Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 4201 to 4225 of 4936 results

4201. Everything Except God

Amos 5:1-17

Sermon

Richard Hasler

Robert Coles, a child psychiatrist who taught at Harvard University, decided to travel to the South in the early days of the civil rights struggle to see for himself what effect the tension was having upon little children. He soon developed a special interest in Ruby Bridges, a six-year-old black girl in New Orleans. She walked bravely to class each morning accompanied by federal marshals who protected her from the ever-present abuse of an angry mob. How was she able to stand such tension? Where did a ...

4202. Lessons From The Mountaintop

Exodus 24:1-18, Matthew 17:1-13

Sermon

Robert Beringer

Frederick Buechner in his book, Peculiar Treasures, writes about Moses in the following way: "Whenever Hollywood cranks out a movie about Moses, they always give the part to somebody like Chariton Heston with some fake whiskers glued on. The truth of it is, he probably looked a lot more like Tevye the milkman after 10 rounds with Mohammed Ali. Moses up there on the mountain with his sore feet and aching back serves as a good example of the fact that when God puts the finger on people, their troubles have ...

4203. Step Four - Courage

Mt 26:69-75 · Acts 9:1-9 · Ps 139:1-6

Sermon

John A. Terry

Step four: Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. The psalmist talks of the God before whom such a searching and fearless moral inventory is both possible and necessary. Ours is a God who, in traditional language, is omniscience and omnipresent, a God who knows all and is everywhere. This Psalm is sometimes called the Psalm of the unavoidable God. We believe that before our God there are no secret thoughts or actions. All is known by our God. I remember hearing a lecture one time where ...

4204. I Hate To Rain On Your Parade, But

Matthew 21:1-11

Sermon

Johnny Dean

What a beautiful scene we see depicted in the story of Jesus’ triumphal entry into the Holy City, Jerusalem! It’s a lovely story, a magnificent story, a story so well-told that we preachers have a tough time coming up with a sermon about it. After the story is read, there really isn’t much else left to say. Plot, movement, atmosphere, emotion – they’re all here in the biblical account. Here is high drama at it’s best. But once you’ve said all of this, you have to add that Palm Sunday is a terrifying day. ...

4205. In the Beginning, God

Genesis 1:1-2:3

Sermon

Johnny Dean

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters." "The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep…" This is a description of the utter chaos that existed before God began the work of creation. I wonder – in our neat, little, orderly world today, can we truly understand the meaning of "chaos"? When our schedule becomes overly ...

4206. The Household Leader

Deuteronomy 6:1-25

Sermon

R. E. Lybrand

(Moses said), "And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise." Perhaps you have heard this old story, but I feel it bears repeating on this Father's Day. A crowd of men was standing outside the pearly gates of Heaven waiting to be admitted. They were instructed by Saint Peter to get into two different lines. ...

4207. Some Women's Stories

John 7:45--8:11

Sermon

Carl Jech

Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her. (John 8:7) This story of the woman caught in adultery might be described as a "second-class story" - because it seems to have been added to John's Gospel as an afterthought. It does not appear in any of the older and more original versions of John, and some experts on the New Testament even think it may belong in Luke. The second-class status of this story is, unfortunately, also mildly appropriatein light of the fact that ...

4208. To See Your Face Is Like Seeing The Face Of God

2 Corinthians 4:1-18

Sermon

James Angell

If you could deliver one sermon, what would you speak about? Though the question sounds trite, it has sometimes been asked of most preachers - usually in a half-serious way. What text, truth, or character has come to fill your heart's imagination, changed your life, or made you eager to use one big chance to share it with others? For me, the answer is in the story of the reconciliation in the desert between Esau and Jacob, years after the stealing of the birthright, where, comforted by Esau's forgiveness, ...

4209. Come From Anywhere

Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon

"... Great is your faith!" - Matthew 15:28 When Jesus walked with his disciples among the hills and valleys and towns of Palestine, he often led them in directions they had not expected to go. Traveling from Judea to Galilee, he chose to take his disciples through Samaria, although the Jewish people, who had no dealings with the Samaritans, normally went around another way. Although there was grave danger to them in Jerusalem at the time of that final Passover, and although his disciples objected ...

4210. Believing is Seeing

Luke 23:26-43

Sermon

Alton F. Wedel

When Jesus came to Galilee, he began his preaching with the message, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." And the expectations of the people soared to heights not known since Solomon. They had been oppressed, depressed, distressed, and had been waiting for the day when from their midst a hero would arise to lay a left hook on the jaw of the hated Roman Empire, restore the glory of the dim and distant yesteryear, and make those good things happen that the prophets had foretold. The land should ...

4211. Easter 2

Acts 5:17-42, Revelation 1:4-8, Revelation 1:9-20, John 20:19-23, John 20:24-31

Sermon Aid

COMMENTARY Acts 5:27-32 (C); Acts 5:12, 17-32 (L) In order to obey God, the Apostles disobey the order not to preach. Regardless of the cost, the Apostles are determined to witness to the resurrection. They defy the governmental order to stop preaching the Gospel because they recognize a higher law than the State. They must obey God who in Christ ordered them to witness. In defense of this position, Peter accuses the officials of having crucified Jesus who was later raised and exalted by God to be Leader ...

4212. Proper 26

Lk 19:1-10 · 2 Thes 1:5-12 · Ex 34:5-9 · Hag 2:1-9

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

COMMENTARY Haggai 2:1-9 Haggai encourages the exiles to re-build the temple. After defeating the Babylonians who deported the Jews, Cyrus the Great (558-528 B.C.) permitted the return of the exiles to rebuild the temple in Jerusalem. In 521 Cyrus was succeeded by Darius who permitted another wave of exiles to return. Among them was a prophet, Haggai, whose ministry covered only one year, 520. When he saw how the exiles were building their houses to the neglect of re-building the temple, he aroused and ...

4213. Jesus - the Holiest Name

Luke 2:21-40

Sermon

(Note: This is the shortest text in the lectionary. It poses the problem of how to preach on it. Should the preacher simply construct what used to be known as a textual sermon, emphasizing and expounding a single verse of the Bible, or are there other homiletical possibilities? I suggest it has to be preached in the context of the Christmas story and as the heart of the Christmas cycle. A type of story sermon suggests itself, which picks up the story, but also allows the specific text to speak. Should the ...

4214. Away with the Stable

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

If we could change some of our images of the Christmas story, it would mean more to us. If we could get the birth narrative straight, it would not be diminished but enriched. Luke records the incident of Christ's birth in a very simple and a very beautiful way: "[Mary] gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn." Regardless of the stories that we have been told and hear about the little Bethlehem hotel being ...

4215. From Beast to Believer

Daniel 4:28-37, Daniel 4:19-27, Daniel 4:1-18

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

The front page of yesterday’s Commercial Appeal showed us yet another example of a person acting like an animal. A man wielding a machete entered an elementary school in Felton, Pennsylvania, and injured three women and six children. Lest we get a superiority complex, we should remember that all of us have the capacity to act like animals. Jeremiah the prophet indicted us all when he declared, "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately corrupt. Who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:09) Today ...

4216. The Blessing Of Bondage

Genesis 2:4-25, Genesis 3:1-24

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

The Bible’s story of Creation and the Fall gives rise to all sorts of stories, like this one: Adam and Eve were walking near the Garden of Eden, showing it to their son, Abel. Abel saw that it was a very beautiful place, and asked, "Daddy, why don’t we live there?" "Well, son, we once did," Adam replied, "but your mother ate us out of house and home!" It is an old story, a story of trees, a man and a woman, a garden, a serpent, rules kept and rules broken, and of God. God formed a man, Adam, of the dust, ...

4217. Separation of God and State?

Isaiah 44:24--45:25

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and ungird the loins of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed: "I will go before you and level the mountains. I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut asunder the bars of iron, I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hoards in secret places, that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who call you by your name. For the sake of my servant ...

4218. Born to Play Second Fiddle

Luke 1:57-66

Sermon

George Bass

Sunday is the day when the people who call themselves Christians remember and celebrate the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Every Sunday is a "little Easter" - that is what Sunday means and why those who believe in Christ worship on the first day of the week instead of following the Old Testament practice of setting aside the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath or day of rest. But Christians also remember the birth of Christ whenever the Eucharist is celebrated as they sing the song the ...

4219. A SERMON-DRAMA FOR EASTER

Drama

Tom Eberle

Easter Prior to the 4th century, Good Friday and Easter were celebrated as one festival in the church. This is the background for the sermon-drama for Easter. They were not observed as historical pageants as we do today, commemorating the death of Christ on Good Friday and his resurrection on Easter Sunday. Rather, the early church observed a festival of redemption, combining the death and resurrection of Christ within the framework of an all-night vigil, concluding with the first rays of sunlight on ...

4220. Habakkuk

Habakkuk 3:1-19

Sermon

Warren Thomas Smith

Gratitude is one of the noblest words in the English language. It pictures us at our best. Conversely, ingratitude reveals a person at his or her worst. "How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child!"2 lamented King Lear. Thoughtful people everywhere, of all ages, faiths, and cultures have extolled gratitude. Let us think of gratitude as it relates to our American Thanksgiving. For most of us, Thanksgiving means eating. First we stuff the turkey then we stuff ourselves. We go to a ...

4221. Adultery, Cure and Prevention

Proverbs 7:1-27, John 8:1-11

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

Sometime ago a lady wrote to the famous advice columnist Ann Landers and asked this question, "Do all men cheat on their wives? I have been suspicious of my husband for some time. I even hired a private detective to trail him, but he couldn't come up with a thing. I went to a lawyer. He told me to grow up and accept the fact that all husbands fool around. Do they?" Ann Landers very wisely replied, "No. There are plenty of married men who never cheat, and your husband could be one of them. The only thing ...

4222. Is Someone Knocking?

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

Have you ever been blamed for something that was not your fault? It's not pleasant. I heard about a retired Admiral who had such an experience. He was taking his six-year-old grandson on a tour of the great Plaza Hotel in Detroit. They were riding the elevator to the top when suddenly a young woman turned and slapped the Admiral sharply across the face. The Admiral, with great restraint, kept his dignity. As a true gentleman he said nothing. Up a few floors the young lady got off the elevator. Then the boy ...

4223. Whispering The Lyrics (revised)

John 14:15-31

Sermon

Thomas Long

Many of you probably have stashed away in a drawer somewhere around your home the old 45 rpm records. If you have some from the 50s and early 60s you will have Elvis' grinding out "Hound Dog," Buddy Holly and the Crickets' hiccupping "Peggy Sue," Chuck Berry's joyful hot licks in "Maybellene," the Coasters' slapstick tour de force "Charlie Brown," the mournful "Tears On My Pillow" by Little Anthony and the Imperials, the impenetrable and probably scandalous "Louie, Louie" by the Kingsmen, and the teenaged ...

4224. Defeating Giants

1 Samuel 17:1-58

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

Thanks to a favorite Bible story, there is an expression that is used around the world to describe a contest between two vastly unequal opponents. For example, let's suppose that our University of Memphis Tiger football team was playing host to a much stronger team, a team rated in the top five in America. The local sportswriters would refer to that as a David and Goliath contest. And, believe me, David still wins occasionally. Or, let's suppose that the Ole Miss Rebel Basketball team is facing the ...

4225. I Love You But I Don't Like You

Ephesians 4:17--5:21

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

A wife was in an automobile accident one day. She phoned her husband at the first opportunity. Now you know the very first thing he should have asked. Well, he didn't. Instead, he asked, "How much damage did it do to the car? Whose fault was it?" Then he issued this guidance: "Don't admit to anything. Tell the policeman that you have nothing to say until you talk with your attorney. I will call the insurance company." Then she asked rather testily, "Have you got anything else to say?" "No," he replied. " ...

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