Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 3851 to 3875 of 4490 results

3851. In the Balance

Romans 5:12-19

Sermon

David O. Bales

"He started it." You've probably heard that from the backseat or from a distant bedroom. "He started it." If you have a daughter, the variation is, "She started it." Children become more sophisticated as they grow up, but the jostling and blaming continue. Blaming one another is a human trait; that's why it's recorded in the Bible's story of Adam. In Hebrew, the name, Adam, means "humanity" and the name, Eve, means "life." In Genesis, chapter 3, after Adam eats the fruit, he blames Eve and then goes on to ...

3852. A Truly Universal Operating System

Romans 14:1-12

Sermon

Larry Lange

Once upon a time, in a garage in the ancient city of Rome, a man developed a computer operating system that became the digital lingua franca for the ancient world. How his operating system defeated its competitor is one of the great mysteries of all time. There must have been something about its ugly, utilitarian appearance and its proclivity toward redundancy that appealed to the brutal bureaucrats who established the Roman Empire. Even the name of the operating system came from a word butchered beyond ...

3853. Mystery of the Unlikely

Luke 1:39-55

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

In the year 1870 the Methodists in Indiana were having their Annual Conference. At one point, the president of the college where they were meeting said, "I think we live in a very exciting age." The presiding bishop said "What do you see in our future?" The college president responded, "I believe we are coming into a time of great inventions. I believe, for example, that men will fly through the air like birds." The Bishop was indignant and said, "That's heresy! The Bible says that flight is reserved for ...

3854. Advent 1

Matthew 24:36-51

Bulletin Aid

Amy C. Schifrin

Litany Of Confession Leader: The shadows lengthen; the world hides in a winter’s sleep. All: Interrupt our lives. Leader: We plan our days; we move from event to event. All: Interrupt our lives. Leader: The poor cry for bread; we pretend not to hear. All: Interrupt our lives. Leader: We protect ourselves from those we fear. All: Interrupt our lives. A time for silent reflection Leader: May God’s love pierce your darkness and his mercy tear down your walls. All: Come, Lord Jesus, and interrupt our lives. ...

3855. Christmas 2

Psalm 147:12-20, Jeremiah 31:7-14, John 1:(1-9), 10-18, Ephesians 1:3-14

Bulletin Aid

Amy C. Schifrin

Gathering Litany Leader: O God, who created our world with a single word, All: shine on us this day. Leader: O God, who created our lives with a single word, All: shine on us this day. Leader: O God, who gave us the power to believe with a single word, All: make us your children. Amen. Prayer Of The Day Leader: Gather us in, ever-living God. Gather us in and fill our hearts with your joyous dance, that, breaking all known human boundaries, we might forever sing your glorious praise through Jesus Christ, ...

3856. The Case of the Dancing Men

Psalm 51:1-19

Sermon

King Duncan

Some of you may be fans of the PBS show, “Mystery.” Pastor Richard Slater tells about a scene in one of those PBS presentations, a Sherlock Holmes mystery, “The Case of the Dancing Men.” As the story opens, a young woman is gathering flowers in her garden. Suddenly, her face is transformed into terror by something she sees. She drops her basket of flowers and runs panic stricken toward her home. Once inside, she bolts the windows and doors, draws the drapes tight, and falls sobbing and trembling into a ...

3857. Was There No Other Way?

Isaiah 52:13--53:12

Sermon

King Duncan

Are you familiar with the legend of the robin? According to this tale the robin was originally a little brown bird. That is, until Good Friday the FIRST Good Friday. On that dark day this little brown bird saw a man nailed to a cross, slowly dying. He was all by himself . . . and there was no one to help him. The little brown bird began trying to free the man from the cross. The bird flew around and around until he found a way to remove a thorn from the crown of thorns that circled the man’s head, and in ...

3858. Clearing Out the Pipes

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Sermon

John Smylie

Ash Wednesday, which begins the season of Lent, is a time when we have an opportunity to squarely face our humanness. It begins a season where we have an invitation to be honest with God, with ourselves, and with one another. The season of Lent, which begins this Ash Wednesday, offers us a forty-day time period modeled after our Lord's forty days in the wilderness. Some of us may not feel the need to take on extra disciplines during these forty days. Perhaps our lives already feel full of enough challenges ...

3859. On The Night When He Was Betrayed

1 Corinthians 11:23-26

Sermon

Nancy Kraft

Have you ever been betrayed by one of your closest friends? After opening yourself up and becoming vulnerable to another person, to have them abuse the trust you placed in them and stab you in the back can cause more pain than if that person had beaten you to a pulp. If a person who claims to love you turns around and hurts you deeply, you probably do what most of us do in that situation — you hurt them back. Certainly, you wouldn't choose to spend your last night alive with that person. Especially if you ...

3860. The Eternal Sanctuary

Hebrews 9:11-14

Sermon

Patrick J. Rooney

It happens week after week, sometimes day after day. It happens on the sabbath day, or on a Wednesday, or on Saturday nights. Then it is that the people of God rise up to leave their homes and make their way to a place of worship. For some, it will be a small place, charming in its beauty as it sits amidst the bucolic setting of a village green. For some, it will be a place filled with stained-glass windows and ancient creaking pews, while for others it will be a place which is plain and without adornment ...

3861. A Difficult Day to Follow Jesus

Matthew 18:21-35

Sermon

King Duncan

It’s hard to believe this is the tenth anniversary of the tragic event we know simply by its date, 9-11. On September 11, 2001 nineteen members of the terrorist group al-Qaeda hijacked four commercial passenger jet airliners. The hijackers intentionally crashed two of the airliners into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing everyone on board. Both buildings collapsed within two hours, destroying nearby buildings and claiming nearly 3,000 lives. The hijackers crashed a third ...

3862. The Water Witcher

Matthew 11:1-19

Drama

Arley K. Fadness

Theme: Difficulty of believing and the possiblity of doubt turned into faith Characters: Grandfather Willard Adamson Grandson Joey (eleven years old or younger) Slick (skeptic neighbor) Tone: Nurturing relationship, encouragement Setting/Props: Imaginary tool shed Paintbrushes Paint Imaginary old-fashioned well pump Cup Y-shaped stick One option that may enhance the scene would be an actual old-fashioned well pump. There are still a few of these around on abandoned farms, museums, and as decorative objects ...

3863. Having a Good Name

Proverbs 1:20-33

Sermon

Donna Schaper

Proverbs is right: Having a good name is a terribly important thing. It is important in business, it is important in society, it is important at home, in a family. When we lose our good name, we have lost our trustworthiness. Sometimes it cannot be replaced. How do we know if we have a good name? What is the measurement? Is it the absence of gossip? Or the presence of trust? Is a good name something that we start out with only to find it comes up missing once we have done one or two things wrong? Or does a ...

3864. The Place beyond Revenge

Esther 7:1-6, 9-10, 9:20-22

Sermon

Donna Schaper

A custom is begun! Because of the vengeance that the king took against Haman for Esther, the Jews are to remember their salvation. On the fourteenth and fifteenth day of the month they are to send gifts of food to one another and presents to the poor. Oh, God, help me to understand violence! Help me to understand vengeance. I am pretty good at the other sins, like lust and greed, pride and gossip, but violence I just don't understand. I also don't really understand the tribalism that is beyond it. Is that ...

3865. Perfect Timing

Illustration

Dean Merrill

One man who was ousted from his profession for an indiscretion took work as a hod carrier simply to put bread on the table. He was suddenly plunged into a drastically different world; instead of going to an office each day, he was hauling loads of concrete block up to the fifth level of a construction site. Gone was the piped-in music in the corridors; now he had to endure blaring transistors. Any girl who walked by was subject to rude remarks and whistles. Profanity shot through the air, especially from ...

3866. A Second Chance

Illustration

James Newton

Thomas A. Edison was working on a crazy contraption called a "light bulb" and it took a whole team of men 24 straight hours to put just one together. The story goes that when Edison was finished with one light bulb, he gave it to a young boy helper, who nervously carried it up the stairs. Step by step he cautiously watched his hands, obviously frightened of dropping such a priceless piece of work. You've probably guessed what happened by now; the poor young fellow dropped the bulb at the top of the stairs ...

3867. Til the Last Breath

Illustration

Major Sullivan Ballou of the Union Army wrote this letter to his wife Sarah. One week later, Major Ballou was killed at the first battle of Bull Run: "I have no misgivings about or lack of confidence in the cause in which I am engaged and my courage does not falter. I know how American civilization leans upon the triumph of the government. I know how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the suffering of the Revolution. And I am willing, perfectly willing, to lay down the joys of this ...

3868. A List of Murphy's Laws

Illustration

Staff

If anything can go wrong, it will. Nothing is ever as simple as it seems. Everything takes longer than you expect. If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will go wrong first will be the one that will do the most damage. Left to themselves, all things go from bad to worse. If you play with something long enough, you will surely break it. If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something. If you see that there are four possible ways in which a ...

3869. Alabama Humor for Tennesseans

Humor Illustration

A Knoxville sports writer wrote this column before a Tennessee/Alabama game. It's all in fun. You could substitute the name of your favorite rival. I hope Alabama readers will forgive me for including it those that can read, anyway. You know the best thing to come out of Alabama? Interstate 59. We got word this week that Tide coach will dress only 18 players for today's game. The rest can dress themselves. When you run across an Alabamian today, don't tell him you know why it takes two Alabamians to eat a ...

3870. Aspiring young writers

Humor Illustration

These are supposedly actual high school essays collected by English teachers across the country for their own amusement. Some of these kids may have bright futures as humor writers. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a ThighMaster. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar ...

3871. Believing Thomas

John 20:19-31

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

They say history is written by the victors, but I'm not always so sure. The forces of the Union roundly and rightfully defeated the forces of slavery known as the Confederacy, but 140 years later I'm not sure it's the victors who tell the whole story. Some things are known by their Union name. The decisive battle of September 17, 1862 is known as the Battle of Antietam, not Sharpsburg, as the Confederates knew it. Then there's the little-known Battle of Monocacy. Get off Interstate 70 at Fredericksburg, ...

3872. Holy, Holy, Holy

John 16:12-15

Sermon

Arley K. Fadness

On this festival, The Holy Trinity, we celebrate one of the great treasures and mysteries of the church — the Doctrine of The Holy Trinity. To begin with, one must confess that it is presumptuous on anyone's part to have the audacity, the unmitigated gall, the naiveté, to presume to explain God, the Holy Trinity. No pastor, no doctor of the church, no professor of theology or philosophy, no deacon, no bishop, cardinal, or pope can describe the indescribable, explain the unexplainable, nor comprehend the ...

3873. Don’t Be Afraid

Luke 12:32-40

Sermon

"Don't be afraid." How many times have we heard those words in our lifetime? Our parents whispered them: Don't be afraid of: thunder, darkness, branches scraping against the window. Don't be afraid of: striking out on the ball field, flunking your physics exam, or your driver's test. When those words are spoken with love and sincerity they can be some of the most soothing words we could ever hope to hear. "Don't be afraid, I'm here with you. You're going to be all right. I love you. Stop worrying. Don't ...

3874. Running the Race

Philippians 3:4-11, 2 Timothy 4:7

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

Every week in our country millions of people go to stadiums and arenas to participate in the thrills and chills of athletic competition. Athletic competition attracts people as participants and spectators for a variety of reasons. Perhaps the most universal reason for the appeal of sports is the similarity between what goes on in the arena of athletic competition and the arena of life. Athletic competition is a microcosm of life, because we all love to compete and win. In our second lesson for today, Saint ...

3875. Meal of Death

1 Corinthians 11:23-26

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

There it is. No one can enter this sanctuary without noticing it. Because of the events we remember tonight, the night that our Lord was betrayed, this object is so central to our worship. What is it? Is it an altar? Or is it a table? I am not just nitpicking. What we call it probably reflects our understanding of what goes on there when Christians gather around it. There are dramatically different understandings of it within the Christian church. The gigantic high altar of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome is ...

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