Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 426 to 450 of 1089 results

1 Peter 3:8-22

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

... . I’ll be right here with you." Remember the frightening story of the "Portrait of Dorian Gray," how Dorian, obsessively, always wanted to remain just as handsome and youthful and noble as he appeared in the portrait that had been painted of him by a famous artist. And so he got his wish, you remember. He remained young, handsome, noble, but his portrait changed, and, finally, he had to hide the portrait away. But always with a terrible kind of fascination, he used to sneak off to the room where it was ...

427. JEWELER

Exodus 28:11

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

... worn on the ear or around the neck. Sometimes they were used to ward off evil spirits and charms. The armlet was a bracelet worn on the upper part of the arm. Rings were worn as frequently in the nose as on the finger. Ancient jewelers needed both artistic ability and manual dexterity. They first formed a wax model of the article they were making. Next, they placed the model in the casting ring and poured plaster into the ring to form a mold. This mold was inserted into a furnace to melt the wax. A metal ...

428. HOUDINI

Illustration

G. William Genszler

Houdini was one of the greatest magicians that ever lived. He could make elephants disappear right before your eyes. He was also the world’s greatest escape artist. They could chain him, lock him in a trunk and throw him through the ice of the Detroit River and he still made his escape. No vault or lock or door could withstand his cunning. He was asked if there was a door that he couldn’t unlock. He replied ...

429. God of Wrath and Grace

Genesis 6:1-8:22

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... it? The imagination of many people is still filled with evil. For example, the newspaper reminded us last week that we have satanic cults here in Shelby County, routinely offering animal sacrifices in their pagan rituals. In recent years, some so-called artists have created blasphemous statues, funded by tax monies, as part of the National Endowment for the Arts. As wonderful as the Internet is, it too is afflicted by the desperate wickedness of persons. Some adults misuse it to lure children into sexual ...

430. Great Is Your Faith

Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon

Brett Blair

... interest. She awakens in us a feeling of admiration, perhaps even envy, because she stands where most of us would like to stand. What faithful Christian would not like it said of him or her: Great is your faith. Think of what it would mean if an aspiring young artist had Picasso place his hand on his shoulder and say: You have a great talent. How wonderful it would be then to a believer in God, if Jesus would place his hand on our shoulder and say: You have a remarkable talent for faith. But how does one ...

431. Scandelon

Matthew 16:21-28

Illustration

Brett Blair

Some years ago Michael Card, a contemporary Christian artist, wrote a song called Scandelon. It is about the scandalous nature of the cross. The chorus goes: He will be the Truth that will offend them one and all. A stone that makes men stumble and a rock that makes them fall. And many will be broken so that He ...

432. Reconciling Palms and Thorns

Isaiah 50:1-11

Sermon

Donald Macleod

... a house of prayer, but you have made it into a den of robbers!" We, too, are fond of the Jesus of Palms. We talk and sing about "Gentle Jesus, meek and mild," of the shy little Jesus boy, and of the woolly Lamb of God. And our artists and painters have sketched the face of Jesus as soft and smooth, replacing the rugged and robust features with anemic and pallid colors. We fill our economy gift shops with cheap and tawdry religious souvenirs that belong to the mediocre levels of our culture. Our Jesus is ...

433. Clean and Unclean

Acts 11:1-18

Illustration

Larry Powell

... following: Shall God grant repentance to 1. those in our prisons, 2. Russians, 3. criminals, 4. non-Christians, or even non-Christian religions, 5. persons who exploit us in some manner, 6. ignorant people who could do better but won’t, 7. con-artists? Measure your response well, remembering that it was necessary for Peter to broaden the orbit of his concern. A retiring old usher, instructing a youthful new replacement in the details of ushering said, "And remember, my boy, we have nothing but good, kind ...

434. A Season Of Joy

Luke 2:8-20

Sermon

Robert Allen

... of all creation deemed it proper to send his Son to walk among us. A Madison Avenue promoter would undoubtedly have made a big deal of it, with the baby born of a queen and the father a king. But, God is much more resourceful ... much more sophisticated ... much more artistic. He had his Son born of a simple peasant girl. And the place of the Baby’s birth wasn’t in a big palace. It was in a stable where the cattle and other animals looked on. Everyone loves a baby and there is a certain joy which fills ...

435. Wade In The Water

2 Kings 5:1-27

Sermon

Frederick C. Edwards

... rivers he could have washed in, why the Jordan? You might wonder that, too, if you have ever seen the Jordan. While in rainy times it may flow a pretty good stream, it is not the "mighty Jordan" that a songwriter imagined, or that Sunday school illustration artists have sometimes painted. The Jordan is only a few yards wide in most places, and rather sluggish. One is not apt to be swept away by its current. So, to wade out and bathe in this torpid tributary was beneath Naaman’s dignity. It is interesting ...

436. Coming Down The Mountain

2 Kings 2:1-18

Sermon

Frederick C. Edwards

... a bit longer in our enjoyment of a meaningful moment, but the needs of the world await us. The needs of the world that awaited Jesus and his disciples were focused in a father who had brought his young son to be healed. I remember seeing an artist’s depiction of the scene. There is the mountain - the scene of the magnificent messianic vision - and there are Jesus and the three disciples descending the path. At the bottom are the father and son, with others around them awaiting for Jesus. That’s the way ...

437. Egypt: Unlikely Refuge

Matthew 2:13-18

Sermon

J. Ellsworth Kalas

... on the past and one on the future. He saw the scripture as another piece in the grand mosaic of prophecy about Jesus. The story of Jesus’ journey to Egypt is covered in only two or three paragraphs, but it has caught the imagination of common folks and artists alike. Luc Olivier Marson titled his painting, "Repose in Egypt." He pictured Mary and the Baby asleep in the hollow between the body and the right paw of the Sphinx. The halo from the Baby’s face lights up the face of the Sphinx. And there are ...

438. Saint Francis of Assisi: a Faith for Every Day

Psalm 145:9 · Proverbs 12:10

Children's Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

... about Francis that one time a very bad wolf was hurting people in a whole little town. It was attacking the animals and people in this little community. The story goes that St. Francis, without any protection or weapons, went out and tamed the animal, and now artists even draw pictures of that same wolf lying at St. Francis’ feet like a gentle lamb. There’s another story that tells of all the birds coming to the house and staying there all night the night that Francis died. The story goes that the birds ...

439. They Also Serve Who Wait

Luke 2:21-40

Sermon

Thomas Long

... as he had said, "Mine eyes have seen thy salvation," he added the warning, "This child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel." Every coming of God meets our needs, but also violates our expectations and demands our lives. When the master artist Giotto expressed this story in paint, he, too, saw the fulfillment and the demand, the joy and the hope, in the coming of God. His "Presentation in the Temple" is, according to art critic John W. Dixon, Jr., "one of the few genuinely witty paintings in ...

440. What Do We Do Now That We’re Happy?

Isaiah 62:1-12

Sermon

Thomas D. Peterson

... one wants takes away the inner satisfaction of what we do, because all our efforts and best resolves never seem to coalesce. What good is all the hard work and patient productivity when it never really works? I recall a fine television show in which an artist smashed his works because he felt he would never get the woman he loved. Romantic, yes, but not far from the destructive frustrations that are present in most of us. To get what one wants lays a heavy challenge on the remainder of life. Somehow life ...

441. What Is God Made Of?

Acts 17:16-34

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

... a god and they put the statue on a shelf and everybody thought that their house was protected from any kind of evil spirits. This statue is made of marble. Other people liked to think their god was made in the form of a painting and they had a great artist paint them a copy so that everyone would picture god in the same way. A real long time ago, boys and girls, there were people who believed that their god lived in a rock like this or in a tree or in a very fast running river. That’s what ...

442. "The Sawdust and the Circus"

Numbers 27:12-23

Sermon

... a major event, even in a city the size of Pittsburgh. Circuses, however, seem to be only the little road shows hardly worthy of the title, or else the spectacular extravaganzas that play at Madison Square Garden or the Civic Arena that even with elephants, trapeeze artists, and clowns seem not quite up to the style of the old big top. Needless to say, most of our thoughts about evagelism are nostalgic ones. For better or for worse, the very word "evangelism" connotes to us the revivalism of a by-gone era ...

443. Free to Live as Victors

1 John 5:1-12

Sermon

Charles L. Koester

Several years ago, McCalls magazine featured a portrait painted by the famous artist, Norman Rockwell. Perhaps you recall this one. Rockwell here protrayed, in striking terms, a truth about ourselves, a truth about our impersonal society and relationships today. Shown in his painting is the magnificent entrance to an urban cathedral. Vaulted high above its magnificently carved Gothic doors are statues of the ...

444. Joseph

Drama

Charles L. Koester

INTRODUCTION: [This portion is read from the lecturn by the introducer or narrator.] Of all the persons involved and related to the Advent, the coming, of Christ, there is one who is the "forgotten man" of the Nativity. Even the great artists of the world, many of whom have lavished their imagination upon the scene of the Nativity, have been content to make him part of the dark backgrounds of their paintings. Yet, this man was much more than just a piece of fleshly furniture. As his wife, Mary, was chosen ...

445. The Forgotten

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

Theodore L. Yewey

... of the Nativity. We generally try to have several of these displayed in various places to remind us not only of the beautiful story of the birth of Jesus, but also to call our attention to the wide variety of ways Ihis story is told by various artists. One of our favorite nativity scenes is a large white ceramic set that has been a part of many Chrisimases in our home. As we were unpacking that set this year the sickening sound of something broken rattled in the box. With a closer examination, we discovered ...

446. The Miracle

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

Theodore L. Yewey

... course of the world. Life that was destined to reach through the centuries and affect even us this night. That night, in the form of a tiny, squirming, helpless, dependent baby, born in a stable, in a miraculous way that has bewildered the generations - inspired poets, artists, and musicians - the Love and Truth and Wisdom of all the ages took human form and entered the life of mankind and became one of us. Here was the hope of which the prophet spoke when he said, "The glory of the Lord shall be revealed ...

447. Extended Light

1 Corinthians 7:29-31

Sermon

William F. Dunkle

... this sweet memory of her husband’s last days. Among other effects of leukemia, his sight was fading, leaving him with only partial vision. One evening the wife was impressed by an especially beautiful sunset. The western sky was splashed with vivid colors as an artist’s pallet. Hoping her husband could enjoy it with her, she got him out of his chair and helped him stand in front of the western window. But his failing eyes could not see the gorgeous sunset. It was several days later that this husband ...

448. Unwavering Light

1 Corinthians 7:1-40

Sermon

William F. Dunkle

... Saint Paul urges. Important as pleasing one’s wife is, the paramount concern of a Christian is "how to please the Lord," to quote Pastor Paul directly. Christ calls for the total commitment in his followers that he demonstrated in his own life. A real artist does not ask himself how little of his life and talent he must give. When somebody asked Tintoretto what he mixed with his paints to achieve the special red color so characteristic of his paintings, he said, "Blood!" Even so the Christian life demands ...

449. THIS IS THE WILL OF GOD, YOUR SANCTIFICATION

1 Thessalonians 4:13--5:11

Sermon Aid

John W. Rilling

Introduction. The English mystical poet William Blake was also a firstrate artist. Once, when asked to sketch a picture of man as he really is, Blake drew a picture of a child standing on the topmost rung of a ladder reaching for the moon and crying impatiently, "I want, I want!" Blake felt that man is a creature of unfulfilled desires. He ...

450. Reinforced With Joy

John 15:1-17

Sermon

O. Garfield Beckstrand, II

... things that God does for people, and another time for some other purpose. If you read the Gospels and look for the joy of Jesus, you will be amazed at the evidence you find. Jesus is not a man of sorrow, as he is so frequently pictured by artists and poets. The Gospels show Jesus to be a joyous person, who brought gladness wherever he went. His very presence made people feel better. His greeting: "Be of good cheer," was well known. John said, "Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord" (John 20:20 ...

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