Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 4076 to 4100 of 4972 results

4076. Maximizing Your Potential

Isaiah 5:1-7

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... . "I love your overall beauty," said the butterfly. "I love your pollen," said the bee. "And I your nectar," said an ant. "I love the shade that you provide," said the grasshopper. The two flowers basked in their glory and all the accolades they received. "Never stop," they said to the world. One day the yellow flower began to do some work. "What are you doing?" asked the blue flower. "I am making pollen," she answered. "You shouldn't be doing that. It will make you old before your time." The yellow flower ...

4077. The Restaurant in Downtown Jericho

Matt 3:1-17

Illustration

John Jamison

The way it happened in my mind is that he walked into this little restaurant in downtown Jericho, took a deep breath and hollered, "Repent!" Folks stopped eating mid-bite. It got so quiet you could hear the motor running in that tall machine over in the corner that kept slices of pie turning around behind the glass all day. Every eye in the place was on him, and that was what he was waiting for. He ...

4078. Divine Dinner Party Decorum

Luke 14:1-14

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

... to know "Is he one of us? Is he going to harm or help our efforts to keep our identity pure?" The Pharisees are the ones in charge of this sort of thing. If Jesus did anything to degrade the purity of their religious practice, they had a duty to stop him. They were the religious elite and they took their job very seriously. "On one occasion when Jesus was going to the house of a leader of the Pharisees to eat a meal on the sabbath, they were watching him closely" (v. 1). Do not think of this dinner party ...

4079. Seeking the Lost

Luke 15:1-7

Sermon

Richard J. Fairchild

... smiling at everyone. He wasn't gurgling, spitting, humming, kicking, tearing the hymnals, or rummaging through his mother's handbag. He was just smiling. Finally, his mother jerked him about and in a stage whisper that could be heard in a little theatre off Broadway said, "Stop grinning! You're in a church!" With that, she gave him a belt on his hind-side and as the tears rolled down his cheeks added, "that's better," and returned to her prayers." Indeed, there are the lost - and there are the found and ...

4080. Family Tree

Genesis 3:1-7

Sermon

Bill Mosley

... forgot you because I was thinking of myself and one can't think of several persons at once. One must choose, and I chose. And God says: Come, child, look up. Do you think there's a limit to God's love? Do you think that for a moment I stopped loving you? But you still rely on yourself, my child. You must rely only on me. Ask my pardon and get up quickly. You see, it's not falling that is the worst, but staying on the ground.

4081. Honest Abe

Genesis 12:1-4a

Sermon

Bill Mosley

... breath: When the lifeguard comes to save him he still fights, and as long as he does, he can't be saved. He's still trying to do it himself when help is right there. But the help is no good until he relaxes his own efforts -- until he stops trying to save himself. Secondly, if you are honest you admit that everything you have comes from God -- was his first, would not be here but for God's creation. This very admission creates an attitude of peace and trust. A hillbilly couple were living in the mountains ...

4082. The Seeing Eye

1 Samuel 16:1-13

Sermon

Bill Mosley

An airplane flying from San Francisco to Los Angeles had a 45-minute delay and everybody on board was ticked. Unexpectedly, they stopped in Sacramento on the way. The flight attendant explained there would be another delay, and if the passengers wanted to get off the aircraft to stretch, they would reboard in thirty minutes. Everybody got off the plane except one gentleman who was blind. He had flown before, and his Seeing ...

4083. Bear Love

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

Bill Mosley

... list which sounded familiar when I first heard it. It's called Things My MOTHER Taught Me My Mother taught me LOGIC ... "If you fall off that swing and break your neck, you can't go to the store with me." My Mother taught me MEDICINE ... "If you don't stop crossing your eyes, they're going to freeze that way." My Mother taught me TO THINK AHEAD ... "If you don't pass your spelling test, you'll never get a good job!" My Mother taught me ESP ... "Put your sweater on; don't you think that I know when you ...

4084. Commencement Address

Acts 1:6-14

Sermon

Bill Mosley

... a heightened awareness that there are those who have had bad experiences with mothers, and those who may have wished to be mothers but for one reason or another never became mothers, and that there are those mothers who have lost children. That doesn't mean that we stop pointing to it. These days it's popular to trash and bash the good things that can be, to dirty up what should be shiny and clean, to make heroes look to be villains. Instead we should lift up the good, whatever is good in anyone or anything ...

4085. The Subject Is Salvation

Genesis 6:9-22; 7:24; 8:14-19

Sermon

James L. Killen

... you see that this is a part of the saving work of God? Can you see that it is a gift of grace? If you can, there are two things we ought to do about that. First, we ought to realize that we exist because of a miracle and never stop standing in awe of it and rejoicing in it and enjoying it and giving thanks for it to that great someone beyond ourselves who is saving us into being. Just that remembrance can change the quality of our lives. The second thing we should do is to remember that the ...

4086. The Way to Happy Endings

Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67

Sermon

James L. Killen

... star among the young men of Israel. Then he had a life-shaping encounter with the risen Christ whose followers he was persecuting. After that experience, Paul moved into a life that was shaped by a dynamic interaction with the living God that just never did stop developing. Things didn't always work out happily for Paul. Apparently he had some kind of a physical affliction and he prayed repeatedly to have it taken away. But the answer he finally got from God was, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power ...

4087. Surprised by God

Genesis 28:10-19a

Sermon

James L. Killen

... . Suddenly, he found himself enveloped in beauty. The sunrise painted the sky and the lake with brilliance and gave an iridescent glow to the forest trees. Water birds were flying in formation just above him and everything was so beautiful that he felt compelled to stop and turn around and drive back so he could cross the bridge again. He realized that God had surprised him with an experience of glory that put everything into a new perspective for him. A certain young man, who was several years into his ...

4088. Forgiveness and Reconciliation at Last!

Genesis 45:1-15

Sermon

Arley K. Fadness

... which guilt is considered bad. It's as though guilt is the enemy of a happy and carefree life. It is important to dismiss and dispense with guilt as quickly as possible. It is popular to hear comments like, "Don't lay a guilt trip on me," "Stop trying to make me feel guilty," or "Guilt is a poor motivation for change." It's time for a good word about good guilt -- yes, plain old-fashioned guilt -- not chronic guilt or pathological guilt, but good guilt. Good guilt is not shame. The difference between good ...

4089. Grace for a Complaining People

Exodus 16:2-15

Sermon

Arley K. Fadness

... very title promises to deal with the question of meaning in life, it must burn under their fingernails."5 Like children in the back seat on a family trip, we ask, "Are we there yet? I'm hungry, I'm thirsty. When are we going to stop? I'm tired." When complaints against Moses are really complaints against God, how does God respond to crabby, murmuring Israel? Will God respond with punishment or grace, with discipline or mercy? One other time when the Israelites traveled from Mount Hor, out by the way to ...

4090. The Golden Calf

Exodus 32:1-14

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

... sex and infatuation with drugs? Will some clever scum steal our identity from our trash? We could go on and on with our list of anxieties, but that would just make us more anxious! With all of the threats hovering around us, God can seem far away. We don't stop believing in God. We don't change religions. We just want something we can hold on to. We want some security, something to go before us into the unknown. That's when we open the door to idolatry. Idolatry isn't bowing down to a statue; it's not being ...

4091. Strong Medicine

Judges 4:1-7

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

... is not one of the profound parts of the Bible. So, we are not clamoring for more than our recommended sip from the book of Judges. If a sip is all we need, what spiritual illness does it treat? The one passage we are supposed to read is short, and stops before the narrative gets going. Don't tell the lectionary committee, but we are going to drink a little more than they want us to. I don't think it will hurt us. We are going to take in the whole story, murder and all. The background of the story ...

4092. Financial Freedom

Luke 16:1-15

Sermon

King Duncan

... it aloud. They heard it at Christmas, when the expensive and splendid toys filled the nursery. Behind the shining modern rocking-horse, behind the smart doll’s house, a voice would start whispering: ‘There must be more money! There must be more money!’ And the children would stop playing, to listen for a moment. They would look into each other’s eyes, to see if they had all heard. And each one saw in the eyes of the other two that they too had heard. ‘There must be more money! There must be more ...

4093. All The Families of the Earth Shall Be Blessed

Genesis 12:1-4a

Bulletin Aid

Frank Ramirez

Call To Worship It was the end of the line for the family. Terah had gone halfway to Canaan and stopped. One of his sons was dead. One had moved far away. And one, with his wife, was too old to have children. By the standards of the world it was a dead end. But when it seems that all the doors have been closed and nailed shut, God creates a ...

4094. A Hope for Peace

Romans 15:4-13

Sermon

James L. Killen

We will soon be singing Christmas songs full of joy and goodwill and love and peace. Someone asked some little children what love is and one said, "Love is what you hear in the house at Christmas time if you stop opening presents and listen for a while" (from PreachingToday.com, May 15, 2002). That is important to us, isn't it? That is really the way we want it to be. But that is not always the way it is. There are estrangement and againstness and hostility in our world ...

4095. The Incarnation: What and Why?

Hebrews 2:10-18

Sermon

James L. Killen

... and showing them what to do. Finally, the day came for the team to work on the obstacle course. The coach told the team members to watch as he ran the course to show them how it should be done. The coach had one of the team members hold the stop watch and keep his time. He ran the course perfectly and, to everyone's surprise, his time broke the league record. The coach said, "If I can do that, you can do it, too. I am a guy just like you." The team members were impressed - but they didn't ...

4096. Thank God for the Church

1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Sermon

James L. Killen

... complimentary. But the context has been set in a positive way. You are the church. God is at work among you. Paul knows that and appreciates it. Paul loves you and God loves you. Now you can deal with the issues that need to be dealt with. Now stop imagining that you are in ancient Corinth. Remember all of the things we have said about that church, because we will be studying lessons from 1 Corinthians for several weeks and all that we have said will be useful background. But now you can see yourself as a ...

4097. Still Under Construction

1 Corinthians 3:1-9

Sermon

James L. Killen

... ." But he knew that he would not have to do it alone. God was working in his life and God would help him to get over his bad experience and to move on to wholeness. Then the pastor thought for another minute and added that he had long since stopped thinking of himself as climbing some kind of a spiritual ladder. That was no longer important to him. But, even in his old age, he was still looking forward to the future expectantly, believing that God still had more to show him, believing that God would keep on ...

4098. Remembering Jesus

2 Peter 1:16-21

Sermon

James L. Killen

... confuse and threaten, we will do well to reclaim the memory that all Christians share, the memory that the writer of 2 Peter shared with the bewildered believers in his day, the memory of Jesus. No, this is not an invitation to be irresponsible and to stop thinking about the things that challenge us in life. It is not a promise that "remembering Jesus" will work like a magic word and make all of your problems go away. This is rather an invitation to remember that, at one time in history, God did something ...

4099. Abraham Believed God

Romans 4:1-5, 13-17

Sermon

Richard W. Ferris

... believed God. Even when God told Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, upon an altar in the mountains, Abraham believed that it was the right thing to do. And he believed he had to do it because God told him to do it. Only when an angel of God stopped him and gave him a way out did Abraham change his course of action. That, too, was because Abraham believed God. And what did Abraham's belief get him? Initially, it brought ridicule. Even his wife Sarah laughed at him. The very thought of a ninety-year-old ...

4100. Still Sinners, Still Forgiven

Romans 5:1-8

Sermon

William G. Carter

... once, and then twice, and three or four more times. A week later, I would still be apologizing. In fact, a few different times during that stretch of time, I was considering committing a few robberies and a murder or two, maybe even jaywalking, and I couldn't stop apologizing for it. What was all of that about? I went out for breakfast with some friends. One of my friends got a runny omelet, and I said, "I'm sorry that we came here for breakfast." He said, "Why do you keep saying that?" "Saying what?" "You ...

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