering about his bedside trying to be helpful, adjusting pillows, pulling up the covers, administering sedatives, and so on. Wells turned to them and said, "Don't bother me. Can't you see I'm busy dying." It was the last flicker of humor from a gallant spirit. I've been thinking about that lately...about the way people die. It says a lot about how they ...

3750. The Danger Of Straying From Home (Father's Day)

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Dr. Nels Ferre was one of the imminent theologians a generation ago -- a professor at Vanderbilt. As an old man, he stood before his students and talked about his coming to America. He was one of eight children living in Sweden. With the war coming ever closer, his mother chose him to leave the country. She took the family down to the great cathedral in the middle of the city and, having the children stand in a circle, encouraged them to pray together for each other, but especially for Nels. He still ...

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