Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 376 to 400 of 4508 results

Drama

Arley K. Fadness

Theme: Reflection, remorse, repentance, renewal Characters: Norb (older man) Earl (older man) Tone: Humorous, serious, sad, hopeful Setting/Props: Bench in a city park near the retirement home Approximate time: 5-7 minutes (Musical introduction) Norb: Well, for goodness sake, if it isn’t me ole friend, Earl. When did they let you out? Earl: Hiya, Norb. They always let us out — right after c...

377. A Pilgrimage To Bethlehem

Drama

Matthew Powell

Cast Storyteller 1 Storyteller 2 Gregory Ivan Peasant Man Peasant Woman Gregory's Wife (The Storytellers remain seated or standing throughout the performance, as the director chooses. The other actors sit until they make their "entrances," then they stand) Storyteller 1: Once in Russia there lived two men who had decided to go on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. One of them was a well-to-do farmer...

378. Jesus Our Lord Is Coming

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

Object: tambourine Good morning, boys and girls. Today is the fourth Sunday in Advent and the fourth time for us to use one of the ancient, but still-used instruments. Who can remember the names of the instruments that we talked about the last three Sundays? (Let the children try to name them with some hints if necessary.) Just think, Jesus might have played one of these instruments when He was a...

379. Polished Up For Christmas

Children's Sermon

King Duncan

Object: four children's outfits -- a casual play outfit, one fancy girl's dress, one fancy boy's jacket, and a pair of children's pajamas (the rattier the better). Might want to put the clothes in a box to keep them out of view until the appropriate time. Good morning, boys and girls. What if I told you that someone very important was coming for Sunday lunch today? I'm talking somebody superimpor...

380. Grow Like a Fruit Tree

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

Object: An axe. Good morning, boys and girls. I have with me this morning a tool that not many of you have used. It is a dangerous tool and you must be very careful when you use it. I am sure that you have seen your father or someone else use it when he had a certain kind of job to do that needed chopping. We call it an axe. How many of you know what you might chop with an axe? (Let them answer.)...

381. Good News

Children's Sermon

Mark A. Hultquist

Object: A telephone, a walkie talkie, a letter, and a postcard. Lesson: This is he (John the Baptist) who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: "A voice of one calling in the desert, 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight paths for him.' " I want you to think of the most exciting thing that happened to you this week! Maybe you received an A on a hard test. Or perhaps you won a game at s...

382. As the Water Falls

Children's Sermon

Object: a picture of a waterfall Good morning, boys and girls. Today is a special day in the church year called The Baptism of Our Lord. Who is our Lord? (Let them respond.) Our Lord is Jesus. Today is the day we remember when Jesus was baptized. I brought a picture of some water. (Hold up the picture.) Would you like to be baptized in this water? (Let them respond.) What do you think would happe...

383. Road Rage

Sermon

Susan R. Andrews

When our children were small, a nice church lady named Chris made them a child-friendly creche. All the actors in this stable drama are soft and squishy and durable - perfect to touch and rearrange - or toss across the living room in a fit of toddler frenzy. The Joseph character has always been my favorite because he looks a little wild - red yarn spiking out from his head, giving him an odd look ...

384. Come On Baby, Light My Fire

Sermon

James Merritt

I am beginning a series of messages on the Holy Spirit that I have titled "Earth, Wind and Fire." There are many metaphors that are used in the Bible to describe the Holy Spirit. In Matt. 3:16 He is compared to a dove that flies. In John 7:38 He is compared to water that flows. In John 3:8 He is compared to wind that blows. But here in Matt. 3:11 He is compared to a fire that burns. That is why I...

385. The Messiah

Sermon

Mark Trotter

Tonight the Chancel Choir, the Masterwork Chorale, and orchestra, will present the Christmas portion of Handel's Messiah. The Messiah remains one of the venerable traditions of Christmas. I imagine many of you have sung it in church choirs, or community choruses, or Messiah sing-alongs. Let me ask, how many of you have sung in the Messiah? Almost everybody. That's wonderful. It is a great traditio...

386. On the Threshold: From Law to Gospel

Sermon

David Busic

Plato tells the story of a shepherd named Gyges, who was in the service of the king. One day there was a great storm and an earthquake where he was pasturing his flock. A great chasm opened in the earth and Gyges descended into the chasm. There he saw many astonishing things, including what looked like a human corpse. Although there were many amazing treasures in the chasm, he took nothing except ...

387. Should America Repent?

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

Responding to a sermon I preached two weeks ago about religious signs on rural roads, someone said to me on the way out of church, “The sign I remember seeing was, GET READY TO MEET GOD." We had those signs in Kentucky, too. As we think about building a highway from Chaos to Christ this Advent, we would do well to hear again the words of the prophet John, who encouraged us and warned us to GET REA...

388. The Promise of Hope

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

A little boy and his Dad were in church, and the boy asked, "Dad, what does it mean when the people pass those plates?" Dad said, "It means the people are giving gifts to God." Then the boy asked, "What does it mean when they have those trays stacked up there and bread and wine and people go up and kneel?" Dad answered, "It means they are guests at the Lord's table and they're taking communion." ...

389. Less Fear; More Fruit

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

“Be afraid. Be very afraid.” The year is 1986 and the movie is the remake of the classic horror film, “The Fly.” Jeff Goldbum plays the eccentric scientist, Seth Brundle, who is working on a machine that will teleport people and things by disassembling their molecules at one point and reassembling them at another. Geena Davis plays Veronica Quaife, a reporter who is writing Brundle’s story. Unf...

390. Repent

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

There are nineteen more shopping days until Christmas. The big Christmas parade is past. The decorations are up. The parties are on. It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas. In the midst of jingle bells and Santa Claus, we find our way to church hoping to hear a few strains of “Silent Night.” Instead, we are shocked to our senses by a pit bull-type preacher shouting REPENT FOR THE KINGDOM OF ...

391. Hard Words to Hear at Christmas

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

We've gathered here today on the second Sunday of Advent to continue to prepare ourselves for the coming of our Lord. This task of preparing for the arrival of the Lord is not as easy as we might think it is. As in other areas of life, we find ourselves having to unlearn some things in order to see what the scriptures teach us about God's act in Jesus. We've let the culture around us snatch away m...

392. Dare to Be Different, Not Just Better

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

[This sermon needs popcorn and popcorn smells. You may want to distribute little bags of popcorn with the bulletins. Or during the sermon you may want to have someone making popcorn so that the smell can percolate through the sanctuary. But in some way, your parishioners need to have a popcorn experience to go along with the sermon. Maybe even give each person an uncooked popcorn kernel so that th...

393. Preparing The Way

Sermon

King Duncan

One cold December Saturday, Professor Thomas Long's teenage children asked to go Christmas shopping in New York City. "The best bargains," they said, "are in New York City." Dr. Long agreed to take them and their friends, six teenagers in all, on a shopping trip to that great metropolitan center. "There they were," Dr. Long reflected, "six kids marching through the sleaze of Forty-second Street, w...

394. Repent Your Way To A Merry Christmas

Sermon

Brett Blair

A number of years ago a couple traveled to the offices of an Adoption Society in England to receive a baby. They had been on the waiting list a long time. They had been interviewed and carefully scrutinized. Now at last their dreams were to be fulfilled. But their day of happiness was another's pain. Arriving at the offices of the Society they were led up a flight of stairs to a waiting room. Aft...

395. The Baptist's Prophecy

Sermon

Mark Radecke

In her Pulitzer Prize winning book, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, author Annie Dillard recalls this chilling remembrance: "I see tonight the picture of a friendly member of the forest service in Wisconsin, who is freeing a duck frozen onto the ice, by chopping out its feet with a hand axe. It calls to mind the spare, cruel story Thomas McGonigle told me about herring gulls frozen on ice off Long Islan...

396. Speak For Yourself!

Sermon

William B. Kincaid, III

What do Richard Nixon and Shirley Temple have in common? While they may have shared many common interests and traits, isn't it true that neither one ever outlived their pasts? When Richard Nixon was buried behind the house that his father built, he went to his grave as the president that was forced to resign in the face of humiliation and scandal. Even amid his remarkable rehabilitation which incl...

397. Polished Up For Christmas

Sermon

King Duncan

It's not easy to get ready for Christmas. For one thing there is so much to do. For many of us this is the busiest time of the year. It is also the most nerve-wracking, particularly if you are a person who does not enjoy shopping. I read a statistic with which many men in our congregation will relate. The Mall of America published a poll recently that states that 31 percent of men believe they h...

398. The Sign of the Dove

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. (Ezekiel 1) And I saw the glory of the God of Israel coming from the east. His voice was like the roar of rushing waters, and the land was radiant with his glory. (Ezekiel 43) Prop: a live dove (if you are daring) or a garment; *liturgical...

399. The God of Hope

Sermon

King Duncan

There are two basic attitudes toward life--one of hope and one of dread--one of trust, the other of fear--one of optimism, the other of gloom. A misprint of a weather forecast read like this: “There is a five percent chance of . . . today and tomorrow.” I would hope that the odds are better than that! In a “Frank and Ernest” cartoon, you see Frank rousing slowly from his sleep, then looking out...

400. A Certain Small Shepherd

Children's Sermon

King Duncan

Object: A book of carols Good morning, boys and girls. Once upon a time there was a young country boy named Jamie who could not talk. In spite of his disability, however, his father refused to allow him to be different. As a young boy he helped with the farm chores. When Jamie was old enough to go to school his father sent him to listen and write with the others. Jamie often was frustrated by hi...

Showing 376 to 400 of 4508 results