Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 426 to 450 of 1249 results

426. The Lord's People Together

Matthew 18:15-20

Sermon

... on it. And neither can you build a church on it. One of America's most outstanding pastors told of a revealing little drama which was played out one Christmas Eve in one of the homes of the parish he served. For lighting their tree, this family had adopted a small ritual which they annually observed. The bulbs were hooked in series, so that none would burn unless all did. Each member of the family, including all of the several children, was given a bulb and a little speech to say. Each in turn would go to ...

427. Mission to Unbelievers

Luke 16:19-31

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... my office I have a copy of the 1908 Discipline of The Methodist Episcopal Church. To me it is a very important edition of that document which we Methodists revise and publish every four years. In 1908 the General Conference of our church adopted a Social Creed to be companion to our other theological statements. This was an attempt to specify the meaning of the gospel as it relates to economic, industrial, international and family concern. As an outgrowth of the Social Gospel Movement, it is an impressive ...

428. A Mission and a Message

Luke 10:1-24

Sermon

... has come near to (them)." And I give thanks for those who make it possible for people in those distant lands, who are called by Christ, to receive training for ministry in our colleges and seminaries. Years ago, a man and wife in a congregation I served, virtually adopted a young black man from Liberia. They gave him financial assistance, opened their home to him, and treated him like a son. He said to one of the pastors of that church, "You are one of the three preachers who have moved me since I have been ...

429. Counsel for Discouraged Disciples

Habakkuk 1:1-4

Sermon

... only appropriate generalizing way I have found to describe them is to say that they were victims of unfortunate social circumstances. There was, for example, the lovely young Sunday church school boy more than forty years ago who was snatched from his warm-hearted adoptive home and put in the army to be made a killer for World War II. Though he was not physically injured, he was effectively destroyed. Through all the years since he has been staring vacantly into unknowing nothingness within the walls of one ...

430. Weed-Pulling

Matthew 13:24-30

Sermon

Richard Patt

... moral ruin. Parents often feel this way about their own children. They feel compelled to influence their children so that they "turn out all right" later on in life. Many parents seek to pull out the weeds of negative behavior in their children by adopting the approach, "Now, I'm going to teach you a lesson!" Correction and pointed guidance are indeed needed with our children at times. But in too many cases the radical approach of parents only teaches children the lesson of fearing their very own parents ...

431. Arise, O Church of God, Arise!

Sermon

... in matchless grace. Christ most holy, served the lowly. Thus he taught us. He who sought us, Loved and bought us. This stanza may be easy to sing but tough to swallow. A serving church? The concept of being a servant is strange to most of us. We have adopted a life-style which has trained us to be served. No kidding, our general affluence today makes it pretty hard to take these words seriously. We despise the servant's role. That's why the poet here has to reprimand us, "Despise thou not the servant's role ...

432. Born Naked With A Cross

Sermon

... us in the world. To be like Christ is to bear a cross for others. To love when others hate, to give when others save, to hold steady when others go to pieces, to wait for God while others lose patience, to hold fast to the truth when others adopt worldly ideas - that is the life style of a true Christian. The Christian way is the way of the cross, the way of sacrifice, the entering into the sufferings and death of Christ. A young couple were looking forward to their first baby. When the father was called to ...

433. The Day of Pentecost

Isaiah 44:1-5

Sermon

... will be baptized into the people of God with a new name that will show her new condition. All of this will come about because foreign peoples and nations will be impressed by the saving power of Yahweh. Therefore, they will take his name and will adopt the name of his people. Theologically speaking, this passage is most interesting. The children of Israel are born into their heritage, but non-believers will enter and become the people of God by profession of faith, just as they do today in our churches and ...

434. Proper 9

Exodus 1:1-22

Sermon

... Unger's commentary on the Old Testament, Vol. 1, translates verse twelve as "felt a loathing for." Egyptians couldn't forget the Hebrews were Semites and they were different. These stubborn people retained many of their old ways. They went into their adopted country as nomads and came out as nomads. In Goshen, which was a grazing rather than a farming area, they were isolated from the Egyptians and basically untouched by the local culture. To compound the problem, Egyptians looked upon shepherds as virtual ...

435. Dear Mrs. Day

Luke 15:1-7

Sermon

Thomas C. Short

... another."1 That’s it. In our relationship with our creator God, there is a happiness and joy that is not experienced on any other level of life. I feel that joy in my heart. Don’t get me wrong. Every day is not a sunny day. I haven’t adopted a "Colgate smile" which advertises that every day is the best day ever. That’s not true for me. My joy comes from the knowledge that God loves me on good days and bad days, and that even from everlasting to everlasting I belong to God and God belongs to ...

436. Preaching Your Life

Acts 2:14-41

Sermon

... we go to a ball game and root for "our team" as if somehow we possessed them. We have a sense of vicarious experience - that these people on the screen or on the field are living on our behalf and their fate is ours. It's the same with adopting Christ's experiences as our story, except for this - Christ isn't pretending and neither are we. His agonies we've all shared to some degree; his triumph will be ours, too, and is already. The atonement - the at-one-ment with God -- means Christ lived, died, and rose ...

437. How Did It Come to This?

Jeremiah 2:1-3:5

Sermon

... off in a week that it took us years to put on. We cannot stop loving overnight, when we have loved for years. Marriages and divorces do not grow overnight. It all takes time. I well suspect that for the Hebrews, sin became an adopted lifestyle. Over time they quit praying, they quit reflecting, they became more pre-occupied with self-seeking. Then they began experimenting. With the Hebrews it was religious experimentation, but I suppose experimentation came come in many ways. There are three parables in the ...

438. Easter 6

Jn 14:23-29 · Acts 14:8-18; 15:1-2, 22-29 · Rev 21:10, 22-27

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

... the Lamb's book of life. It is more than a book of the dead or a book of remembrance. It is a book of life. The names in the book have been delivered from the death of sin, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, and have been adopted as God's children. As the name of the baptized is recorded in the Parish Register, the name is simultaneously recorded in heaven's book of life. PREACHING POSSIBILITIES Preaching on Easter 6 and the Ascension The new lectionary does not provide for an Ascension Sunday, only for an ...

439. Proper 7

Lk 9:18-24 · Gal 3:23-29 · 1 Ki 19:9-14 · Zech 12:7-10

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... , a giving of self or a child to God? It depends on the baptism. Is it a baptism into Christ? If so, baptism is putting on Christ. Christ is accepted as Lord and Savior. Christ by the Spirit comes into the heart. To have Christ is to be accepted and adopted as a child of God, for Christ's atoning death reconciled us to God. When then did Christ first come into your heart? It was at the time of your baptism. 3. One (v. 28). By baptism we are made one in Christ. This means that each true Christian is ...

440. The Baptism of Our Lord

Lk 3:15-17, 21-22 · Acts 8:14-17; 10:34-38 · Isa 42:1-7; 61:1-4

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... rite, a social christening, or a routine function of dedicating a child. The sermon can overcome these false ideas by showing what the text says. Outline: What baptism is all about - A. Regeneration at the reception of the Spirit - born-again - v. 22. B. Adoption into God's family - "My beloved Son" - v. 22. C. Ordination into God's service - the beginning of Jesus' ministry. 2. How Many Baptisms are There? 3:15-17, 21-22. Need: Some church people are of the opinion that there are two baptisms: water ...

441. Christmas Eve or Day

Isaiah 51:17--52:12, John 1:1-18, Hebrews 1:1-14

Bulletin Aid

... world to give us knowledge of God, and to share God's gift of life, that we might beome God's children. People: Many people did not recognize Jesus as God's Son; and many still do not receive him as Lord. Pastor: But all who do receive him, God adopts as his children who are reborn by his divine love. People: We want to meet Jesus and begin a new life, reborn into God's family! Collect Almighty God, whose Word became flesh in Jesus your Son: May our hearts be receptive to him as Lord and Savior; that we ...

442. A Noble Patriotism John D. Mauney, Jr.

Exodus 2:11-25

Sermon

... as God’s liberator of the Hebrews. Moses was born of a Levite couple, and he was beautiful to behold! Only three months after his birth, to prevent his slaughter by the Egyptians, his mother placed him in "the basket of bulrushes," resulting in his adoption into the Pharaoh’s court as the potential ruler of Egypt. "And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and in his deeds." Even the supernatural works of Almighty God are performed through natural means ...

443. Pilgrimage of Faith John M. Cobb

Exodus 3:1-22

Sermon

... apparently with his own mother as his nurse - but with all the privileges of the Egyptian palace. And so there you have it: Moses - by birth and tradition a member of a religious-cultural minority group - "primitive" and of nomadic tradition - but by adoption and education - Moses - a member of the majority culture - well-organized, technologically competent, but also - Godless. (I mean, yes, they did have their god; but it was not God himself, but rather their own projection.) So Moses is there in Egypt, a ...

444. And You Thought God Didn't Care!

Exodus 3:1-22

Sermon

... Hebrew babies to be killed, the mother made a basket of reeds, covered it with tar, placed her child in it, and launched it on the water of the river Nile. (You see, "water-beds" are not such a modern innovation, after all!) The babe was found, claimed, adopted and raised by Pharoah's daughter. The infant grew to be a man. He was educated and instructed in the royal courts by the best of tutors in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. When Moses was grown he refused to deny his identity with the Hebrew slaves ...

445. God of the Ordinary

Exodus 13:17--14:31

Sermon

... It is said that when Martin Luther was uncertain of his salvation, doubts would come to plague him, the devil would tell him he was no Christian, he then would crawl back, by faith, to the baptismal font to remind himself that there God adopted him, received him, and made him his own dear child. Feelings became unimportant, what God did became all-important. Have you ever noticed how people react when they are given a gift? One will carefully, slowly, and methodically open the package, deliberately examine ...

446. Communion Is Reconciliation

2 Corinthians 5:11--6:2

Sermon

... we were married. We fall short as parents when we do not act honorably toward our children and provide for them the kind of Christian example which we promised on the day of their baptisms. And it goes without saying, that we fall short as Christians when we adopt the thoughts, attitudes and ways of our hedonistic world. God knows how miserably we fail to live up to his desires and expectations, but contrary to those men in the lava flow, he does not allow us to fall to eternal death. He invites us to come ...

447. The Servant’s Credentials

Matthew 23:1-39

Sermon

... way they conduct themselves, but because of their "credentials", ecclesiastical, academic, or professional. It’s not to be so among you. You are one family, all brothers and sisters bound together in love and mutual service. You have one Father in heaven who has adopted you all and your leader is his only-begotten Son, your elder brother, the Christ. Do you want to be great? Terrific! The greatest among you will be your servant. Those who are pretentious and toplofty are in for a fall from their imagined ...

448. The Divine-Human Nexus

Matthew 25:31-46

Sermon

... prepared from you from the foundation of the world." The first reason is this: those who inherit anything are usually the testator’s children; with certain exceptions, heirs are chosen by the testator himself or herself. To be chosen by God, to be adopted as God’s child (and thus made kin to "the least of these, my brethren"!) is indeed to be blessed! The second reason is this: amid human talk of "building the Kingdom," "furthering the Kingdom," "bringing the Kingdom in our day," it is comforting ...

449. Repairing Your Broken Dreams

Luke 24:13-35

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... his feet, the city was flat as a desert. Sixty-eight thousand human beings were killed instantly. Only 30 members of his 3,500-member church were still alive. Rev. Tanimoto began to rebuild his crucified church. He arranged for the spiritual adoption of 500 Hiroshima orphans by North American families. As a result of his work, all bomb survivors became eligible for free medical treatment. Rev. Tanimoto also created a Peace Foundation. In that Foundation's museum a little girl named Sadako placed two cranes ...

450. The Life We Prize

Luke 9:18-27

Sermon

Various Authors

... have been created. Paul writes, "We were buried therefore with him [Christ] by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life." (Romans 6:4) A loving husband and wife adopted a baby boy. These new parents had died to themselves and had found life through loving the child entrusted to them. Their son, named Fred, grew strong in the riches of Christ’s love. When Fred was in his twenties, he learned the identity of his natural ...

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