Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 4426 to 4450 of 4944 results

4426. Called to Love, Not Like

John 15:9-17

Sermon

Robert Noblett

The humorist Will Rogers told us that he never met a man he didn't like. In the musical that celebrated Rogers' life, there is a song by that title and in that song Rogers admits that one man "put him to the test," but never pushed him finally to the point where his ability to like evaporated. I don't know what your response is to Rogers' disclosure, but I am led to think he was to utilize an overworked phrase "in denial." Come now, can any of us stand and say that we have, without exception, always liked ...

4427. A Word to Busy Parents

Luke 2:41-52

Sermon

King Duncan

Today we’re going to be talking about the Christian family. I believe most of us will agree that raising a family can be challenging. In fact, raising a family changes with each baby. Someone has made a list of the ways having a second and third child is different from having your first. See if any of you can identify with these differences: For example, if you are a mom, your clothes change. With the first baby you begin wearing maternity clothes as soon as your gynecologist confirms your pregnancy. With ...

4428. Ounce of Prevention

Illustration

Editor James S. Hewett

There's a fascinating biography of Irene Webster Smith by Russell Hitt titled Sensei, which means "teacher" in Japanese. Irene Smith was a Quaker and a missionary to Japan for some fifty years. Sensei became her name to the Japanese. She first went to Japan about 1915 under the Japan Evangelistic Band from her native Ireland. Her first assignment was to serve in the Tokyo Rescue Home, which sought to save prostitutes from their entrapment in the government-licensed brothels. In this early experience, ...

4429. Forgiven and Pardoned

Matthew 5:1-12

Illustration

Don Mallough

A young employee secretly misappropriated several hundred dollars of his business firm's money. When this action was discovered the young man was told to report to the office of the senior partner of the firm. As he walked up the stairs toward the administrative office the young employee was heavy-hearted. He knew without a doubt he would lose his position with the firm. He also feared the possibility of legal action taken against him. Seemingly his whole world had collapsed. Upon his arrival in the office ...

4430. Can We Really Love Our Enemies

Luke 6:27-36

Sermon

Charles H. Bayer

I am often uncomfortable when someone tells me they love me. I am not talking about an honest affirmation, but about a critic who has just taken my hide off and concludes the shellacking with an account of her godly affection. "Brother Bayer, you are a rotten, no good, pagan, secular-humanist, but I want you to know that because I am Christian and I love you." Thanks just the same, but I'd rather be despised. Occasionally someone that I have a difficult time loving will cross my path. When I'm honest I ...

4431. Less Fear; More Fruit

Matthew 3:1-12

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

“Be afraid. Be very afraid.” The year is 1986 and the movie is the remake of the classic horror film, “The Fly.” Jeff Goldbum plays the eccentric scientist, Seth Brundle, who is working on a machine that will teleport people and things by disassembling their molecules at one point and reassembling them at another. Geena Davis plays Veronica Quaife, a reporter who is writing Brundle’s story. Unfortunately, when Brundle tries to transport himself from one room to another, a housefly is inadvertently trapped ...

4432. Thy Will Be Done

Luke 20:27-38

Sermon

Molly F. James

Recently, I was in a bit of a hurry to get something done (which I am slowly discovering is rarely a good idea). I was moving things around at home, and I broke the lamp in my husband’s study. I felt very badly about what I had done, and I wanted to remedy the situation. I offered to go right out and buy him a new lamp. He said not to worry; it wasn’t his favorite lamp anyway, and we could go and get a lamp later in the week. There was no rush. This is where we do not see eye to eye. My husband is very ...

4433. The Birth of the Bridegroom

Luke 2:21-40

Sermon

Lori Wagner

“Israel is my son, even my firstborn.” (Exodus 4:22) “For I am married unto you.” (Jeremiah 3:14) One of the first things we learn as a young child is our name. Even pets learn to recognize their names. Names call us into relationship with others. Names anchor us to families and places. Names are powerful. Names are markers of identity that sometimes signify a change in relationship, identity, meaning, or mission. When some of you married, your name changed. Some wives will take the surnames of their ...

4434. Sealed and Sanctified

Matthew 2:1-12, Genesis 14:1-24

Sermon

Lori Wagner

“And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” (Ephesians 4:30) “When you believed in Christ, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit.” (Ephesians 1:13) You’ve heard it said: “the eyes are the windows to the soul.” You’ve also probably heard it said “the ears are the portals to the soul.” Or maybe “if the eyes are the windows to the soul, your feet are the doorway to your body.” Or is that toes? Today we’re going to go with the eyes. If your ...

4435. Look At Your Fixations!

Deuteronomy 26:1-15

Sermon

Carl Jech

The Shadow: Fixation Introduction In one of his classic comedy routines Victor Borge sits down at the piano and says to the audience: "Pardon my back. Pardon my front ... But that's the way I'm built!" Every coin has two sides. Our body has a front and a back. And every body casts a shadow. These facts are neither good nor bad in themselves. They are just facts of life. To say, with psychologist Carl Jung, that every person has a shadow side, a "not-so-nice" side to their personality, is not necessarily to ...

4436. Hold Me When I'm Angry

Joshua 5:1-12

Sermon

Carl Jech

The Shadow: Anger Introduction Why was All In the Family such a popular television program? I suspect it was because the "love-hate" relationships between Archie, Mike, Gloria and Edith helped us better to understand the ways in which our love is mixed with anger, our joys are mixed with pain, and our laughter is tinged with sadness and pathos. Even longsuffering Edith with her good-natured naivete could get angry. Who can forget the time when she tells Archie to "stiffle!"? Or the episode where Archie ...

4437. The Wind Came

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

A woman named Alice tells about her nephew’s 10-year-old son who came for a visit one hot, July weekend. “Look, Alice,” he said as he ran over to where she was sitting. “I found a kite. Could we go outside and fly it?” Glancing out a nearby window, Alice noticed there was not a breeze stirring. “I’m sorry, Tripper,” she said, “The wind is not blowing today. The kite won’t fly.” The determined 10-year-old replied. “I think it’s windy enough. I can get it to fly,” he answered, as he hurried out the back door ...

4438. True Colors

John 14:15-31, Psalm 66:1-20

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Anyone ever have a chameleon as a pet? The chameleon (the word means “ground lion”) is an unusual “old world” creature with independently movable eyes, a helmet head, and fused toes. It is known primarily though for its ability to change color on the rotation of a dime, according to its mood. The chameleon uses this ability to blend into its surroundings, to hide from predators, or to silently approach prey. We use the word chameleon in the English language also to indicate a person who is prone to change ...

4439. What Are We Protecting?

Matthew 21:33-46

Sermon

Roy Howard

To say this parable is difficult to hear, much less interpret, is an understatement. To those who have ears to hear, it will make you wince and perhaps wish to throw up at the ending. But, listeners take heart: that very human reaction should not deter us from the considerable challenge of listening to this parable with the hope that we will be sufficiently unsettled to learn from it. In fact, Amy-Jill Levine, the Orthodox Jew who teaches New Testament at Vanderbilt University, argues that we should ...

4440. Homecoming

Exodus 17:1-7

Sermon

Will Willimon

Our scripture is about a people on a journey, far from home. And if you know anything all about the Bible, this is the way it always begins-somebody being told to leave wherever they happen to be at the moment and to journey somewhere else. Adam and Eve were told to get out of the Garden, Abraham told to take his bride and baggage to he knows not where, Jacob on the lam, and Israel taking forty years to go about three hundred miles, to say nothing of Jesus, always on a journey, never at home, nowhere to ...

4441. Homecoming

Mark 16:1-20

Sermon

Will Willimon

I want to speak to those of you who are grieving the death of someone whom you love, which, by my reckoning, includes about everyone here. For some of you, your pain is still acute. Others, like me, found that the ache of the loss gradually receded. You got up, you went on, but still, at moments when you least expect, grief grips you again and you realize there are not many days in this life without loss. Those whom we love keep leaving, keep journeying to "that land from which no traveler has ever ...

4442. Clean Hands

Psalm 26:1-12

Sermon

Will Willimon

Here is someone whom you would not want for a roommate. Here is someone whom your mother might pick for your roommate, but even your mother wouldn't want to live next door to the person who wrote Psalm 26. Hell would be an entire Saturday night in the presence of this person. Would you listen to him pray? "I have walked in my integrity, I have trusted in the LORD without wavering… I walk in faithfulness to thee. I do not sit with false men, nor do I consort with dissemblers; I hate the company of evildoers ...

4443. The Art of Fruit

Luke 3:7-18

Sermon

Lori Wagner

When 16th century Italian artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo painted his first “fruit face,” imagine the reception he must have garnered.[1] His work has to be some of the strangest in the history of art. But it seems, there is an art behind his madness. In 1562 at the age of 36, Arcimboldo received an invitation to accept a post as Court Portraitist at Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II’s imperial court in Vienna. Suddenly the budding artist was thrust into a rich renaissance-style intellectual and artistic ...

4444. Summertime Praise

Ephesians 1:3-14

Sermon

Will Willimon

We Americans put much emphasis on self-help. ''Self Reliance'' was one of Emerson's most popular essays. Please Mother, I would rather do it myself. We like thinking of ourselves as ''self-made'' men and women. Browse awhile at the ''Do It Yourself” section of your local bookstore or in the ''Self-Help'' therapeutic section and you will see that we like to do things for ourselves. Yet Paul, in his words to the Ephesians, speaks of something which we have not done for ourselves, have not achieved by hard ...

4445. Rock Stars at the Top

Luke 9:28-36 (37-43a)

Sermon

Derl G. Keefer

If I were a Hollywood writer, the Transfiguration story would be a great setting. I could see it ranking right up there with “The Ten Commandments,” “Samson and Delilah,” “The Greatest Story Ever Told,” or any of the others. I would title it, “Rock Stars At The Top.” The stars would include Jesus, Moses, Elijah, Peter, James, John, and the Voice and I’m still contemplating who I would cast in the roles. It would be a great media-hype type movie with spectacular special effects…a hard to climb mountain, ...

4446. The Joy Of Being Found

Luke 15:1-10

Sermon

Richard Hasler

D. L. Moody tells the story somewhere of going to a jail to preach and when he began to preach he saw a sign in the back of the hall that read in large bold letters: DO NOT PREACH ON THE PRODIGAL SON. Apparently, the prisoners had had enough sermons on that particular parable, even though it is one of Jesus’ most powerful parables about God’s redeeming grace. Fortunately, our lectionary text Luke 15:1-10 does not include the parable of the prodigal son. We do have two similar parables: the lost sheep and ...

4447. Out of the Darkness

Matthew 5:13-20

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

Does anybody else have a tough time with winter darkness at this time of year? We’re still six weeks away from the start of spring, and most of the U.S. is experiencing short days and long nights. Medical studies show that people have less initiative and are more likely to get the blues during the darker winter months. It seems that most of us don’t function well without light. There’s a small town called Rjukan (roo-KAN) in Norway that is located in a valley between two mountains. For six months of the ...

4448. The Mud Room

John 9:1-41

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Homes built particularly in rural areas and on farms in the early part of the 20th century often had within them, usually coming in from the back or side door of the house, a special room called a “mud room.” Has anyone here seen a mud room? Perhaps some of you had one in your homes at some point? A mud room had pretty much one single purpose: it was a place for “messiness.” Farmers coming in out of the fields, work-folk coming in from a hard day’s labor in mines, rivers, farms, or creeks, would shed their ...

4449. The Way For Troubled Hearts

John 14:1-14

Sermon

April Yamasaki

A young mother said that she was worried about the kind of world her children were growing up in. When her own mother was a child, her mother walked by herself to school; now, like all of the other parents she knows, this young mom always drives her children. New technologies at school and home seem to bring new pressures and new problems. In her nice suburban neighborhood, there was a stabbing in a nearby high school that left one student dead and another seriously injured. Concerned mothers like her are ...

4450. The Gift of Forgiveness

Matthew 18:21-35

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

Jim Talley and Terry Benner in their book True Colors tell the story of a man named Joe who decided to take an afternoon walk through the foothills just above a lake where he had been fishing. Joe was comfortably dressed in shorts, a T-shirt, and tennis shoes. Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in his leg as he stepped over a small log. It was then he noticed a large diamondback rattler slithering into the undergrowth beside the log. He looked down at his leg and saw that he was bleeding from two small ...

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