Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 3901 to 3925 of 4508 results

3901. In the Headlines

Illustration

James Merritt

As you well know, you certainly cannot always believe everything you read in the papers. Some of the headlines in papers are absolutely astounding. These are actual headlines that actually ran in American newspapers: Experts say jet crashed because something went wrong. Police begin campaign to run down jay walkers. Crash probe decides plane was too close to ground Minors refuse to work after dea...

3902. The Post-it Note

Illustration

I heard about a poor woman who had to patch up a friendship with a co-worker at the office. It seems that Mary was planning her Thanksgiving Day meal. Her in-laws were all going to be there, and she was in quite a tizzy trying to make sure everything turned out perfectly. She had post-it notes everywhere, reminding her of things she needed to pick up and things she needed to do. Her friend Sharon...

3903. Without Warning

Illustration

Leonard Sweet

Some emergencies, some crisis situations, truly spring upon us with little or no warning. When Mt. St. Helen's exploded back in 1980, not one volcanologist expected the monstrous, nuclear-type blast that flattened the mountainside, the landscape, and the entire ecosystem inside the blast-zone. The scientists were waiting for, even eagerly anticipating, an eruption. They anticipated something power...

3904. I Would Plant an Apple Tree

Illustration

Donald B. Strobe

Martin Luther was once asked what he would do if he knew that the world was coming to an end tomorrow, and he said: "I would plant an apple tree." In other words, Luther, trusting in God's gracious, unmerited mercy would live life just as he had been living it. When John Wesley was asked the same thing, being an obsessive-compulsive type, he said that he would arise at 4:00 AM, preach at 5:00 visi...

3905. What Is Time?

Illustration

What is time? Who can easily and briefly explain this? Who can comprehend this, even in thought, so as to express it in a word? Yet what do we discuss more familiarly and knowingly in conversation than time? Surely, we understand it when we talk about it, and also understand it when we hear others talk about it. What, then, is time? If no one asks me, I know; if I want to explain it to someone who...

3906. Happiness Is an Inside Job

Illustration

Richard A. Wing

I saw a bumper sticker which read, "Happiness is an inside job." I'm here to tell you that Advent is, too. What happens on the exterior is cosmetic and delightful but has limitations. What happens on the interior will occur when we choose to allow God to do something within us. That something has eternal value.

3907. Good News for Those Growing Up

Illustration

Richard A. Wing

I like John Cooper, the Ohio State University football coach, for many reasons, but especially for this one. As he was being interviewed once about a player who was in trouble with the law, a reporter asked if Cooper was going to kick the player off the team. He said, "No, I am not going to kick him off, because if I kick him off I can't help him. We are in the business of helping young people gro...

3908. Modern Day Perils

Illustration

Theodore J. Wardlaw

I will never forget one particular testimony I heard on one particular occasion in the church I served in Atlanta. He was a seminary professor, and he and his family were joining the church. And when it came his turn, he said, "I'm joining this church because those cannons across the street on the grounds of the State Capitol Building are pointed directly at us." I thought at the time, "That's a ...

3909. Christ May Be Closer Than You Know

Illustration

J. Howard Olds

Martin, the Cobbler, is Leo Tolstoy's story about a lonely shoemaker who is promised in a dream that Christ will come to visit his shop. The next day Martin rises early, gets his shop ready, prepares a meal and waits. The only one who showed up in the morning was an old beggar who came by and asked for rest. Martin gave him a room he had prepared for his divine guest. The only one to show up in th...

3910. Humor: Surprise, Surprise

Illustration

J. Howard Olds

Surprise! Surprise! Life is full of surprises! Some surprises are awesome. Someone will get an engagement ring for Christmas. Some surprises are awful. Some surprises are a combination of awesome and awful. A parishioner called her pastor and said, "I need a little help. My father just won a 30 million dollar lottery. He is 96 years old, has heart trouble and I am concerned if I tell him, he will...

3911. Show Us a Sign

Illustration

Billy D. Strayhorn

One of the very first things we always ask for in the midst of uncertainty, disaster or trouble is: "Lord, show us a sign." In the movie Bruce Almighty, starring Jim Carrey, there's a scene where Bruce's life has fallen apart. He's gotten fired, beat up when he tried to help a homeless man holding a sign, and he's had a fight with his girlfriend whose name just happens to be Grace. He's driving al...

3912. What Time Is It, Precisely?

Illustration

Staff

Time technicians at the National Institute of Standards & Technology (Formerly the National Bureau of Standards) set a new level of precision in 1949 by inventing the atomic clock. It counted the oscillations of the nitrogen atom in an ammonia molecule and was reliable to within one second in three years. More recently, NIST switched to an atomic clock based on the vibrations of cesium atoms. It w...

3913. Metro Moments

Illustration

Charles Hoffacker

One of the great things about Washington, D.C. is the Metro system, a network of public transportation, much of it underground, that serves the District of Columbia and a growing area round it. One reaches a number of Metro stations by taking escalators deep down beneath the surface of the city. Some of these escalators, I am told, are among the tallest in the world. Once you reach the appropriat...

3914. The Warning and Promise of Advent

Illustration

Susan R. Andrews

William Willimon tells the story of a funeral he attended when he was serving a small congregation in rural Georgia. One of his members' relatives died, so Willimon and his wife attended the funeral held in an off-brand, country Baptist church. He writes: "I had never seen anything like it. The preacher began to preach. He shouted; he flailed his arms. 'It's too late for Joe. He's dead. But it ain...

3915. Daily Living without Daily Life

Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

A Denver woman told her pastor of an experience that she felt was indicative of the times in which we live. She was in a jewelry store looking for a necklace and said to the clerk, "I'd like a gold cross." The man behind the counter looked over the stock in the display case and said, "Do you want a plain one, or one with a little man on it?"

3916. Redeemed, Redeemed, Redeemed!

Illustration

Brett Blair

A.J. Gordon was the great Baptist pastor of the Clarendon Church in Boston, Massachusetts. One day he met a young boy in front of the sanctuary carrying a rusty cage in which several birds fluttered nervously. Gordon inquired, "Son, where did you get those birds?" The boy replied, "I trapped them out in the field." "What are you going to do with them?" "I'm going to play with them, and then I gues...

3917. God? Are You Really There?

Illustration

Brett Blair

God's time clock is certainly out of sync with ours as Little Jimmy learned one day as he was laying on a hill in the middle of a meadow on a warm spring day. Puffy white clouds rolled by and he pondered their shape. Soon, he began to think about God. "God? Are you really there?" Jimmy said out loud. To his astonishment a voice came from the clouds. "Yes, Jimmy? What can I do for you?" Seizing ...

3918. Advent 1

Bulletin Aid

Staff

Theme: Watch in readiness for Christ Call to Worship Pastor: God's future plans for us are unknown: but we do know the future is in his hands. People: We know the future is in God's hands; and that is where we want to be also. Pastor: We do not need to fear. If we are alert to God's will for us; and commit our lives to him, our future will have his blessing. People: We face the future with faith,...

3919. Advent 1

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

OLD TESTAMENT TEXTS The Old Testament lesson and the psalm inaugurate the Advent season with a powerful symbol of salvation: Zion. Isaiah 2:1-5 provides a utopian vision of Zion as an end-time reality, while the pilgrimage hymn in Psalm 122 encourages us to claim this salvation in our present lives through worship. Taken together these Old Testament texts provide a strong commentary on Advent. T...

3920. Christmas Is Out of Control

Sermon

John Jamison

After hearing the scripture reading, the thought going through your head may be, “What the heck does that have to do with Christmas? Isn’t this the first Sunday of Advent? Why are you talking about Noah? And didn’t Jesus say those things during holy week, like on Palm Sunday? Where is the Christmas story?” Let me try to explain. There is a thing called the lectionary; some of you are probably fam...

3921. Stay Awake

Sermon

King Duncan

Have you ever fallen asleep at the wrong time or in the wrong place? That’s so embarrassing, but it’s a common experience. It’s hard to fight off sleep when your body decides to shut down. During the 2019 Super Bowl game, Karisa Maxwell, deputy editor and producer with Sporting News, spotted a man sleeping in the stands and took a photo. She kept an eye on the man and reported that he slept throug...

3922. When the Music Stops

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Ever notice that right before a storm is about to hit the birds go silent? All of a sudden, an eerie blanket of quiet descends all around you, and you know something ominous is going to occur. For us it could mean a storm, a hurricane, or some other natural disaster. For all of our gifts as human beings, we are the last creatures on earth it seems to sense when something momentous is coming to pas...

3923. Why Have You Forsaken Me?

Illustration

Richard A. Wing

I read about a depressed songwriter who battled the successes of the past and a fear of the future. He was bankrupt. He had a cerebral hemorrhage that left him partially paralyzed. He worried that the creative spark that had made him rich was gone. He was depressed. The scriptural texts that were his friends and that his soul could hear were texts such as "Why have you forsaken me?" In the midst ...

3924. Redeem the Time

Sermon

Will Willimon

"For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they did not know until the flood came and swept them away, so will be the coming of the Son of man." A man I know, a professor at a nearby university, has decided not to do any reading, writing, or speaking, until we get a total freeze on nuclear wea...

3925. Last Things First

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

I was given my first library card for the grown-up section of the Azusa (California) Public Library when I was in the fourth grade. It was a special moment. I felt like I’d read everything in the kids half of the library and I chafed to read new books. Holding my card out like a passport, I walked tentatively into the grownup section fearful I would be challenged, but I had my card in hand, just i...

Showing 3901 to 3925 of 4508 results

3901. In the Headlines

Illustration

James Merritt

3902. The Post-it Note

Illustration

3903. Without Warning

Illustration

Leonard Sweet

3904. I Would Plant an Apple Tree

Illustration

Donald B. Strobe

3905. What Is Time?

Illustration

3906. Happiness Is an Inside Job

Illustration

Richard A. Wing

3907. Good News for Those Growing Up

Illustration

Richard A. Wing

3908. Modern Day Perils

Illustration

Theodore J. Wardlaw

3909. Christ May Be Closer Than You Know

Illustration

J. Howard Olds

3910. Humor: Surprise, Surprise

Illustration

J. Howard Olds

3911. Show Us a Sign

Illustration

Billy D. Strayhorn

3912. What Time Is It, Precisely?

Illustration

Staff

3913. Metro Moments

Illustration

Charles Hoffacker

3914. The Warning and Promise of Advent

Illustration

Susan R. Andrews

3915. Daily Living without Daily Life

Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

3916. Redeemed, Redeemed, Redeemed!

Illustration

Brett Blair

3917. God? Are You Really There?

Illustration

Brett Blair

3918. Advent 1

Bulletin Aid

Staff

3919. Advent 1

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

3920. Christmas Is Out of Control

Sermon

John Jamison

3921. Stay Awake

Sermon

King Duncan

3922. When the Music Stops

Sermon

Lori Wagner

3923. Why Have You Forsaken Me?

Illustration

Richard A. Wing

3924. Redeem the Time

Sermon

Will Willimon

3925. Last Things First

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

Showing 3901 to 3925 of 4508 results