Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 4226 to 4250 of 4936 results

4226. The Reality Of Sin

Genesis 3:1-24

Sermon

Robert Allen

Someone once asked me, "Where was the Garden of Eden located?" I looked at him and said, "The Garden of Eden was located at 803 Blue Street in Hope, Arkansas." A surprised look crossed this man’s face. For a moment he was speechless and then he asked, "Arkansas? I thought the Garden of Eden was supposed to have been someplace in the Middle East." "Well," I responded, "I don’t really know where the biblical Garden of Eden was located. But, I know that my Garden of Eden was on Blue Street in Hope, Arkansas. ...

4227. The Flight From Light

Isaiah 60:1-22, Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

Erskine White

"And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way." (Matthew 2:12) The other day I called someone to compliment her on a job she had done exceedingly well. We had worked on a project together which became a great success, in no small part because of the leadership she provided. As I spoke with her, I went on and on about how much her work had been appreciated. "Everyone who was there really loved you," I told her; "in fact, they’re raving about you!" ...

4228. Just A Whisper

Isaiah 9:1-7

Sermon

Frederick C. Edwards

A newborn child is such a small and fragile thing. Can it have the power to change anything? In the eighth century B.C.E., Ahaz, King of Judah, faced the armies of two kings advancing to attack Jerusalem, and a state of mind bordering on panic seized the king and the people. Into that climate of fear came the prophet Isaiah, who met Ahaz one day as he was inspecting the water supply of Jerusalem in anticipation of the siege of the city. Isaiah called upon Ahaz to have unwavering faith in Yahweh, so that ...

4229. Barabbas - People’s Choice or Chance of Providence?

John 18:28-40

Sermon

Carl E. Zahrte

Were you there? Is that what you were singing? Yes, I was there, all right. I had no choice in the matter. I was locked up in that lousy, stinking hole that they called a prison. I didn’t think that there was any chance that I would ever get out of there alive. The Romans had been after me for some time. Once they got their hands on me and threw me down into that dungeon, I thought for sure that my days were numbered. Those stone walls were mighty thick, and the guards kept a close watch on me. They liked ...

4230. Lift High The Cross

Numbers 21:4-9

Sermon

Durwood L. Buchheim

Last Sunday we left the people of Israel at Mount Sinai where they had received the commandments of God. They spent about a year at this holy mountain. (They arrived at Sinai in Exodus 19:1; they did not break camp until Numbers 10:11.) In our text for today, they are on the move again through the trackless wilderness. Their wilderness wanderings were the best and the worst of times for these chosen ones of God. On the one hand it was the time when God and the people were on close and intimate terms. God ...

4231. The Church Reaches Out!

Acts 8:26-40

Sermon

Durwood L. Buchheim

The growth of the early Christian Church has been compared to the way people grow up. Growing up is a difficult process. As we have heard these past Sundays, that was also the way it was with the young church. Growing up produced pain, misunderstandings and controversies. Some of these struggles came about because Christianity was born in a Jewish home. We Christians sometimes forget that Christ was a Jew. We owe much to the Jewish people. The debt should create a spirit of gratitude instead of suspicion, ...

4232. The King's Reception (What Are You Wearing to the Wedding?)

Matthew 22:1-14

Sermon

Brett Blair

Perhaps you have heard of the family that moved into the neighborhood and the little country church decided to reach out to the family. When they arrived at the doorstep the members of the church were surprised to find that the family had 12 kids and were for the most part poor. They invited the family to services and said goodbye. Later that week the church responded to their need. They delivered a package to the family and said, "We want you to know that you and your entire family are welcome at our ...

4233. Shepherds and Bathrobes

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

Thomas Long

Sometimes the events described in the Bible bowl us over with their sheer size. The picture in Genesis of God commanding light and darkness to go their separate ways, summoning the seven seas like chargers, and, with a word, drawing up the massive continents from the primordial ooze of the formless earth. That’s scale! Or, hundreds of thundering Egyptian chariots dashing headlong after the fleeing Hebrew slaves. Suddenly the once dry gap in the sea is invaded by a violent wall of water, foam filling the ...

4234. Discipleship - Path to Fulfillment

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

James W. Robinson

"Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you." It was with that abrupt request that disciples James and John one day approached Jesus. I don’t know how that strikes you, but, to me, it smacks of impertinence. How would you have responded? In kind, I suspect, with "Oh, you do, do you!" But Jesus, always the gentleperson, made patient reply: "What do you want me to do for you?" Perhaps he smiled indulgently as he spoke. "Grant us to sit, one at your right hand, and one at your left, in your ...

4235. Facing the Glory Road

Matthew 20:17-19

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

Tell me, how would you like to have life served up to you? The newest neophyte among the Madison Avenue ad men will tell you. Every word of copy that they write promises to fulfill what they consider your deepest yearnings. You want it soft, just as soft as Puff facial tissues. You want it comfortable. You want it secure. You want to live in a kind of bovine, cud-chewing complacency, comfort, and contentment. You want to be born without labor pain to your mother, to live in a computerized, automated Utopia ...

4236. The Man Who Asked For Dinner

Luke 24:36-49

Sermon

George Bass

If they had been conducting a seance, they might have been ready for Jesus’ appearance in that secret and secured room. If they had been sitting around a table, hands joined together as one of them (perhaps Peter) mouthed incantations: "Speak to us, Lord! Come to us as you promised that you would," they wouldn’t have been scared out of their wits. But all of a sudden, there he was, standing right among them. No wonder they thought he was a ghost. That was just about the only way that he could come back to ...

4237. The Technicolor Sign

Genesis 9:1-17

Sermon

Larry Powell

Lent is the traditional period of spiritual introspection and abstinence observed by Christians in remembrance of the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ. Beginning on Ash Wednesday, it includes the forty days, excluding Sundays, preceding Easter and is also symbolic of the forty days Christ fasted in the wilderness. Consequently, we have come today not to the first Sunday "of" Lent, but the first Sunday "in" Lent. The word "Lent" is quite beyond the Hebrew or Greek vocabulary, which is to say, it ...

4238. Nicodemus

John 3:1-21

Sermon

Brett Blair

For years, the opening of "The Wide World of Sports" television program illustrated "the agony of defeat" with a painful ending to an attempted ski jump. The skier appeared in good form as he headed down the jump, but then, for no apparent reason, he tumbled head over heels off the side of the jump, bouncing off the supporting structure down to the snow below. What viewers didn't know was that he chose to fall rather than finish the jump. Why? As he explained later, the jump surface had become too fast, ...

4239. The Star Thrower

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

O Star (the fairest one in sight), We grant your loftiness the right To some obscurity of cloud – It will not do to say of night, Since dark is what brings out your light. Some mystery becomes the proud. But to be wholly taciturn In your reserve is not allowed. Say something to us we can learn By heart and when alone repeat. Say something! And it says "I burn." -- Robert Frost, "Choose Something Like A Star" The Star of Bethlehem associated with this holy season was taciturn and mysterious. It was lofty ...

4240. 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 before Christmas, I stopped in to see him. He received me warmly and asked how I had fared in my first semester. “Okay,” I replied, skillfully avoiding the subject of my mediocre grades. “But I’ve come home with some questions.” “ ...

4241. When Life Gets Hard, Christian, Rebel!

Lamentations 1:1-22

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

Jerusalem, the great capital, was in ruins. The Babylonians were in control. It was the beginning of the famed Babylonian Captivity. All the symbols of power, wealth, prestige, and influence were gone. No wonder so many Hebrews were in despair and that songs of lamentation like the one we just read as today’s First Lesson were composed and long remembered. Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever felt that life’s moorings had been cut loose? Maybe it was the loss of a dear loved one, a child gone bad, a ...

4242. Struggling with God

Genesis 32:22-32

Sermon

David E. Leininger

In all of scripture, and even in all of literature, you would be hard pressed to find a character more interesting than Jacob. We meet him first before he is even born - his mother Rebekah is in such agony during her pregnancy carrying him and his twin brother that she wants to die. When the babies finally make their appearance, little Esau comes out first, but his brother is holding on to his heel, and, as the legend has it, that is why he was given the name Jacob - it meant "heel" or "trickster" or " ...

4243. The Pleasure of Your Company

Matthew 26:17-30

Sermon

David E. Leininger

A little flight of fancy here.(1) You are stacking dishes in the kitchen of the restaurant where you work the evening shift when a well-dressed courier arrives at the back door. "The owner won't be back until tomorrow," you tell him. "I am not looking for the owner, I am looking for you." "Huh?" "I am from the White House," he says, which explains the dark suit and briefcase. "I came to deliver this letter." "Huh?" Part of you wonders what you have done wrong. Another part of you wonders if this isn't a ...

4244. Welcome To The Mountain. Now Go Home

Exodus 24:1-18

Sermon

King Duncan

"WELCOME to San Diego. Now go home." That's what the bumper sticker said. Soon there was another: "Enjoy San Diego. Then go home." People who have been there say that San Diego, California is a friendly city. It is also a city bursting with promise. San Diego, however, is now the seventhlargest city in the United States. And many residents believe that is big enough. So they put bumper stickers on their cars, "Welcome to San Diego. Now go home." And to be sure you take the hint, they've put their airport ...

4245. Celebrating Christ The King

Ezekiel 34:1-31

Sermon

King Duncan

The READER'S DIGEST tells of young Matthew, age 4, eating an apple in the back seat of the car. "Daddy," said Matthew, "why is my apple turning brown?" His father explained, "Because after you ate the skin off, the meat of the apple came in contact with the air which caused it to oxidize, thus changing its molecular structure and turning it into a different color." There was a long silence, and then Matthew asked softly, "Daddy, are you talking to me?" (1) It's a challenge to communicate to a small child. ...

4246. Blessed Are The Believers

John 20:24-31

Sermon

King Duncan

Jerry Kramer was a member of a team that once dominated the National Football league-the awesome Green Bay Packers under Coach Vince Lombardi. Kramer is also an articulate man who has authored two best-selling books about his experiences. In his most recent book he reflects on his own sense of mortality. His words would be helpful for many of us. He writes, "I think a lot about death these days, which is funny, too, because I've never been healthier. I've had only one serious illness in the past ten years ...

4247. Lord, When You Came Down To The Jordan

Matthew 3:13-17

Sermon

King Duncan

Down South they tell about one old Baptist minister who preached every Sunday on baptism by immersion. His folks agreed with his doctrine, but they were tired of hearing the same subject dealt with every week. The deacons undertook to solve the problem through diplomatic means. They complimented him on his pulpit skills and suggested to him that he was such a natural preacher that they wanted to try an experiment. They wanted to hand him a piece of paper with a scripture lesson on it just before he stepped ...

4248. Crossing The Desert Or Protecting Our Vehicle?

Acts 17:16-34

Sermon

King Duncan

In a picturesque Italian town stands a beautiful cathedral that was built in the fourteenth century. The beauty of the church has inspired countless people for hundreds of years. The church is the tallest building in the town and can be seen from a considerable distance. It is truly a monument of faith. Tourists visit this beautiful old cathedral and marvel at its art and treasures. You might think that such a beautiful cathedral would be filled with worshipers each Sunday. You might even think that it ...

4249. For Laughing Out Loud!

Genesis 18:1-15

Sermon

King Duncan

There are all kinds of reasons to laugh. Sometimes we laugh out of embarrassment. Other times we laugh because something is witty. There are times we laugh to cover our despair. I was reading recently about a man who awoke one morning to find a puddle of water in the middle of his king-size water bed. In order to fix the puncture, he rolled the heavy mattress outdoors and filled it with more water so he could locate the leak more easily. The enormous bag of water was impossible to control and began rolling ...

4250. You Can Be Happy

Mark 1:29-34

Sermon

King Duncan

[While King Duncan is enjoying a well deserved retirement we are going back to his earliest sermons and renewing them. The newly modernized sermon is shown first and below, for reference sake, is the old sermon. We will continue this updating throughout the year bringing fresh takes on King's best sermons.] As I look back on the 20th century there are milestone events: WWII in the 40s, man landing on the moon in the late 60s, and the advent of the computer in the 80s. There are world dominating brands: ...

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