Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 4126 to 4150 of 4914 results

4126. Mark 10:35-45

Mark 10:35-45

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Anyone who has gone through that social maze and emotional gauntlet known as “high school” knows that there is always an established “elite” as well as a definite “out” crowd. In every school system there are the “chosen few” and the untold “unchosen.” This week’s gospel text reveals that the desire to be the cream of the crop has been with humanity for far longer than there has been adolescent slam books. In today’s gospel text we read about the “sons of Zebedee” and yet these disciples of Jesus come ...

4127. All in God’s Time

Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

"Why do bad things happen to good people?" is the way we say it today. That surely must have been a question on the hearts and minds of those first-century Christians as they suffered under the brutal persecution of the Roman empire. It is a question that surely was on the hearts and minds to whom John had written this extraordinary piece of literature we call the book of Revelation. Many of them were convinced that they were innocent and righteous sufferers sent to their deaths in the coliseum because ...

4128. The Sinner And The Sinned Against

1 Kings 17:1-24

Sermon

Stephen P. McCutchan

Each of us experiences the world as both sinner and the sinned against. When we act in a way or even refuse to work against a condition that violates our relationship with God, other people, or the natural world, we are sinners. When we experience the painful result of a sinful world, whether it be a disease, poverty, a tragic accident, prejudice, or the violence of war or crime, we are the sinned against. Most often we are both sinners and the sinned against. At different times we are more one than the ...

4129. In the Potter's Hands

Jeremiah 18:1-11

Sermon

Chrysanne Timm

I am not a potter, and I do not play one on television! However, as a student of the scriptures and the life and times of the people in the biblical narrative, I can say with some certainty that crafting pottery is one of the world's oldest professions. Alongside bone and bricks, fragments of earthenware or pottery have long been gathered and studied by archeologists to understand something of the ancient inhabitants of the Middle East and nearly every other ancient culture throughout the world. Few of ...

4130. Your Home Page

Hebrews 13:1-25

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

What used to be true for boats is now equally true for cell phones. The best day of your life? The day you bought your boat. The second best day of your life? The day you sold your boat. That kind of love/hate relationship is even fiercer when it comes to our most beloved, most bemoaned tech toy — the “smart phone.” Every time you “upgrade” from a version “3" to “4” to “5” . . . it seems that only minutes later there is a version “6.” Almost as soon as you can get out your credit card, you are the proud ...

4131. Spirit-Direct

Acts 10:23b-48

Sermon

Timothy J. Smith

“Growing up,” Valerie recalled, “I was involved in many of my church’s activities for children.” Recently she returned to her home church and attended an adult Sunday school class with her parents. The class included members who were active in the church while she was growing up. Many of them greeted her and reminisced about her childhood. A man stood up during the announcements and said, “We’d like to welcome Valerie to our class. Remember,” he added, “we helped train and teach her.” After this experience ...

4132. Who Wants to Be Your Brother?

Luke 16:19-31

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

We are all about family. The truth is, the problem is, we are all about OTHER people’s families. The most popular show on television today? “Duck Dynasty.” After that there are the programs about “The Kardashians,” “Housewives,” of various zip codes, and “Hoarders.” We like to spy-glass at the inner-workings of family relationships that we can keep at arm’s length — or TIVO for a later, more convenient time. Our own family relationships cannot be put on hold. Whether it is a teething infant, a tantrum- ...

4133. Praying In Jesus' Name

John 14:5-14

Sermon

David O. Bales

It’s good to be with you in worship. I appreciate the invitation to preach. I especially appreciate having a worship leader directing me around the chancel, because worship is done differently in different denominations — even within denominations. When you visit a different church, you don’t always know what to expect. My wife and I visited here two years ago. I, ever eager to hear the sermon, chose to sit near the front, not realizing that no one would sit in front of us and you all know how you take ...

4134. Keep Watching, Keep Warning, Keep Chasing

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

When you turn sixteen, what’s the most important thing in the world? Any 16-year-olds here? Anyone want to take on that question? That’s right. Getting your driver’s license. In most states, if you are under the age of eighteen, you now need to take “Driver’s Ed” before you can qualify for a driver’s license. That means students have already had to learn all the “rules of the road,” those traffic signs and signals that foretell and forewarn about what lies ahead on the highway. Reading the signs — those ...

4135. Apron Up (Mother's Day)

John 10:1-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

[This Mother’s Day sermon is based around the metaphor of the “apron.” We encourage you to invite your parishioners to wear an heirloom apron to church on Sunday, or to at least have you, your ushers and worship leaders wearing aprons from family traditions. This sermon also encourages people to tell their own “apron” stories, or to invite someone who has a particularly meaningful apron to come forward and tell the story of their apron on behalf of all the other aprons present. Release your artists to ...

4136. Up Close & Personal: Seeing Clearly

Isaiah 6:1-13

Sermon

James Merritt

I am not much of a game show fan, but my all-time favorite is Jeopardy. If I ever became a teacher or a professor, Jeopardy would be the model that I would use to teach students. It makes learning fun. It is educational, challenging and makes you think. So, we are going to play the game, but we are going to skip all the way to final Jeopardy. The category is “Smarter Than A 5th Grader.” Remember – you have to put your answer in the form of a question. The answer is “By consensus the most brilliant person ...

4137. When “Vocation” and “Vacation” Are One

Matthew 14:13-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

If you want to guarantee you will never win public office or be appointed to public service, just say these words: “America is no longer the greatest nation in the world.” It used to be the US led the world in almost any category you could think of. But in the past 50 years we’ve fallen to 7th in literacy, 27th in math, 22nd in science, 49th in life expectancy, 178th in infant mortality, 3rd in median household income, number four in labor force, number four in exports. I’ll stop there. You’ve got the ...

4138. The Two Faces of Thanksgiving

Ephesians 1:15-23

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Brain science has now discovered what The White Queen in “Alice in Wonderland” always knew: "It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards." The most recent research in cognitive science, which is a fancy name for the science of “how the brain works,” reveals that remembering the past and visualizing the future use the same neural mechanisms. Memory and prophesy are flip sides of the same mental coin. Human memory works forward, and the very skills that enable you to remember your past enable you to ...

4139. Why Matter Matters

2 Peter 3:1-18

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

The 1935 comedy “A Night at the Opera,” starring Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, and Harpo Marx, has been given the honor of being selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. A smash hit at the box office, “A Night at the Opera” was the first film the Marx Brothers made after Zeppo left the act, and the first film they made for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer after leaving Paramount Pictures. There is a moment in the film when Groucho Marx, in the character Driftwood, says, “It’s all ...

4140. A Reminder to God...and to Us

Genesis 9:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

Last April a 9-year-old African-American lad named Willie was kidnapped from his driveway in Atlanta, Georgia. After the man grabbed him, Willie explained later, and threw him in the back of his car, Willie just kept “praising God” with a song he learned in Sunday school. It was a song by Hezekiah Walker titled “Every Praise.” While he was singing, Willie said, his kidnapper yelled expletives at him. “He told me, shut up you [blankety-blank] boy,” said Willie. Willie, however, kept singing until his ...

4141. Who's Your Master?

Philippians 2:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

Bradford Robinson tells about a minister in Texas who used a very creative visual aid to start his message. He brought on to the stage a beautiful Golden Irish Setter that belonged to his youth minister. The youth minister loved this dog so much that when the dog had been sick and had to be in the vet kennel overnight, he stayed all night with him. Needless to say this dog also loved his master. The senior minister brought the dog on to the stage and he rolled a ball across the platform and said, “Fetch, ...

4142. Tarzan He Was Not

John 15:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

The Week magazine often contains quirky news items collected from periodicals around the world. Back in 2005 they carried a story about a Romanian man who was recovering in the hospital after trying to escape from his wife by swinging from tree to tree on a vine like Tarzan. Stefan Trisca a 66-year old man, of all things - -had wanted to join his friends for a night of drinking, but his wife locked him in his bedroom. This did not stop Stefan. He was on a mission. He climbed through the bedroom window and ...

4143. About Getting Drunk

Ephesians 5:15-20

Sermon

King Duncan

A juggler, driving to his next performance, is stopped by a traffic cop. “What are these matches and lighter fluid doing in your car?” asks the officer. Was he a potential arsonist, thought the officer or, even worse, a terrorist? “I’m a juggler,” the driver answered, “and I juggle flaming torches in my act.” “Oh yeah?” says the doubtful cop. “Let’s see you do it.” The juggler gets out and starts juggling the blazing torches masterfully. A couple driving by slow down to watch. “Wow,” says the driver to his ...

4144. The King Born in a Manger

Luke 2:8-20, Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

King Duncan

It’s a true story--no matter how much like a fairy tale it may sound. A totally unsuspecting man literally stumbled upon what was, and still is today the world’s largest diamond--all 3,106 carats of it--about 1-1/3 lbs. It happened at the Premier Mine #2, near Pretoria, South Africa, in 1905. Due to the immense value of this enormous diamond, the authorities in charge of its transportation were posed with a huge security problem. How could they get it to their company headquarters in England? They solved ...

4145. Paul's Hardships

2 Corinthians 6:3-13

Understanding Series

James M. Scott

Having exhorted the Corinthians to recognize his God-given ministry of reconciliation (5:16–6:2), Paul continues the discussion of his ministry in 6:3–13 by declaring that he is completely innocent of any aspersions that have been cast on his ministry. Paul claims that, in word and deed, he commends himself as a genuine apostle who is motivated by sincere love. 6:3 The new section opens quite defensively. Paul knows that his ministry has come under fire because of his alleged inconsistency and double- ...

4146. Aaron to Speak for Moses

Exodus 6:28--7:7

Understanding Series

James K. Bruckner

Exodus 7–12 describes the Lord’s dramatic intervention in the lives of the Israelites. God accomplishes two main objectives through the plagues and the eventual exit from Egypt in the crossing of the sea. We see these in the refrains, “Let my people go so that they might worship me,” and “so you may know that I am the LORD.” These events reveal that God is the Creator of all things and the redeemer of this people. The Lord is not simply the one who redeems Israel, but also the Creator who draws near in a ...

4147. How the Lord has Covered the Daughter of Zion

Lamentations 2:1-22

Understanding Series

Tremper Longman III

The Lord Is Like an Enemy: 2:1 Alef. The opening word (How) invites the reader to contemplate the extent of Judah’s destruction. It also strikes a tone of lament over that same suffering. One can hear a note of disbelief that God would bring such a horrific judgment on his people. Indeed, it is total as expressed by the fact that the cloud of his anger has engulfed all of the Daughter of Zion. The expression Daughter of Zion is an intimate way of referring to Jerusalem by its most sacred space and then ...

4148. Remember, O Lord, What Has Happened to Us

Lamentations 5:1-22

One Volume

Tremper Longman III

A Final Lament and Appeal: Lamentation ends with a prayer asking God to remember the suffering of God’s city, Jerusalem, and his people. The prayer is one of the community as indicated by the consistent use of the first person plural pronoun. After the invocation in verse 1, the prayer continues with a long description of the suffering of a once proud and glorious place (vv. 2–18). It ends with a series of “why” questions (vv. 19–22), similar to the laments of the psalms (see Pss. 10:1, 13; 22: 1; 42:5, ...

4149. Prayer and Praise

Micah 7:14-20

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

Israel’s New View of the Nations (7:14-17): There is some question about how this passage is to be interpreted. Hillers, Mays, and Wolff all take the verses to make up a communal prayer of lament to Yahweh, like the communal laments found in Psalms 44, 74, 79, 80, and 83. As a result, “you” in line 15a is taken to refer to Yahweh, and the following lines are read as jussives: “let us see . . . ,” 15b; “May the nations see . . . ,” 16a; “Let them lay . . . ,” 16c; “Let them lick . . . ,” 17a; “Let them come ...

4150. Obedience Commanded

Deuteronomy 4:1-14

Understanding Series

Christopher J. H. Wright

Obedience and Loyalty to Israel’s Unique God: The historical recollections now give place to urgent exhortation. 4:1–8: This chapter is the natural conclusion to the lessons of this first speech of Moses and comes to a powerful climax in 4:32–40. At 4:44 and 5:1 we are introduced to the second major discourse, which includes the rest of the law itself. With this chapter we also move into the “inner frame” of the book’s structure, comprising chapters 4–11 and 27–30, with their many common themes. Chapters 4 ...

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