Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 426 to 450 of 1230 results

Luke 18:9-14

Sermon

... reporting, and hands were kept fully occupied with the business of combing the countryside for the next meal’s main course. What little time remained after food-hunting had to be spent in protection and defense from huge, strange-looking creatures and less-than-ideal weather conditions. Even though "I" no longer stood alone, most of one’s time and attention still had to be devoted to the "I" side of things - feeding, protecting, maintaining. Being long on the "I"-side had to be a way of life. Without ...

427. Return to Jerusalem

Acts 20:7-12

Sermon Aid

CSS

... about a service of worship: too long, dull sermon, uncomfortable pews, poor singing, etc. What’s the real purpose of the service? Is a sermon necessary? Is singing necessary? Is the time of day important? Must it be Sunday? Plan an ideal service. 2. Elders cared for early Christian congregations when apostolic leadership was not available. Evidently the elders carried out all the functions of the ministry, including the preaching and administration of the sacraments. How does this help explain our present ...

428. Paul’s Midnight Ride

Acts 22:30--23:11

Sermon Aid

... carried out. Thoughts (for personal reflection and group discussion) 1. Paul’s trial before the Sanhedrin has almost comic-opera aspects. Such confusion can still occur when government agencies get caught up in church affairs. How should church or religious quarrels ideally be settled? 2. God’s plan was to use the Roman political system to help spread the Gospel, Paul discovered. In the time of the Reformation, God used the political divisions in Europe to provide security for the Reformers and to help ...

429. "I appeal to Caesar!"

Acts 24:1-27, Acts 25:1-12

Sermon Aid

CSS

Two years at Caesarea! Today people might regard that as an ideal vacation - warm Mediterranean breezes, a rocky shoreline with some sandy beaches, daily pageantry with the drills of the Roman legions, plenty of sunshine and swimming. Today, only a few miles to the south, the shore is lined with the high-rise resort hotels of Tel-Aviv. Caesarea itself has become ...

430. A King Worth Having

Zechariah 9:9-13

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... impossible? Retired Admiral Gene La Roque reported in 1982 that since World War II, 270 wars and some 800 minor skirmishes and coup d’etats have been recorded by the Pentagon. Are we crying "peace" when there is no peace? Is world peace only a dream and an ideal and not a practical reality for the world? What peace requires the world has not yet met. To have peace, the nations must get rid of their weapons. In our text Zechariah says this coming king will cut off the chariot, the war horse, and the battle ...

431. The Grace of Disillusionment

Matthew 26:69-75

Sermon

Robert Bachelder

... economy’s focus to shift away from the creative and more just society to one which utilizes its resources to build nuclear weapons at the risk of holocaust. As surely as Lawrence Pommeroy, we are saying our "good-byes" to our churches and to our highest ideals. What can you do with a man like Lawrence Pommeroy? his brother asks. What can you do about the Lawrence Pommeroys of the world? What can we do about the Lawrence Pommeroy, the Pharisee, in each of us breeds disillusionment and gloom? The first step ...

432. Eternal Echo Of Easter - Part 2

Matthew 28:1-10

Drama

Esther R. Russ

... to the undergarment. For example, white undergarment with light blue cumberbund and headcover, or light blue undergarment with dark brown cumberbund and headcover. Jesus and John the Beloved For making the tunic (the undergarment), a man’s t-shirt pattern is ideal to use by expanding the chest, widening the sleeves, and lengthening the garment to the ankles. The material for draping the men should be twice the length from the shoulder to the bottom hem of the undergarment. Fold the salvaged ends ...

433. The Importance of Unity

1 Corinthians 1:10-17

Sermon

Hubert Beck

... we might note! Perhaps we should pause and discuss briefly what might be meant by the phrase, "unity in the church." For some people, I am sure, it means everybody thinking the same thoughts, doing the same things, and in general, parroting some ideal raised before the congregation. Too many people equate unity with uniformity and immediately charge anyone with breaking the unity of the church who does not conform to a particular kind of standard raised (usually rather arbitrarily) by some one or some group ...

434. Journey To The Cross VI: Jesus And Pontius Pilate

Matthew 27:11-26

Sermon

James W. Moore

... last for generations. Why? Because the words and music tugged at something buried deep down in the human heart... something that most people thought dead and gone forever... It was the appeal of a great dream, the challenge of striving after some tremendous ideal. Jesus knew about that important longing deep within us and in the Sermon on the Mount... He underscored it by saying: Seek first God’s Kingdom and His righteousness and everything else will fall in place. Blessed are those who keep on hungering ...

435. A Daughter of Jacob

Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon

Richard Hoefler

... into a ministry among the heathen people which would mar the unity of his career as a prophet of God to Israel."12 Theodore P. Ferris presents this interpretation in even a stronger manner as he suggests in his sermon: Throw away your picture of Jesus as the idealized man, the man who never spoke a harsh word; the man who was never tempted by any deep-seated hostilities that plague us; never torn by the dark passions that tear us to shreds; the picture of Jesus that shed all his Jewishness when he was a boy ...

436. What It Takes to Stay Christian

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Sermon

Raymond Gibson

... arrived in Versailles as your new pastor, it was my custom to arise at 5:30 A.M. every morning and run four or five miles before breakfast. I weighed 147 pounds, and for a man of my age, I was in good condition. I was five pounds under my ideal weight, I felt fresh and trim, had a great deal of energy, and slept like a newborn baby. My muscles were firm and tough, I was in excellent health and knew it. As the months passed, changes have taken place. Partly because of my workaholic nature, partly because of ...

437. Issachar

Genesis 49:1-28

Sermon

Warren Thomas Smith

... is handsome muscle. The secret is, if muscle is to be developed, it must be given maximized effort. The weights can never remain the same, but must always be increased. The same rule applies in the moral and spiritual realm. Dreams, ideals, and causes which are too small, too easily realized, seldom quicken us spiritually. Our souls have been assigned tasks which are insignificant; our prayers are overly simple; our moral vision is too limited; our social concern is too parochial. SLUMBER TODAY "Issachar ...

438. Bezaleel

Exodus 35:30--36:7

Sermon

Warren Thomas Smith

... transforming power of a cathedral. Here was the opportunity to express joy and talent in the worship of God. They were giving something to the world which would outlast their frail bodies. They were engaged in something which would be le beau ideal, dedicated to the God they trusted would smile understandingly upon them and accept their "... sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving." Generations of artists and artisans gave their best. We have no record of their names, but the "fruit of their hands" will endure ...

439. MIRIAM’S BABY BROTHER

Drama

Marcia Miller

... are a table, several chairs, a fireplace, and a cradle; the usual things. A door on stage right leads to another room in the house. Sitting on the table is a large basket. It is big enough to carry a bundle - such as a baby. Although this is the ideal set, substitutions (such as using the back of a lectern for the china cabinet) can be made. CHARACTERS MOTHER MIRIAM - a young girl SOLDIER #1 SOLDIER #2 Just before the lights come on, a woman’s scream is heard. Lights. "Not my baby; not mine." More screams ...

440. Claudia Procula, Peter, and Centurion

Drama

Jon Joyce

... bottom of the robe is a four-inch decorative hem of bright colors. He carries a small sword, sheathed at his left side. Sandals. If available, he also wears a Roman helmet. If a Roman soldier’s outfit is available from a costumer, it would be ideal. Peter: colorful, striped robe, to ankles. Brown sandals. Red, curly, long hair, and red beard. If possible, Peter should be a tall, burly man, larger than the Centurion. Claudia: long white robe with gold or silver cord tied as a belt. Gold sandals. Hair piled ...

441. On Being Able to Be Sorry

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

Allan J. Weenink

... returns to the apartment. It is very late. But unbelievably she is sitting on the front steps. He hurries to her and begins to express his sorrow for hurting her. She replies: "Love means not ever having to say you’re sorry." That is a beautiful and ideal thought in its own way, I suppose, but a psychological disaster as well. I seriously question its reality as an adequate definition of love. I am not in a position to quarrel with Mr. Segal, the author, who is a Harvard graduate, a professor at Yale, and ...

442. When The Cheering Stopped

Matthew 21:1-11

Sermon

Brett Blair

... Wilson, a man who barely a year earlier had been heralded as the new world Messiah, came to the end of his days a broken and defeated man. It’s a sad story, but one that is not altogether unfamiliar. The ultimate reward for someone who tries to translate ideals into reality is apt to be frustration and defeat. There are some exceptions, of course, but not too many. It happened that way to Jesus. When he emerged on the public scene he was an overnight sensation. He would try to go off to be alone and the ...

443. Manufactured Christianity: Jesus Sells, Jesus Sells!

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... make a name for ourselves,’ they exclaimed. No wonder, after their language was confused, God called the place Ba’bel. I imagine a lot of babbling took place. Samuel Goldwyn of MGM fame once remarked that human beings so crave the spectacular that the ideal money-making film would be one that begins with an earthquake and works up to a climax. Such is our limited perception of greatness. But greatness in the Christian faith is not defined in terms of splendor, or power, or the ability to manufacture and ...

444. Paul Today

Acts 17:16-34

Sermon Aid

T. A. Kantonen

... to take offense. John keeps no score of wrongs; he does not gloat over other men’s sins, but delights in the truth. There is nothing John cannot face, there is no limit to his faith, his hope, and his endurance." Obviously we have here a transcendent ideal rather than an empirical fact, although a saint like John XXIII came close to fitting the description. Paul himself would say, "Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has mode ...

445. Hindering Riches

Matthew 19:16-30

Sermon

Herchel H. Sheets

... temporarily inhabited the shell. The shell was empty now. It was simple and barren, and Mrs. Lindbergh was reminded of how little one can get along with. She decided to take it back home to Connecticut with her and set it on her desk, to remind her of the ideal of a simplified life: "To ask how little, not how much, can I get along with. To say - is it necessary? - when I am tempted to add one more accumulation to my life, when I am pulled toward one more centrifugal activity."6 "How little can I get along ...

446. Cheering Stones

Luke 19:28-44

Sermon

Herchel H. Sheets

... s Cabin, p. 301. New York: Harper and Row, Publishers (Perennial Classic edition), 1958, 1965. 2. Helen Smith Shoemaker. I Stand By The Door, p. 190. New York, Evanston and London: Harper and Row, Publishers, 1967. 3. James Stalker. John Knox: His Ideas And Ideals, p. 120. New York: A. C. Armstrong and Son; London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1904. 4. Hanns Lilje. The Valley Of The Shadow, p. 40. Philadelphia: The Muhlenberg Press, n.d. 5. W. Robertson Nicoll, Editor. Letters Of Principal James Denney, pp. 41-42 ...

447. The Christian’s Style - 1960

Matthew 11:1-19

Sermon

Kent Moorehead

... too frequently twisted and distorted in vain attempts to justify pagan practices and to sanctify sinful systems. But it is never done with impunity, nor even with a good conscience. Sooner or later we begin to be haunted again with the ethical ideal. Our casuistry, ignoble expediency, and cheap compromises are seen for the ugly things they are. We stand rebuked and condemned. His style smites us. Which leads me to my third concern. That which bothers us most about Jesus, arousing our bitterest antagonism ...

448. Christians In A Warring World - 1941

Galatians 6:1-10

Sermon

Kent Moorehead

... and ruinous social sin that afflicts mankind. The Methodist Church, like many other great denominations, has officially declared its fundamental conviction in this matter. War is sin, it insists, because it involves: (1) complete denial of the ideas and ideals of Christ; (2) the ruthless, indiscriminate slaughter of human beings; (3) the utter violation of personality; (4) lying propaganda; (5) deliberate breeding of the spirit of hate; (6) wholesale destruction of property; (7) putting in the place of ...

449. EPISODE 2: THE SECOND WEEK IN LENT

Drama

Robert Clausen

... one of God’s creatures. JUDAS: This is not the kingdom we are looking for. JESUS: It is the kingdom you are offered. You will see its beginning before you die. Do you believe this, Thomas? THOMAS: No, Lord, I doubt it. It’s too much of an ideal. JESUS: Will you still follow me? THOMAS: A doubter may still dream. JOHN: What’s the next move, Lord? JESUS: It’s time that we go to Mary and Martha. [JESUS, MARY MAGDALENE, PETER and JOHN exit.] JUDAS: Thomas ... you’re going to stay with him? THOMAS: Why ...

450. EPISODE 3: THE THIRD WEEK IN LENT

Drama

Robert Clausen

... a thousand? JUDAS: Five thousand. BISHOP: Twenty-five hundred. JUDAS: Thirty-five hundred. BISHOP: Twenty-eight. JUDAS: Thirty. BISHOP: Thirty hundred? JUDAS: No less. BISHOP: Very well, thirty it is. Come to my office and we’ll work out the details. The church is still the refuge for men with ideals. ***** This is the end of Act One.

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