Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 4226 to 4250 of 4946 results

4226. Are You the One?

Matthew 11:1-19

Sermon

Johnny Dean

H. A. Williams, one of the leading preachers and theologians of the Church of England, titled his autobiography, Someday I’ll Find You. That may seem like an unusual title for an autobiography, but if you read the book, as I did when I was a seminary student, it begins to make sense. You see, there was a period in Dr. Williams’ life when he was almost totally incapacitated by phobic anxieties. He was afraid to into the streets and marketplaces, afraid of elevators and escalators, afraid to ride on trains ...

4227. There's Blindness, and There's Blindness

John 9:13-34, John 9:1-12

Sermon

Johnny Dean

John Killinger tells the story of a man who visited one day in a classroom for visually impaired children. Troubled by what he saw, the man remarked, insensitively, "It must be terrible to go through life without eyes." One little girl quickly responded, "It’s not half as bad as having two good eyes but still not being able to see." Her point was well made. There is physical blindness, and there is another, even more tragic form of blindness that affects the spirit. Both forms of blindness are present in ...

4228. Back to the Basics

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Johnny Dean

Every month we receive a newsletter from our home church back in Memphis. In one recent edition of the newsletter, the minister told how his car had been stolen from the parking lot of one of the local hospitals. He went on to state his belief that morality in America today is on the decline, especially in the large cities, and he further stated that the cause for this decline, in his opinion, has been the intentional, systematic removal of all discussion of religion for the educational institutions of ...

4229. Do Not Be Afraid!

Matthew 28:1-10

Children's Sermon

Brett Blair

Exegetical Aim: Teach the transformation that took place. The Disciples and the Women went from Fear to joy when they learned that the tomb was empty because Jesus was raised from the dead. Props: 1. A carton of real eggs with one hallowed out. Use a straight pin and poke a small hole on one end of the egg and a bigger one on the other. Blow through the small end to force the contents out. 2. A child who is willing to "act" as a volunteer and have an egg held to his head. Tell him it's a real egg but you ...

4230. The Gift of Peace

Sermon

Alan Bacon Bond

Scripture: Psalm 37:1-4; 37-40Ephesians 2:11-222 Chronicles 14:1-7John 14 (selections) Text: "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you." John 14:27 At the drive-in window of the bank there is a pneumatic tube. The transaction slips, checks, and money are put in a capsule, which is dropped into the tube. As air is sucked out from in front of the capsule and pressured behind it, the container is pushed through the tube. I used the tube one day. It came as no ...

4231. Encounters With Christ III: Jesus and Nicodemus

John 3:1-21

Sermon

James W. Moore

His name was Paul. He lived in a small town in the Pacific Northwest some years ago. He was just a little boy when his family became the proud owners of one of the first telephones in the neighborhood. It was one of those wooden boxes attached to the wall with the shiny receiver hanging on the side of the box… and the mouthpiece attached to the front. Young Paul listened with fascination as his mom and dad used the phone… and he discovered that somewhere inside the wonderful device called a telephone lived ...

4232. The Price of Admission

John 2:12-25

Children's Sermon

Brett Blair

Exegetical Aim: That people are not charged to be part of the church and to receive God's grace. Props: A movable table and chair. You will need a few quarters to make change and some tokens or admission tickets. Lesson: Before the children are called set up the table, chairs, money, and tokens. Make a silent production out of this to raise curiosity. You might whistle while you are workings so it's obvious you are making a production out of it. Also, do not announce that there is an admission price. The ...

4233. Winning Isn't the Only Thing ... It's Irrelevant

Luke 13:31-35

Sermon

Carl Jech

Moses and Elijah ... appeared in glory and spoke of his departure which he was to accomplish at Jerusalem. (Luke 9:31) "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem ... How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!" (Luke 13:34) The Green Bay Packer football coach, Vince Lombardi, is credited with the declaration: "Winning isn't everything ... It's the only thing!" Now from the very limited perspective of a professional football coach there may be an ...

4234. Divine Liturgy, Divine Play, Divine Comedy

John 13:31-38

Sermon

Carl Jech

My dear children, I am only to be with you a little longer. You will seek me; (but) "Where I am going you cannot come." A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you. (John 13:33-34) Has it occurred to you that in those parts of the United States where it comes on at 11:30 p.m., "Saturday Night Live" is also Sunday Morning Live? It might be good if we could bring a little more of the humor of that show with us to church on Sunday mornings. The skits on Saturday Night ...

4235. Becoming What You Are

John 14:15-31

Sermon

Carl Jech

But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. (John 14:26) If you have visited the Kremlin in Moscow, one of the things that probably sticks in your memory is the tomb of Lenin. I have heard visitors comment that the emphasis on tombs and monuments in the Soviet Union almost makes it seem as if the Soviet people worship cemeteries. In contrast to being entombed and put on display like a ...

4236. The Box

Drama

Cynthia Mercati Prigge

Cast of Characters: First Person* Second Person(Female) Third Person* *These parts may be played by either a man or a woman Time: The Present Place: A street corner Setting: A large cardboard box with a false back stands in the center of the playing area. A sign reading MAIN STREET may be hung for effect. Neither costumes nor props are required. [The FIRST PERSON, alone and forlorn, stands inside the box. The SECOND PERSON enters L, and starts briskly across the stage.] FIRST PERSON: Ma'am! [The SECOND ...

4237. A Father Looks at His Son - Joseph and Jesus

Luke 2:21-40

Drama

Thomas Blowers

Dramatic Monologue Funny thing what you can do with a story, how you can read into it what isn't even there until the facts of the story itself begin to say what you keep bringing to it. You pick up a story for the first time and you begin to read, filling in the missing pieces with your own imagination. The next time you read the story again, it's as if those bits and pieces you've added were actually there. They have become part of the story itself and as you remember the story and begin sharing it with ...

4238. The Drag Net

Matthew 13:47-52

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

Object: a piece of netting. Lesson: Again, the Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by a fisherman - he casts a net into the water and gathers in fish of every kind, valuable and worthless. Will God miss you? Suppose the time comes for everyone to live in heaven and you are here on earth. Do you think that He will remember that you are here, or will there be so many people that He might just miss you? Jesus talked about the Kingdom of Heaven a lot, and of how people were going to be chosen to live there, ...

4239. Tomb for Sale

Luke 7:11-17

Sermon

George Bass

Some time ago, a strange classified ad appeared in the newspaper of one of our cities. It began: "Tombstone for sale," and continued, "Didn’t die; don’t need it." The details that followed in the ad caused a reporter to investigate and to interview Art Kranz, the man who had taken the advertisement in the classified section of the paper. Kranz told him that the tombstone had been in his living room for several months, but it was not his; it had been ordered by his sister after she was told that she was ...

4240. Hunger, Health, and Happiness

Luke 14:1-14

Sermon

One sabbath when he went to dine at the house of a ruler who belonged to the Pharisees, they were watching him. Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he marked how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, "When you are invited by any one to a marriage feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest a more eminent man than you be invited by him; and he who invited you both will come and say to you, 'Give place to this man,' and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place ...

4241. Lent 4

1 Samuel 16:1-13, Psalm 43:1-5, Hosea 5:1-15, Hosea 6:1--7:16, Romans 8:1-17, Matthew 20:17-19, Matthew 20:20-28

Sermon Aid

THEOLOGICAL CLUE The clue to the theme for worship and preaching this Sunday comes more from the general theme of Lent than it does from any theological content of this Sunday. Before Vatican II, the Fourth Sunday in Lent was known as Laetare Sunday, the mid-point in Lent, and was known as "Refreshment Sunday;" The purpose of this Sunday was to gather strength for the final stages of the Lenten pilgrimage. Therefore, the Introit could declare, with one of the Songs of the Pilgrims, (Psalm 122, a Psalm of ...

4242. THE FINAL TRIUMPH

Drama

THE FINAL TRIUMPH A Service For Easter A Chancel Drama In One Act PLAY CAST Annas: Priest of the Temple old, wise Caiaphas: Priest, hot tempered Mary Magdalene: Follower of Jesus, young, angry Mary, Mother of Jesus: Old, wise, serene Guard 1 Guard 2 SETTING The temple in Jerusalem on Easter morning. As the play begins, Annas sits in a chair center stage reading a scroll. Caiaphas enters from the back of the sanctuary, very upset, and proceeds up the center aisle toward Annas. The two priests should be ...

4243. Midnight Turned Into High Noon

Isaiah 42:10-17, Isaiah 42:18-25

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

"... I will turn the darkness before them into light ..." David Hume, the philospher, once wrote an essay on the sufficiency of the light of nature for man’s spiritual matters. About the same time, F. W. Robertson, a noted minister, published a sermon upholding the opposite thesis, pointing out that the light of nature needs to be supplemented by the light of a revelation from God. Mutual friends of the philosopher and preacher decided to bring the two together to debate the matter. When the evening ended ...

4244. Will My Ship Sink or Float?

Romans 8:28-39

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

For the key verse in this Scripture reading, like best the King James Version: "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God." No! Not everything that happens in life is good (much of it is very bad). But when you add all the happenings of life together and look at the whole of life, for the person who has faith in God, for the person who loves God and shares the love of God, that life is good. The whole of life, its ups and downs, are good when we see them interrelated in a ...

4245. Can We Really Get Along?

John 4:1-26

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

In 1991 a black man named Rodney King was beaten unmercifully by white police of Los Angeles. Someone captured that crime on video-tape. The acquittal of the police set off a firestorm. On the other side, of that tragedy, Rodney King asked plaintively, "Can't we all Just get along?" That is America's greatest challenge. Can her majority and minority races accept each other as full partners in the American family? It is not only appropriate but indeed obligatory that we ask that question here in Memphis, ...

4246. The Narrowness Of The Christian Way - 1950 (date estimated)

Matthew 7:13-14

Sermon

Kent Moorehead

It is perfectly possible to tell a lie without saying anything untrue. As a matter of fact, the most effective liars are those who never deliberately say anything that is not so; they simply tell a piece of the truth and refuse to tell all of it. Let me illustrate the lying power of partial truth. I know a man who, with two other men, deliberately planned to get a fourth man in a particular situation where he would be utterly at the mercy of the three men. It would then be possible for them to kill their ...

4247. The Time of Our Visitation

Sermon

Leonard Mann

You know how it was that Jesus of Nazareth began his career as a teacher and public figure in Galilee. You know how John came out of the wilderness and preached to the people who gathered around him on the banks of the Jordan. You know how for many long centuries the Jewish people had looked for the coming of their Messiah. When John appeared, their scholars speculated that perhaps this impassioned wilderness man might, actually be the Expected One. They sent their representatives to inquire of him ...

4248. Crossing Over

Joshua 3:1-4:24

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

Today as I look out upon this great congregation, gathered for the first time in many years in one place, I feel a strange blend of excitement and anxiety. Perhaps this is what a paratrooper feels just before his initial leap out of an airplane. It's a glorious experience but a little frightening too. I felt a similar mixture of excitement and anxiety recently, on the golf course, of all places. I was invited to play at Southwinds by two good friends who are excellent golfers. Though I am just a mediocre ...

4249. Christmas Is Coming

Luke 2:21-40

Sermon

James Bjorge

To an old man looking for the "consolation of Israel," Christmas would have been on that day when he stood in the temple and held the Christ-child in his arms. The old man’s name was Simeon. The good Book doesn’t tell much about him except that he was righteous and devout. But then if a man is characterized by those words, he must have lived well. As we approach the Christmas celebration, perhaps we can learn a few lessons from this old gentleman that will enhance the glow of the holidays. In fact, in a ...

4250. The Way I See It

Drama

Sarah Walton Miller

This skit, based on Luke 15:11-32, is a series of monologues in which each character gives his version of the conflict. The older brother has been made an older sister to show the story’s adaptability. Simple staging: four stools or chairs, so arranged that there is the illusion of isolation, each from the others. Always use any available levels. Actors, use your stools: stand by, sit or lean on them at will. Avoid eye contact with the other players. Freeze when not speaking. Characters are the FATHER, ...

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