Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 4401 to 4425 of 4939 results

4401. On Being Lifted Beyond Ourselves

Romans 8:18-27

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

The Scripture for this ninth Sunday after Pentecost is very strange. I quote from the NEB: "In the same way the Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness. We do not even know how we ought to pray, but through our inarticulate groans the Spirit himself is pleading for us, and God who searches our inmost beings knows what the Spirit means, because he pleads for God’s own people in God’s own way." Let’s face it, our hope lies in a dimension beyond the human. If we do not acknowledge the supernatural, we are ...

4402. The Surprise of Absolute Victory

Romans 8:28-39

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

In this day of overwhelming defeatism, we look longingly for the absolute victory. Paul declares it in today's Scripture: "Nay, (even) in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us." Do you believe that? If you do, you are more steady in the midst of the collapse all around you. A great pessimism has to be conquered by a great faith. Edith Lovejoy Pierce uncovers a challenging insight: Even though we escape now We shall not escape Turning a key in a lock, Dropping a well-placed ...

4403. Wheel Within The Wheel

Acts 1:12-26

Sermon

Durwood L. Buchheim

In our text for this last Sunday in the Easter season, we are at that awkward time for the new church, the time between ascension and Pentecost. Jesus is gone, but his spirit has not yet come. In this time of waiting, we are told that the first thing the church did was to fill a leadership vacancy created by faithless Judas, a leader who betrayed the movement. Yes, the very first act of the church had to do with getting organized. So the observation has been made that at first and perhaps even second ...

4404. What’s In It For Me?

Mark 8:31--9:1

Sermon

Richard A. Jensen

Peter was always doing it. He was always out in front of the other disciples. He was always putting his foot in his mouth. "Who do people say that I am?" Jesus asked his disciples one day. The disciples answered that some people thought he was John the Baptizer or Elijah or one of the prophets. "Enough of what other people think," Jesus said. "What about you? Who do you say that I am?" This time Peter answered. "You are the Christ," he said. Christ was the Greek word for Messiah. Peter thought that Jesus ...

4405. Home for the Holidays

Luke 2:41-52

Sermon

William G. Carter

Laura was going home for the holidays. As she sat in O’Hare Airport one Christmas morning, she bristled with anticipation. Her vacation would last only two and a half days, but two bags of luggage were stuffed with presents. She had finally gotten the first job that paid any real money, and she was eager to go home and lavish gifts upon people she loved. Her family met her at the airport and took her back to the familiar neighborhood. The house was bigger than she remembered. They exchanged gifts that ...

4406. The Armor of What?!

Ephesians 6:10-20

Drama

Dave Marsh

Director's Notes: Well, this drama could be called "The Dilemma 3." I enjoy writing monologues where we get inside someone's head as he/she is sitting in church. Pre-recorded voice over works well here (again) until the Pastor comes in and starts talking with him. I've always loved the verses from Ephesians 6 that talk about the armor of God. Pastor Ray did a great job of explaining to us what each piece means to the believer. Of course, the guy in this drama is hilariously clueless... Cast: Dave--A guy in ...

4407. There Are Other Worlds To Sing In

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 ...

4408. Are You Successful Or Do You Just Have Money?

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

Bill was a writer, a really good writer. As a matter of fact, the whole country knew his name ” although they did not know him as "Bill." Editors competed to get Bill's stories. He was not one of those struggling young writers who couldn't get a break. In fact, editors paid top dollar competing for Bill's work. Bill seemed to have it made. He had money, he had fame, and he was superb at what he did. One more thing. Bill's stories usually had a bit of mystery about them. He was famous for the little twist ...

4409. We Know Where You Came From

John 6:41-51

Sermon

King Duncan

Have you ever noticed that it is very difficult to escape your reputation? Once people have an image of you in their minds, it is very difficult to change their perception. Back in the 1940s, a highly popular advertising jingle for Chiquita Bananas ended with the line: "Bananas like the climate of the very, very tropical equator, so you should never put bananas in the refrigerator. No. No. No. No." We're told that the only reason the word REFRIGERATOR was mentioned in the jingle was that it rhymed with ...

4410. Light

Isaiah 2:1-5

Sermon

King Duncan

A man was sitting at the breakfast table reading his newspaper when his wife breezed through the kitchen, gave him a light kiss on the cheek and said matter-of-factly, "I'll bet you've forgotten what day this is." The husband answered defensively, "I have not!" He went back to reading the paper while she rushed upstairs to finish getting ready. All the way to work it bugged him, "What day is this?" He knew she was very sensitive about his forgetting Valentine's Day, anniversaries, and other special ...

4411. Diamonds Falling From Your Lips

Matthew 23:1-39

Sermon

King Duncan

According to an old legend, there once lived a widow who had two daughters. The older daughter was so proud and disagreeable that no one liked to be around her. The younger daughter was just the opposite. She was cheerful and helpful and everyone liked her. One day the younger, pleasant daughter was at a fountain drawing water, when an old woman asked her for a drink. She readily gave the woman a drink. "You are truly kind and helpful, dear," the woman told the young girl, "so I have a gift to bestow on ...

4412. Straight Backs And Rekindled Dreams

Luke 13:10-17

Sermon

King Duncan

What's it like to live without hope? What's it like to finally decide that your dreams are beyond your abilities and to resign yourself to living without any prospect that things will get better? The closest thing I could find to a picture of a person totally without hope comes from a book by Dr. David Jeremiah titled The Power of Encouragement. Dr. Jeremiah tells about an old Alfred Hitchcock show which featured the story of an evil woman jailed for committing a murder. The woman soon realizes that her ...

4413. Standing Tall

Mark 10:46-52

Sermon

King Duncan

A few years back, Jim Stovall decided to become a stock broker. Even though he is blind, Jim has a determination and commitment to hard work that has helped him to transcend his disability. Jim also has a wife, Crystal, who supports and encourages him in everything he does. Jim and Crystal studied hard to get through the broker exams, then went through training sessions together. Most of the other students in the training sessions were better educated and better trained than Jim. They had no handicap to ...

4414. The Huddle Is Not the Game

John 20:19-23

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

Not being a great sports fan myself, I have to rely upon others to help me with the sports imagery in writing about the topic above. In this case, I want to call upon evangelist Tom Skinner to flesh out the metaphor which gives us the title for this chapter and which helps us to understand the mission and purpose of the Church. He writes, In football we have what is called the huddle. We have only 25 seconds in the huddle. If you stay longer than 25 seconds, you are penalized five yards for delay of game ...

4415. Emptying and Exalting (Part XI)

Philippians 1:1-11

Sermon

Eric Ritz

Dr. Harold Brack, the much beloved professor of Speech and Communications at Drew Theological Seminary, often shared with us that there are some Biblical texts which should be approached with great awe and reverence and preached only with fear and trembling, because no matter how much we share, it is only a glimpse or a snapshot of a much greater picture of truth. St. Jerome once said, "The Bible is like a stream in which elephants must swim and lambs may wade." This is especially true of this passage. As ...

4416. Noah: The Bearer Of An Alternative Possibility

Genesis 6:1-8:22

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

I read recently of a young man, recently married, who chanced to meet an old friend. The friend had already notched several anniversaries on his belt. After a bit of small talk, the veteran said to the rookie: "How's married life treating you?" "To tell the truth," said the young fellow, "things don't seem to be going all that well. My wife is always telling me what to do...bossing me around...acting as if I can't think for myself." "Had that trouble myself," said the man with many years of marriage behind ...

4417. Message from a Cloud

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

Many of you probably went to a university where one of the hot issues among students was, if the professor’s late, how long do we have to wait? At one university custom dictated that if a professor was ten minutes late, class was canceled. Well, a professor arrived early one morning for a 9:00 a.m. lecture. He placed his hat on his desk, and went to the faculty room. Before he knew it, it was 9:10. By the time he got back to his classroom, it was empty. The next day, he let his students have it. “When my ...

4418. Here We Go Again

Luke 21:25-36

Sermon

Mark Trotter

This last week I got a letter addressed to, "The Pastor of the MethodistChurch," unsigned. It began, "To the church that awaits my coming. I am the Lord." That got my attention. This is from Jesus, I could see. It was handwritten, which I want to point out to all of you who have been trying to get me to get a computer. I just follow Jesus. When he gets one, I'll get one. I read on. "I am not pleased with those who claim to be members of my body. You have turned away from me." The letter continues with an ...

4419. This Is Not the Race I Entered

Mark 8:27-38

Sermon

Mark Trotter

The scripture lesson for this morning comes from the Gospel of Mark, right in the mid-point of the story. It is the hinge on which the plot turns. Mark has a wonderful symmetry to his gospel. The turning point comes in the exact middle of the narrative. There are sixteen chapters in the Gospel of Mark, and this scene comes in the eighth chapter. Behind us in the first seven chapters are the halcyon days in Galilee, those three years in which he gathered his disciples and taught them. Ahead of us now are ...

4420. Don't Sweat the Sin Debt

John 19:30

Sermon

James Merritt

It was a crisp May morning in a small pastorium of a small rural community called Buck Grove, Kentucky. I had been living, eating, sleeping, and breathing with a document called a dissertation. I had read from hundreds of books, articles, and journals in English, French, and German. Hardly a day went by for three years that I did not work on this thesis. It was midnight on that May morning, and I wasn't just tired, I was, as they used to say in the country, "all tuckered out." I started to put my pen down ...

4421. When in Joy, Enjoy (Fruit of the Spirit: Joy)

Galatians 5:22

Sermon

James Merritt

There is something that we all do, whether we are little babies or senior adults, that doctors say is such good medicine that it relieves stress, can cure headaches, fight infections, and even alleviate hypertension. In fact, when we engage in this activity, there are well documented physical affects, many of them akin to modern exercise. Muscles in the abdomen, chest, shoulders, and elsewhere contract; heart rate and blood pressure increase. In one burst of this activity the pulse can double from 60 to ...

4422. Why Every Christian Should Be an Optimist

Psalm 121:1-8

Sermon

James Merritt

Are you an optimist, or are you a pessimist? I heard about an optimist that was talking to a pessimist, and he said, "Isn't this a beautiful sunny day?" The pessimist replied, "It may be, but if this heat spell doesn't stop very soon, all the grass is going to burn up." Two days later the optimist said to the pessimist, "Isn't this rain wonderful?" The pessimist replied, "Well, if it doesn't stop soon, my garden is going to wash away." The next day the optimist invited the pessimist to go duck hunting. The ...

4423. Joshua: Why These Stones?

Sermon

John E. Harnish

It was bound to happen. God knew it. Joshua knew it. Someday, a child would ask the question. · Someday, when the people were comfortably settled in the Promised Land and the tales of Abraham and Sarah living in tents had given way to high rise lofts and seaside condos; · Someday, when the stories of Moses and the manna had blended into a mosaic of ancient myth and the traveling tabernacle had been replaced by a permanent temple; · Someday, long after the bones of Joseph had found their final resting place ...

4424. Whose Side Are You On?

Matthew 16:21-28

Sermon

King Duncan

“Shoot Me First.” That’s what a courageous 13-year-old Amish girl said to the crazed man who broke into her school on Monday, October 2, 2006. “Shoot Me First.” He did shoot her, killing her along with five of her schoolmates, aged seven to thirteen. Then he killed himself. The shooter, Charles Carl Roberts, a 32-year-old milkman entered the humble one-room schoolhouse with the intent of killing as many students as possible. But one student, Marian Fisher, the oldest of the five Amish girls shot dead that ...

4425. God Is Faithful

1 Corinthians 1:3-9

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

God is most attentive when God seems most absent. Canadian geese are the bane of every golf course manager's existence. The vast expanse of rolling green grass, clipped to just the right height for goose grazing, marvelously accessible water hazards and fine "roughs" for nesting combine to invite sometimes thousands of the winged squatters onto previously pristine golf courses all over the country. The problem, of course, is that everywhere the geese go, well, the geese go. Ever notice how much golfing ...

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