Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 4126 to 4150 of 4943 results

4126. Day People

1 Thessalonians 4:13--5:11

Sermon

King Duncan

Have you ever noticed that some people are morning people and some people are not? Veteran journalist Bob Schieffer replaced Dan Rather as anchor of the CBS evening news. In a recent book, Schieffer recalls an embarrassing moment from his early years as a television news reporter. He had worked through the night covering a brutal hurricane that was battering the Texas coastline. He got back to the news desk in time to make his broadcast for the six a.m. news. But exhaustion soon set in, and Schieffer fell ...

4127. Good Friday

1 Corinthians 1:18--2:5

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

A clerk in a gift shop in California was responding to an inquiry from a customer about purchasing a gold cross. The clerk said, “Yes, madam, we do have gold crosses. Do you want a plain one or one with a little man on it?” To an outsider, the cross must seem like a very strange thing to have at the center of our worship. It was a particularly gruesome instrument of torture and death. It is sort of like having an electric chair or a hangman’s noose at the center of our attention. Outsiders may wonder at ...

4128. The Fifth Commandment: The Value of Family

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Eric Ritz

So far in our series on the Ten Commandments we have completed the first four commandments--those dealing primarily with our relationship to God. This is the vertical dimension. Today we begin the section which deals with our relationships to family and the enlarged family which include our neighbors and the world. This is the horizontal dimension. These next commandments reveal God''s plan for our relationships with other people. The first four commandments deeply impact and influence this dimension as ...

4129. Grace in the Midst of Judgment

2 Corinthians 5:11--6:2, 2 Corinthians 5:1-10

Sermon

Glenn McDonald

In his book Making Life Work, Chicago area pastor Bill Hybels cites a study that was published under an intriguing title: 178 Seconds to Live. The study concerned twenty pilots, all seasoned veterans in the cockpits of their small planes, but none of whom had ever taken instrument training. One by one they were placed in a flight simulator and told to do whatever they could to keep their planes level and under control. The simulator generated the conditions of a storm, including impenetrable, dark clouds. ...

4130. The Day Is Not For Sleeping

1 Thessalonians 4:13--5:11

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

There is nothing wrong with growing old and dying. The problem is too many people die and then grow old. When the death of Calvin Coolidge was made public, someone quipped, "But how can they tell?" George Bernard Shaw once said that the epitaph for many people should read, "Died at 30; buried at 60." Steve Franscioli sent me the following poem sometime ago, and I've been dying to use it in a sermon. Now is my chance. It's titled "A Little Mixed Up". It goes like this. Just a line to say I'm living That I'm ...

4131. What Is Your Life?

James 4:13-17

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

When the historian H. G. Wells died in 1946, many of the newspapers reporting the event quoted the last words he ever spoke. Friends and nurses were fluttering about his bedside trying to be helpful, adjusting pillows, pulling up the covers, administering sedatives, and so on. Wells turned to them and said, "Don't bother me. Can't you see I'm busy dying." It was the last flicker of humor from a gallant spirit. I've been thinking about that lately...about the way people die. It says a lot about how they ...

4132. As Real As It Gets

Luke 9:57-62

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

An unforgettable comment was made at the New York City Marathon, and was recorded by a newspaper reporter. When the wheelchair participants came into view and people began to applaud, a man alongside the reporter remarked, "Wait until the real runners come along!" Another person nearby said, "This is as real as it gets!" (Donald J. Shelby, "Unless the Race Is Worth Running,") That is where it is today with our scripture lesson. Jesus' call is "as real as it gets": "No one who puts his hand to the plow and ...

4133. Growing In Self-esteem

Psalm 81:1-16

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Listen! Don't miss even the first sentence of this sermon, because it sets the stage for everything I'll be saying today. One of the greatest tragedies is to die without knowing who you are. Or, you can put it this way: One of the greatest tragedies is to live denying who you are. Let me say that again. One of the greatest tragedies is to die without knowing who you are. Or, you can put it this way: One of the greatest tragedies is to live denying who you are. This is our third sermon in the series ...

4134. Adopted! (New)

Ephesians 1:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

Ian Lewis, 43, of Standish, Lancashire, England, was interested in finding out about his family. He spent thirty years tracing his family tree back to the seventeenth century. Thirty years. He traveled all over Britain talking to 2,000 relatives about the family tree. He even planned to write a book about how his great-grandfather left to seek his fortune in Russia and how his grandfather was expelled after the Revolution. Then, after doing all that research, Ian Lewis made a discovery that stopped him in ...

4135. A Chosen People

Isaiah 43:14-28

Sermon

King Duncan

A major university experienced an amazing turnaround in its football program a few years ago. The next spring, at the opening of spring training, the coach gathered his players together for a team meeting. As the players found their seats, the coach announced he was going to hand out awards that many of the players had earned in the fall. As the coach called players forward and handed them their awards, they were cheered on by their teammates. Then one of the assistant coaches gave the head coach a placard ...

4136. Light Is as Light Does

Ephesians 5:8-14

Sermon

Richard W. Ferris

If you saw the movie, Forrest Gump a few years back, you will remember how Forrest always had a quote from his mama to sum up just about any situation that a person might find himself or herself in. And if Forrest were to comment on this text from Ephesians, he might have this to say: "It's like my mama always used to say, 'Light is as light does.' " Light is as light does. And what light does is shine out of the darkness. What light does is to make darkness disappear. Light and darkness cannot exist in ...

4137. Dig In

Jeremiah 29:1-14

Sermon

Mark Trotter

There is a story about a businessman who checked into a hotel late at night. He decided that he would stop in the lounge for a nightcap. Pretty soon he called the hotel desk, and asked, "What time will the lounge be opened in the morning?" The night clerk answered, "9:00 a.m." About an hour later he called again. The phone rang. The night clerk answered it. The businessman again asked, "What time will the lounge be opened in the morning?" He said, "9:00 a.m." He called a third time, and every hour ...

4138. Until It Dawns on You

Matthew 17:1-9

Sermon

Mark Trotter

Lord Dunsany said, "It is seldom that the same man knows much of science, and about the things that were known before science." That has been my experience, and I think there is a reason for it. You can blame it on the Darwinians, and their assumption that life is always evolving into higher, more complex forms, so that what is now is better and more sophisticated than what was before. That was brought home to me when our children pointed out to me, "This is the 80s." They said that back in the decade in ...

4139. Two Harvests

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

All of the Bible is inspired. But just as some parts of a turkey have more meat on them, so some parts of the Bible are meatier than others. For example, the genealogies of Leviticus versus the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 13 is one of the meatier portions of the scriptures. It is unique as an identifiable sermon of Christ Jesus, a series of seven, maybe eight parables that seem to be prophetic, to foretell the history of ministry ahead of time. The parable of the wheat and the tares is the second in Jesus ...

4140. Be Ready!

Matthew 24:36-51

Sermon

King Duncan

Mr. Smith is riding through Manhattan with a reckless cab driver. At the first intersection they come to, the cab driver runs a red light. “Hey, what’s the big idea?” Mr. Smith yells. “That was a red light!” “Don’t worry, fella,” the cabbie replies, “My brother drives a cab too, and he does that all the time.” Mr. Smith grits his teeth and tries to remain calm, but he loses his cool when the driver runs a second red light. “Are you insane? You’re just asking for trouble,” he yells. “I know what I’m doing, ...

4141. There Will Be No Adults in Heaven

Mark 10:13-16

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

[A great way to begin your sermon this morning is to feature the favorite hats of your preteen or teen boys. Arrange ahead of time for them to come up to the front wearing their favorite caps. If one of them has a collection of hats, have them show it off. See if you can get them to take their hat off. Have fun with this group that is so often neglected in church.] Ever since he was three years old our son Thane has worn a hat a baseball-type cap. He might as well have been born bald. We never get to see ...

4142. Fear Factor

Psalm 25:1-22

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

So . . . when did throwing up become the newest spectator sport? The hottest TV trend in pop culture? The red-hot reality show fear factor is supposed to highlight people facing up to and facing down their greatest fears. Whenever I've tuned in, the only thing I've seen is people hurling. They have good reason. The most crowd-pleasing, Nielsen-boosting activity seems to be when the "everyman" and "everywoman" participants are forced to consume large quantities of such disgusting delicacies as horse rectum ...

4143. Changed Lives - Mary Magdalene

John 20:10-18

Sermon

King Duncan

A pastor went to a nursing home to offer communion to the residents. This was not one of those upscale places called a retirement center. This facility was for the poor and its residents were mostly in various stages of dementia. When the pastor arrived she was told by a volunteer, who was wheeling patients into the room, that since it was late afternoon, everyone’s medication seemed to be wearing off. Some would sleep through the service as usual, but for the most part, her little congregation would be on ...

4144. Give Thanks in All Circumstances

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

James W. Moore

When our grand-daughter Sarah was two years old, she was extremely active. She was always busy, always moving and always in a hurry… because at two years of age, she had already realized that there are so many exciting things to do and see and experience in this incredible world God has given us. One day Sarah interrupted her play-time just long enough to run into the kitchen in search of a mid-afternoon snack. Hurriedly, she said to her mother: “Banana, Momma, Banana!” Jodi, her mother, handed her a ...

4145. When We Are Caught in a Storm

Matthew 14:22-33

Sermon

James W. Moore

A man once came to a farmer and asked to be taken on as a hired hand. “What can you do?” the farmer asked him. The man replied: “I can sleep when the wind blows.” The farmer thought that was a strange answer, but he needed a worker so he hired him. Soon after, the farmer went away on a trip. A couple of weeks later, the farmer returned home one night and went to bed. But, a storm came up. Winds were blowing and lashing. The farmer woke and heard the winds and he remembered – the broken barn door – the weak ...

4146. Gentle On My Mind (Fruit of the Spirit: Gentleness)

Galatians 5:23

Sermon

James Merritt

I don't know of anyone that disputes the fact that John Wooden is the greatest basketball coach who has ever lived. His UCLA basketball teams won ten NCAA National Championships in twelve years, including seven in a row. In his book entitled Wooden, he begins with this story: My Dad, Joshua Wooden, was a strong man in one sense, but a gentle man. While he could lift heavy things men half his age couldn't lift, he would also read poetry to us each night after a day working in the fields raising corn, hay, ...

4147. Like a Child

Hebrews 4:1—5:10

Sermon

Lee Ann Dunlap

Angela was still a pre-schooler the Christmas Grandpa Harvey got her the red Radio Flyer wagon, and by summer it had become a popular item in the family's backyard. When her younger sister learned to toddle along sometime later they made a game of pulling each other, often with the help of Mom or Dad. As is known to happen with siblings, one afternoon the cooperative play turned competitive, then became a heated argument. And so it was that Angela informed her little sister in a physical way that this was ...

4148. Pray, Baby, Pray

Philippians 2:1-11

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

I see we’re all here this morning, in spite of a lot of warnings that we wouldn’t be. Or are we only here in some parallel universe? Pinch or touch your neighbor to see if they’re really here. Okay. We’re all here. On 08 September 2008 the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was finally turned on, and we weren’t turned off. What is the Large Hadron Collider? It’s the largest machine ever built, a seventeen mile long circular tunnel designed to smash together protons in a re-enactment of the Big Bang. How’d it do? ...

4149. A Level Playing Field for God

Isaiah 40:1-11

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

I remember some years ago taking one of my first walks in San Francisco with my then three-year-old twins. I looked at the map, and it didn't seem like such a big deal to go from one place to the other. After all, it looked flat on the map! But as my wife and I began the trek we quickly realized that this was going to be no easy stroll. Shouldering backpacks filled with three-year-old paraphernalia and dragging tired twins behind, we climbed high and hiked low. We were quickly exhausted. We stood on the ...

4150. The Ride of Your Life

1 Peter 1:17-23

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

With Jesus in charge, you get a white-water-rafting kind of experience throughout life not a dull float downstream, but a hang-onto-your-hat exhilarating, get-wet ride. Jesus offers us a life-substance, not a lifestyle. How much do you have invested in your "lifestyle"? This "investment" counts not only the money, time, energy and enthusiasm spent, but also the satisfaction gained. Think you aren't "rich and famous" enough to have a "lifestyle"? (Ever watch "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous"?) Think again ...

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