Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: Levi, disciple, evangelist, tax collector, the 12, the twelve, apostle, sermon on the mount, jewish audience, beatitudes, lord's prayer, great commission, parables, olivet discourse, mount of olives, olivet, synoptic

Showing 401 to 425 of 1225 results

401. Proper 4

Luke 7:1-10, Psalm 117:1-2, 1 Kings 8:22-61, Galatians 1:1-10

Sermon Aid

George Bass

... agree upon; the other verses vary from one lectionary to another. They are also the reason that this reading was chosen for this day; they speak of hospitality for the stranger, who is to be welcomed into the house of the Lord as an evangelistic procedure. It "connects" with the Gospel for the Day, which tells the story of the Roman centurion, who helped to build the synagogue in Capernaum and whose servant was "sick unto death." Foreigners were to be welcomed to the temple, which Solomon had just ...

402. Proper 21

Luke 16:19-31, Psalm 146:1-10, Amos 6:1-7, Joel 2:18-27, 1 Timothy 6:11-21

Sermon Aid

George Bass

THEOLOGICAL CLUE Depending on the lectionary followed and the calendar year, the Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost occurs near St. Luke's Day (October 18th). St. Luke's Day is a celebration of the gospel, as well as a day of remembrance for the evangelist. As such, it reinforces the theology of the church year which has been shaped by the gospel of the Lord. It is the second half of the church year, in particular, which needs reinforcement by the gospel of the risen Lord, inasmuch as there are fewer ...

403. What Children Can Teach Adults

Luke 10:1-24

Sermon

Thomas Slavens

... do well, when we hear the voice of God, to act spontaneously. The Master appreciated those who acted spontaneously. Among his closest friends were those who did so. Such was the nature of the one who baptized him. So, too, he appreciated Andrew, the first Christian evangelist. Something in Simon the Zealot must have caused the Master to choose this impetuous man as one of the Twelve. When a woman of the city wet his feet with tears, wiped them with her hair, kissed them with her lips and anointed them with ...

404. Two R-Rated Stories

John 7:45--8:11

Sermon

John M. Braaten

... there at the church. You want another name and another pledge. Right? Isn’t that the business you’re in? Another name and another pledge.’ It embarrassed my mother. She would stay in the kitchen and cry. Once in a while they would have a guest evangelist and he would come with the pastor and the pastor would say, ‘Here is the toughie, see him!’ My father would always say something like, ‘You don’t care about me. You want another member, another pledge. That is how the churches operate. You don ...

405. The Call To Ministry

1 Kings 19:9-18

Sermon

Robert Allen

... the lawyer and the teacher. God is calling the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker. God is calling you and me to ministry. Today, as we deal with the call to ministry, I don’t want to focus on the call to be a preacher, or missionary, or evangelist. I want to focus on God calling each of us to ministry in our world. I believe you are called to ministry, right where you are. I want to suggest three things which I believe are important in dealing with the call to ministry. I. The Call To Ministry ...

406. Dim Visions And Blind Guides

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... of many has been rocked by the child abuse and materialistic greed of preachers and teachers, this scripture screams at us. Blind guides and ignorant professors. There are Catholic priests and bishops being indicted for having molested children, Protestant evangelists in jail for fraud, and professors earning over $100,000 a year from church-related institutions who have never taught a course there. They have simply sold their name. Any contemporary discussion about living in a limited world must honestly ...

407. Trial-and-Error or Grace

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Thomas Peterson

... of evidence is to be proud in spirit, opening ourselves to the magnitude of life as it invades our private world. Look at the proud spirits in our day who have refused to change: President Nixon, Marcos, Noriega, and a host of fallen TV evangelists, movie stars and politicians. F. Scott Peck in People of the Lie (New York; Simon & Shuster, 1983) writes this on the subject: All adults who are mentally healthy submit themselves one way or another to something higher than themselves, be it God or truth ...

408. The Rich Young Ruler

Mark 10:17-31

Sermon

Brett Blair

... for men and women who are unashamedly Christian. But that was not this young man's problem. Let us mark it down to his credit--he was courageous. II I would also like to point to the fact that he was impetuous "He came running," says the evangelist. That, of course, must have looked remarkably undignified. I'm sure onlookers watched in astonishment wandering what must have gotten into him. But he knew that this was possibly the only chance that he would ever have of talking with Jesus. He was not about to ...

409. Focus Your Faith

John 14:5-14

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... know who God is; we need Jesus to make God known. Martin Luther, as usual, made the same point so well in one of his sermons on the very gospel text that we are considering. Here is what he said: "This is the knowledge in which St. John, an outstanding evangelist with regard to this theme, and St. Paul instruct more than the others do. They join and bind Christ and the Father so firmly together that we learn to think of God only as Christ. As soon as we hear the mention of God's name, or of his will ...

410. The Majesty Of God's Love

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... Trinity reminds us that our efforts to bring others to Christ just come naturally to those who believe in a triune God. By the same token, those who are baptized are taken into fellowship with a God and fellow-believers who are by nature evangelists. Evangelism may seem like a strained awkward activity for us in many situations, something like a burden hung around our necks. Jesus' ascension, which places his humanity (and therefore our humanity) in union with the Trinity, is a reminder that we are so tied ...

411. The Road To The Wilderness

Mark 1:9-13

Sermon

Thomas A. Pilgrim

... to do that? Have you made that kind of commitment? Dr. William H. Henson, pastor at Houston First United Methodist Church, wrote a book several years ago called Solid Living In A Shattered World. In that book he told a story about Sam Jones, the great Methodist evangelist. One night he closed a service by asking, "If we could compare the kingdom of God to a locomotive, what part would you like to be?" One person said, "Brother Jones, I'd like to be the whistle and sound God's praises." Another said, "I'd ...

412. The Road To Jerusalem

Mark 11:1-11

Sermon

Thomas A. Pilgrim

... Jesus confronts us with that same decision today. Some of us have a hard time deciding which crowd we want to be in - the large crowd of bystanders who watched the parade or the small crowd of participants who marched with Jesus. Someone once asked the great Methodist evangelist Sam Jones why he came down so hard on the Methodists and why didn't he get after the Baptists. He said, "When I get through with the Methodists it's bed time." Will Rogers once said, "Everyone wants to go to Rome to see where Saint ...

413. To Be Sure

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

Theodore F. Schneider

... rather the contrast of gratitude and ingratitude depicted on the same dramatic canvas.3 Luke draws the contrast all the more boldly when he notes that the man returning to give thanks was a Samaritan, a "foreigner." Always the master storyteller among the four evangelists, Luke, having already given us the story of the "Good Samaritan," now gives us the story of the "Thankful Samaritan." The "Thankful Samaritan" in today's gospel is "twice an outsider." It was enough that he was a Samaritan, and therefore a ...

414. A Lesson From Prayers Overheard

Luke 18:9-14

Sermon

Theodore F. Schneider

... revolt during the inter-testamental period. Some have argued that had there not been the Pharisees, there may not have been a Jewish community into which the Messiah could have been born. They were the leaders of the synagogues in the diaspora, the evangelists and the teachers of their day. Josephus, the first-century Jewish historian, writes that the Pharisees were a body of Jews known for surpassing the others in observance of piety and the exact interpretation of the laws. Such a man becomes the center ...

415. Fishers of Men

Luke 5:1-11

Children's Sermon

Brett Blair

Exegetical Aim: The evangelistic nature of Christianity. Props: A fishing pole or rod with no line. Lesson: [Two volunteers from the congregation to act like caught fish. The chairs of the evangelism committee and the outreach committee would be a good tie in. Otherwise, choose a male and female to represent the fish.] I ...

416. Saved From Water: The Storm

Luke 8:22-25

Sermon

Steve Swanson

... cheeks, and he made up this story about rain being like forgiveness. It was a beautiful story about a boy who had lied to his mother. It's not in your Bible - and do you know why it's not? Because Matthew and Luke and all those other so-called evangelists were running up the hillside to hide under a tree, that's why. I was the only one who stayed out in the rain to listen. I love rain. I love water. I used to tell that story sometimes in sermons. Great story. I could tell it to you here ...

417. Been Fishin' Lately?

Mark 1:14-20

Sermon

Johnny Dean

... and a mysterious promise. We’re not uncomplicated fishermen like Simon, Andrew, James, and John. We are complex, educated, technically knowledgeable people, people who have responsibilities and complicated lives. We’re not about to drop everything and go running after some traveling evangelist who announces that the time has come and the kingdom of God is here. We want to thoroughly discuss the matter, look at it from every possible angle, weigh all of our options and come up with a five-year plan of ...

418. Don't That Just Beat All?

Mark 2:1-12

Sermon

Johnny Dean

... been to watch a loved one suffer and not be able to do anything about it. To complicate matters, you had to wonder what this person had done to deserve the suffering and misery they were having to endure. But all was not lost. You’ve heard that Jesus, the evangelist from Nazareth who has the reputation of being able to cure the sick, is coming to visit your town. You’ve tried everything else to help your friend, why not let Jesus have a crack at it? So you and a few other friends rig up a stretcher and ...

419. Life is Messy

John 1:29-34

Sermon

Johnny Dean

... there is so much poverty, suffering, and injustice is obscene. All self-confident talk about a powerful church that has the mandate and the ability to change society with this or that conservative or liberal social/political agenda or with this or that evangelistic program is increasingly absurd in a disintegrating church that cannot solve its own problems, much less the problems of the world. The only gospel that makes sense and can help… is the good news of a God who loves enough to suffer with and ...

420. The Dripping of Water

John 13:1-17

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... of Abner Hale in Hawaii, which is the story of the missionaries who went to the islands in the early 1 800s. The fictional Mr. Hale was a difficult person to get along with because he was so judgmental and self-righteous. I do not, like so many evangelists we have heard, tell my congregations that they have sinned because they committed this or that particular vice. I go to the pulpit as a sinner myself. I know, when I put my life beside the life of Jesus, that I am a sinner. My motives do not always ...

421. The Crowing of a Rooster

Matthew 26:31-35, Matthew 26:69-75

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... When was the last time any of us heard the word "repentance"? "Repent! Repent! Repent, you sinners, and be saved!" That's the kind of admonition we expect to hear from an Elmer Gantry, or in an old-timey tent meeting, or from some Sunday morning radio evangelist. The word "repentance" may bring to mind images of hellfire and brimstone and the end of time. There seems to be a stigma attached to the idea of repenting. We may even avoid using the word because it makes us feel like "bad" people. Our experience ...

422. WHAT IS MAN?

Sermon

Larry Powell

... gospel has been preached throughout the world - no small miracle. Rev. Robert Schuller has constructed a "Crystal Cathedral" in California, wonderfully conceived and awe-inspiring. Oral Roberts, Billy Graham, Jerry Falwell, Jimmy Swaggart, a host of other evangelists, along with the institutional Church, have together accomplished some really miraculous things under the power of the Gospel. With all our combined resources, access to the media, and established foothold in American life, it would seem that ...

423. Loving

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Sermon

Larry Powell

... not, or could not happen again, but rather such a highly-charged experience does not possess an individual permanently. The "tongues" experienced by new Christians following Pentecost is distinguished as a different type of utterance. It, unlike the evangelistic "tongues speaking" on the day of Pentecost, is best described as "incoherent babbling" resulting from an ecstatic experience. Paul said tongues will "cease." Knowledge. Knowledge is elusive. Some of it changes, and some of it we simply forget. An ...

424. The Piety That Isn't

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Sermon

Carl Jech

... not go around labeling other people as lost and wretched. It is one thing to say that I was lost or spiritually blind, but it is quite another thing, quite inappropriate, for me to call others lost, blind or wretched. To do so would be not evangelistic, but arrogant. Watching the "Church Lady" on Saturday Night Live reminds, us that the line between true evangelism and holier-than-thou self-righteousness is extremely thin, but oh so important. It may be easier to confess other people's sins, but we can only ...

425. Winning Isn't the Only Thing ... It's Irrelevant

Luke 13:31-35

Sermon

Carl Jech

... the Messiah. There was a great deal of religious/theological ferment at this period in history, and the Christian idea of a Messiah, a Christ, who suffers and gives, and lets go, had to compete with many more glamorous forms of religious belief. Evangelists who say that the choice people have is between accepting the claims of Christ or calling Jesus a liar, are really just bragging that their particular interpretation of Jesus is beyond question. To put it in classical terms, they are claiming that their ...

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