Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 401 to 425 of 928 results

401. Coping with Fear, Worry, and Anxiety

Matthew 6:25-34

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

... awful spray in later years. The subconscious plays strange tricks on us. But by faith in, and assurance from, the caring love at the heart of the universe, our fears can be quieted; and at the heart of our being there can be surprising peace. A patient on vacation illustrated it when writing on a card to her psychiatrist, "Having a good time. Why?" Worry is an expression of fear and robs us of our full energy for living. Only to a point is the following bit of doggerel an expression of truth: Don’t worry ...

402. And It Came To Pass

Mark 13:1-31

Sermon

Warren Thomas Smith

... may respond, "You are preaching morals to us." No, life is preaching about life. Life has a great deal to say about the way we live. So does Jesus. Living By Faith Planning is essential. We know that. Over-planning can be deadly. The family vacation can be ruined by too much structure; suddenly all the fun is gone. Rather than a relaxed time wherein business is put aside, and hourly schedules forgotten for a time, more than one family has been marshaled as though going into battle. With wonderful British ...

403. Twenty-First Century Reformation

John 8:31-41

Sermon

Warren Thomas Smith

... the Jones; they say their feelings have been hurt." "You have never called on us." "But," responded a mystified pastor, "I have been in your home many times." "Oh," came the answer, "that was just to pick up the children and take them to Vacation Church School; we don’t consider that a call." Deplorably, time must be spent trying to get Christians to come to worship. We plead, prod, offer gimmicks, have contests. To what end? The contemporary disciple must be asked, invited, to come for prayer and praise ...

404. Advent 1: Won´t You Let Him Into Your Heart?

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

James W. Moore

... me, it was my brother! Other than that, you got it just right." We can get confused and we can get our facts mixed up. The London Daily Telegraph a few years ago carried a letter sent by an eleven-year-old boy to his mother while he was on vacation in Switzerland. Here’s what he wrote: "Dear Mom, Yesterday the instructor took 8 of us to the slopes to teach us to ski. I was not very good at it, so I broke a leg. Thank goodness, it wasn’t mine! Love, Billy" What in the world does that ...

405. God With A Human Face

John 1:1-18

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... take place in the dark. Crime flourishes in poorly lighted areas. That is one reason for street lights -- watch out for those dark alleys! Businessmen keep their stores and plants lighted at night to discourage break-ins. When you leave home for a vacation, you arrange to have lights burn during the night to make thieves think you are home. Also, there is the darkness of hatred. "Hate, Inc." sponsors an annual "National Hate Week" in America to foster unbridled hatred. Think of the hatred between Catholics ...

406. Happy New Year?

Isaiah 61:1-11

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... a whole year? How can one be happy for a whole year when the forecast for the new year may predict unhappy times? Can you be happy if in the coming year you may have less to eat, if you must make old clothes do for another year, if a vacation is out of the question, and if you must worry about the bills coming due? Regardless of conditions, we do want to be happy. Is there anyone here who does not want to be happy in the coming year? A teacher of a young adult class asked the students to ...

407. A Voice to be Heard

John 1:19-28

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... . The last I knew, the people had not been adequately compensated by the government. Or consider the example of narcotics agents seizing a young man's new sailboat in the Caribbean, a sailboat he had just bought for $24,000 and was now enjoying on his vacation. Federal narcotics agents boarded the boat and literally destroyed it looking for drugs they never found because there were none. At last report, he had been compensated only $8,000 of the $24,000 he spent on the boat. Not long ago the United States ...

408. Praying for a Whole New World

Luke 21:5-38

Sermon

William G. Carter

... have mercy on me.” I took my children to a water park on a hot summer day. All afternoon we slipped and slid down water slides. We splashed in inner tubes and shot down the rapids of a whitewater raft ride. It was the highlight of a great vacation. Still glowing from the experience, I picked up the newspaper to read how a lingering drought back home caused my neighbor’s farm to fail. The only prayer I could utter was, “Do over!” They are small scenes, to be sure, and easily justified to our friends ...

409. Two Blessings for an Unwed Mother

Luke 1:46-56, Luke 1:39-45

Sermon

William G. Carter

By Christmas vacation of my first year in college, I had become an expert on the birds and the bees. Biology was my major, and after a semester in the freshman class, I was certain that I knew more biology than most adults did in my hometown ... including my minister. A few days ...

410. What a Star Can't Tell You

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

William G. Carter

... closer to God out there than they do in here. For some, it may be a cop-out. If you’re looking for good reasons to skip worship, there are plenty: college football games in the fall, winter sports in the winter, spring getaways, and summer vacations. Even some of our “regulars” will slip out of town at Christmas and Easter. As North Americans we live in a leisure culture, and there are many entertaining reasons why people don’t go to church. The old starched Calvinist in me murmurs, “If worship ...

411. A Going Away Gift

John 16:5-16

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

Object: A souvenir and a postcard. Good morning, boys and girls! Today we're going to talk about traveling. How many of you like to take a trip? (Let them answer.) I like to travel too. I like to take my whole family and go on long vacations, but sometimes I have to travel by myself, and I can't take my family. I remember when I was about your age, my father had to travel by himself once in a while. Sometimes his work would take him out of town for several days, and we were all ...

412. How Is Your Faith?

Luke 7:1-10

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

... all trust Billy? (Point to Billy.) If you ask Billy to take a message to a friend, he would probably do it for you. If you knew he would do it, you would have faith in him. If we would ask Billy to mow the lawn while we go on vacation, and if he agreed, then it should be mowed when we get home. We have faith that Billy will do it, because he said he would. We trust Billy, and if he says he will do something, we have faith that it will be done. We believe in him. We ...

413. Listen Up!

Drama

Dave Marsh

... oblivious) Oh, hi Honey, how was school? April: I just told you. Emily: Oh that’s nice dear. April: Mom! Would you please stop watching that stupid soap and listen to me for a second? Emily: (jerked awake) Hmmm, oh sorry honey, it’s just that since we went on vacation I have 6 days of soaps to catch up on. Okay, I’m all ears, what’s up? (turns TV down a bit) April: Well, like I was saying, school was awful today. Emily: Why, what happened? April: Well for starters, that stupid car of mine ran out of ...

414. The Fishing Hole (A Drama about Fathers and Priorities)

Drama

Dave Marsh

... . So, tell me, do you miss school? Jimmy: Yeah, right Dad. (There is a lot of conversation between father and son here with the father asking the son lots of questions about what he did at a party, what he’s watching on tv, where they want to go for vacation, etc. This goes on for some time…) Mom: (comes out) John? John you know it’s 5’oclock. You gonna start the grill? Dad: Oh, yeah, sure. Wow. Is it 5 already? Mom: Yep. You guys have been out here a long time. What are you two talking about? Dad ...

415. There Had to Be a Father

Luke 1:39-45, (46-55)

Illustration

William G. Carter

Pastor William Carter said that on his Christmas vacation during his first year in college, he had become an expert on the birds and the bees. Biology was his major, and after a semester in the freshman class, he was certain that he knew more biology than most adults did in his hometown ... including his minister. A few days ...

416. His Trial

Luke 22:66--23:25

Sermon

Brett Blair

... is out of my hands and there is just nothing that I can do about it. Wrong. There was only one person that day that could have done something about an innocent man wrongly accused and that was Pilate. It was he who presided as judge and vacated his post. In what is surely his most haunting novel, The Fall, Albert Camus tells about a man whose whole life was held in a single moment. The main character in the story is John Baptiste a respected Paris lawyer, who had a comfortable living and satisfying ...

417. Truth - How Do You Know It When You Hear It?

John 16:5-16

Sermon

Brett Blair

School’s out. Summer’s here. My kids have been waiting for this for weeks. All summer and nothing but swimming, riding their bikes, endlessly playing video games, and vacations. While our kids live in that world this summer we adults will be living in another. There is the economy and the struggle to keep Wall Street and Main Street happy and accountable at the same time. There are conflicts within our nation, not to mention the conflicts between nations. ...

418. All I Want for Christmas is Peace

Luke 2:8-20

Sermon

James W. Moore

... we have to accept the gift. Let’s take a look at these three ideas. I. FIRST, CHRISTMAS GIVES US PEACE WITHIN In the original hit movie, “Home Alone,” a little boy named K evin is accidentally left behind when his family leaves for a European vacation. On Christmas Eve, K evin begins to feel sad and lonely.., so he goes to church. There he meets an older man who is also unhappy because of family problems. As they engage in conversation, young K evin admits that he feels guilty because he knows that ...

419. Under the Rainbow

Genesis 9:1-17

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Noah. We learned all about him and the flood in Sunday School. Our kids learned about him this week in Vacation Bible School. Those in my generation had the picture filled in even more vividly about 35 years ago by that wonderful preacher, Bill Cosby. Remember? Cosby has Noah working around the house, down in his rec room, doing a little remodeling...Voobah, voobah, voobah...when a voice comes: "NOAH!" "Somebody ...

420. Beating Babel

Acts 2:1-13, Genesis 11:1-9

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... of any other consideration, and we should all chip in to make sure that no one falls through the cracks. Same word...justice...VASTLY different meanings. Sometimes, misunderstandings are accidental. In my files is this vignette. A little old lady planning a vacation wrote a letter to a particular campground to inquire about its facilities. She could not bring herself to write the word "toilet" so she finally settled on the term "BC" which to her meant "bathroom commode." The initials baffled the campground ...

421. The Ten Commandments #5: Honoring Parents

Exodus 20:12

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... child's good. It means a consistency of care and concern that begins in the child's infancy and continues forever. Parents should be respected, but they should respect their children enough to want to deserve it. A family in the East was planning a month's vacation to the West Coast. At the last minute the father's work prevented him from going, but Mom insisted that she could drive, so she and the kids would go ahead. Dad got out the maps, planned the route, the nightly stopping points, and off they went ...

422. A Disaster of Biblical Proportions

Job 38:1--41:34

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... , is one bright light. Relief organizations say that the outpouring of support from around the globe has been phenomenal. Good. Perhaps even our own government is beginning to come around. President Bush, after days of silence, emerged from his Texas vacation to issue a brief statement, and an offer of $15-million. Following a very public rebuke and a worldwide reaction of contemptuous disbelief, the pledge was raised to $35-million. That was equally disgraceful, especially for a nation that spends ...

423. Going Fishing

Mark 1:14-20

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... down in the baggage car. By the way, who are you, sir?" "I'm the state game warden. Who are you?" was the reply. Said Twain, "Pleased to meet you. Who am I? Only the biggest liar in these United States."(2) Two ardent fishermen met on their vacation and began swapping stories about the different places they had fished, the kind of tackle used, the best bait, and finally about some of the fish they had caught. One of them told of a vicious battle he once had with a 300-pound salmon. The other man listened ...

424. The Jump to Judgment

Matthew 7:1-6

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... considerations obviously. As our friend in the hotel demonstrates, we very often do not know the whole story. A writer once told of a situation that had occurred early in his career. "When I was young and pretty much satisfied with myself, I spent a college vacation looking for what I called 'local color' for use in a book I planned to write. My main character was to be drawn from an impoverished, shiftless community, and I believed I knew just where to find it. Sure enough, one day I came upon the ...

425. Welcoming Jesus

Mark 9:33-37

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... to God and More Children's Letters to God(1) which collected some rather clever (and occasionally insightful) letters from youngsters to the Almighty. Listen to a few of them: • Dear GOD, In school they told us what You do. Who does it when You are on vacation? * Jane • Dear GOD, Is it true my father won't get in Heaven if he uses his bowling words in the house? * Anita • Dear GOD, Did you mean for the giraffe to look like that or was it an accident? * Norma • Dear GOD, Instead of letting people ...

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