Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 4101 to 4125 of 4914 results

4101. Small Towns

Luke 2:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

Today on this final Sunday of Advent we would like to celebrate small towns. How many of you grew up in a small town? Small towns are just a little bit different. As someone has written, “You know you live in a small town when . . .” A baby born on June 14 receives gifts from local merchants as the first baby of the year. You speak to each dog you pass by name and he wags his tail at you. You can’t walk for exercise because every car that passes you offers you a ride. You can name everyone you graduated ...

4102. I Am the Ressurection and the Life

John 11:17-37

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Edna Lashon tells the story of visiting with a friend of hers whose husband had died. They went out the graveyard where the husband had been buried and they began to share together memories of their life and their relationship it was a meaningful time as they probed in memory and got in touch with all the joyful times of their life. But then there was silence. No one seemed to have anything else to say. All of a sudden, Liz the little daughter of Edna Lashon’s friend, sprang from the group and suddenly ...

4103. The Dachshund Dilemma

Luke 4:14-30

Sermon

King Duncan

Like most pastors I’m always looking for ways to improve our church. Recently I ran across a list by Pastor Grant MacDonald of what he calls the “Top Ten Ways to Promote Growth in Your Church.” These suggestions are offered with tongue firmly planted in cheek, but I thought you might enjoy some of them. These are ways we might grow our church: Offer free frequent flyer miles with every visit! Use “Big Gulp” communion cups! Issue “Get Out of Hell Free” cards! Or how about this one? reclining pews! Every ...

4104. The Broken English of Pentecost

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Everyone and everything, it seems, is “going green.” There are fuel efficient hybrid cars, energy chiseling appliances, low-voltage corkscrew light bulbs, sod roofs now called “sky gardens,” and solar panels. Recycling is the new mainline religion, especially after the horrific BP disaster in the Gulf. Throwing away a plastic bottle is a major heresy. The new mission statement of the corporate world seems to be or will soon be “Green is green.” One of the latest “green” products is also one of the loudest ...

4105. Magnificent Fools

1 Corinthians 3:1-23

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

During World War II a cartoon appeared in daily newspapers across the country which attracted much attention. It pictured a young soldier driving a jeep madly across the battlefield. Bullets whizzed past his head; shells burst in the air; bombs fell on every side. It seemed that he was going to become the object of one of them and meet death itself. Still he drove on madly, zig-zagging, trying to dodge death itself. To take one look at the picture you would think the young man was foolish for risking his ...

4106. Ministering Angels

Exodus 23:20-33

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Frederick Buechner is one of my favorite writers. I don’t know of any contemporary writer who says anything clearer or more creative than Buechner, He has one book entitled “Wishful Thinking” which he subtitles “Theological ABC”. In this book he defines words, words that are common in our Christian vocabulary. He’s the one I quoted a couple of weeks ago defining glory as “what God looks like when for the time being all that you have to look at him with is a pair of eyes.” He defines a glutton as “one who ...

4107. He Presented Himself Alive

Matthew 28:1-10

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Robert Lewis Stephenson, on one of his voyages to the South Seas, told about a terrific storm that frightened all the passengers. One man finally went out on deck and watched the captain pace the bridge, calm and undisturbed. He came back to the cabin where the passengers were huddled together and said to them: “I have seen the captain’s face, and all is well.” It was that kind of word that Mary Magdalene and the other Mary carried back to the disciples on that first Easter morning. How remarkable that, in ...

4108. Miracles in Contrast

John 1:1-18

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Text: “In him appeared life and this life was the light of mankind. The light still shines in the darkness, and the darkness has never put it out” (John 1:5-6 Phillips). A Burden and an Ache. That’s the title of a beautiful, heart stirring book written by Clarence McConkey. It’s a series of word portraits of persons in the inner city, living around the church McConkey served as pastor – persons whose lives are as down-beaten and ravaged as the buildings around them, as torn apart as the shattered economic ...

4109. Should America Repent?

Matthew 3:1-12

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 READY TO MEET GOD. In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea and saying, “Repent, for ...

4110. What Would Jesus Say About the Media?

Mark 9:1-9

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

I was 11 years old when Santa Claus brought our family its first television. I was ecstatic! This black and white, three-station miracle with a tall antenna towering above our roof put me in touch with the outside world. It’s hard to believe that after all these years. After all, where I come from, a mega-bite was something a snake might inflict on you, a mouse was a critter to be found in a corn crib, a net was something to fish with, and only spiders spun webs at night. My how times have changed. In my ...

4111. Pray

Matthew 6:5-13

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

Did you hear about the five-year-old boy who announced to his parents that he never wanted to pray again? When his mother probed the kid's unbelief, she got this simple explanation. “I prayed and prayed, and prayed for a new puppy dog, and all I got was a new baby brother." Well, prayer does have its problems. We ask for guidance and all we hear is silence. We get what we want and wind up not wanting what we get. Unlike Garth Brooks, we don't always find it easy to thank God for unanswered prayers. Prayer ...

4112. Hot Air or the Holy Spirit?

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

There was a big spring festival in Jerusalem that day. It may have been similar to Dogwood Days in Atlanta, the Strawberry Festival in Dayton, or Mule Day in Columbia, Tennessee. This agricultural festival was called the “Feast of Weeks" and it took place every spring on Pentecost, 50 days after the Jewish Passover. Jews scattered throughout the world returned to Jerusalem for the celebration designed to emphasize the goodness of God. As people do at community festivals, everyone was having a good time — ...

4113. Those Who Most Need a Blessing

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

Can a child pass up a tasty marshmallow? A researcher who wanted to know set up an experiment. He left a succession of four-year-olds alone in a room, seated at a table. On the table was a single marshmallow. The researcher told the children that they could eat the marshmallow when he left the room, or they could wait until he returned. If they waited, they would receive a second marshmallow. The children had a choice: one marshmallow now or two marshmallows if they were patient. The researcher then left ...

4114. Is It Time Yet?

Isaiah 2:1-5

Sermon

Tony Everett

A popular skit at church camps involves about a dozen folks lined up side-by-side, looking anxious and frustrated facing the audience. Each person rests a left elbow on the right shoulder of their neighbor. Then, from left to right, each member asks, "Is it time yet?" When the question arrives at the end of the line, the last person looks at his/her wristwatch and responds, "No." This reply is passed, one-by-one each with bored sighs, back to the first questioner. After a few moments, the same question is ...

4115. What Did The Turkey Say? (Or Contentious Communities)

Isaiah 58:3-9a (9b-12)

Sermon

Tony Everett

Here is a story that has been told for many years. Some of you may have heard it. Jenny had been living alone since her husband died several years earlier. One particular evening, Pastor Alice had scheduled a visit to Jenny's home. Jenny still had a parrot that was her husband's pride and joy. Knowing that the parrot was prone to repeat the profanity it heard form her husband's retired Navy buddies, Jenny cautioned the parrot to be silent during the pastor's visit. "I promise you, that if you start cursing ...

4116. The Dawn of Forever

John 20:1-18

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

There's an old story about a Sunday School teacher who had just finished telling her third graders about how Jesus was crucified and placed in a tomb. And how they sealed the tomb with a huge stone. When she finished with that portion of the story, she wanted to share the excitement of the resurrection, and the surprise of Easter morning. So, she asked: "And what do you think Jesus' first words were when He came bursting out of that tomb alive?" A hand shot up in the back of the classroom. The arm of a ...

4117. The Triumph and the Tragedy

Matthew 21:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

On Palm Sunday April 9, 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant, General of the Union Army, at the village of Appomattox Court House, Virginia. This surrender ended the bloodiest war ever fought on American soil. State against state, brother against brother; it was a conflict that literally tore our nation apart. Five days later Good Friday, April 14, 1865 America’s most revered president, Abraham Lincoln, was shot and mortally wounded by John Wilkes Booth in Ford’s Theatre ...

4118. Act Quickly - Catch It Early

Matthew 5:21-26

Sermon

King Duncan

Some of you may be familiar with the Darwin Awards. People are nominated for the Darwin Awards when they do something really stupid that costs them their lives. The reason that they are called the Darwin Awards is that by offing themselves in such an absurd way, it is suggested that these misguided folks have inadvertently improved the gene pool for rest of humanity. It’s a cynical view of life, but it has led to a collection of stories that are both true and bizarre. For example, there is the story of a ...

4119. Do Not Forget Your Servant

1 Samuel 1:4-20

Sermon

Robert A. Hausman

How to have law and order without tyranny? That is the question. Israel began as a rather loosely connected tribal confederacy. The Israelite tribes were led by charismatic leaders, or judges, under the divine direction of Yahweh. They were supposed to be knit together in one harmonious unit. They would avoid the tyranny, which was the result of being governed by a king. Instead, they would have Yahweh alone as their king. It sounded good, and certainly the book of the Judges reflects moments of such ...

4120. Blasphemy Against the Spirit

Illustration

Staff

This statement (Matt 12:32, par Mk. 3:29, Luke 12:10) has been the subject of much questioning. Obviously the reference here is not to the naming of the Holy Spirit in a blasphemous utterance, for in Matt. 12:32 even blasphemy against the Son of man can be forgiven. Among the many attempts at exegesis, the most convincing is the suggestion that the man who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit is he who has recognized that God is working through the Holy Spirit in the actions of Jesus, and who quite ...

4121. Bear the Light

John 1:19-28

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

The five year old nephew of the bride was chosen to be in charge of carrying the rings down the aisle. At the wedding rehearsal he was unusually unruly. He kept leaping out at people, baring his teeth at and then chasing the flower girls. He growled and snarled as he practiced going down the aisle. He brandished the pillow like a pistol. Finally his mother pulled him aside and demanded to know why he was behaving so badly. “But Mom,” he explained, “I have to act fierce — I’m the ‘Ring Bear.’” Like so many ...

4122. Mark 6:14-29

Mark 6:14-29

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

This week’s gospel text is unusual in part because it is a lengthy section in which Jesus is neither speaking nor acting. While the focus of this text is on the dramatic story of John the Baptist’s death, Mark manages to remind his readers of Jesus’ own experience. While the awful end that awaits John is one of the most compelling stories in scripture, it also points readers toward the greatest story ever told the story of God’s ultimate saving work through Jesus Christ. What we do hear about in this unit ...

4123. Ephesians 4:25-5:2

Ephesians 4:17--5:21

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

All across the US there are signs popping up in windows and outside homes: “99%.” It’s one of the oddest slogans to “catch on,” this proud proclamation that one is among the “99%.” What was meant as an isolation of the uber-wealthy, the “1%,” essentially has everyone else claiming “we’re all alike.” For a culture that has spent the last twenty years ultra-personalizing and customizing every facet of life (ring tones, web-sites, school curriculums, insurance plans), the boast to be “just like everyone else ...

4124. Liturgy of the Palms

Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29, Luke 19:28-44

Bulletin Aid

Julia Ross Strope

Call To Worship Leader: Six weeks of Lent are almost finished. Our smudges of Ash Wednesday — signs of discipleship on our heads and hands — are invisible. Today we mix the excitement of the parade of palms with the dread of passion. (The candles can be lighted.) People: We are glad to be here to consider the stories of Jesus and how they impact our living. Leader: Our days are longer and we have “anticipatory anxiety” as we watch spring burst out. For the past weeks, we have read the biblical accounts of ...

4125. Liturgy of the Passion

Luke 22:14-23:56

Bulletin Aid

Julia Ross Strope

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