Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: Levi, disciple, evangelist, tax collector, the 12, the twelve, apostle, sermon on the mount, jewish audience, beatitudes, lord's prayer, great commission, parables, olivet discourse, mount of olives, olivet, synoptic

Showing 4476 to 4500 of 4943 results

4476. Proper 21

Matthew 21:28-32

Sermon Aid

Liturgical Color: Green Gospel: Matthew 21:28-32 Theme: A Matter of Obedience. Pastoral Invitation to the Celebration Suggested: Begin with Paul Vieth's statement, "Awareness of the Presence of God is the heart of worship." (source unknown) Such an awareness causes us to recognize that we live all of life on holy ground. You may wish to follow with this litany between pastor and ministers: Pastor: We remember the Good News of our liberation. Ministers: Christ has declared our self-worth. Pastor: Christ has ...

4477. Proper 23

Matthew 22:1-14

Sermon Aid

Liturgical Color: Green Gospel: Matthew 22:1-14 Theme: Many are called; few are chosen. Pastoral Invitation to the Celebration Try this: "During banquets, we celebrate. We may have difficulty during corporate worship, because we think of the sanctuary as a protection from life, rather than as an involvement in life. "We are here to celebrate the Presence of God in all of life, in all of the world; and God calls us to make a difference in life, in the world." You may want to use this printed litany: Pastor ...

4478. A Glory Revealed in the Cross

John 8:12-30

Sermon

Jesus said, "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that ‘I Am.’ " - John 8:28 The contemporary German theologian, Jurgen Moltmann, wrote: Since I first studied theology, I have been concerned with the theology of the cross.... It is the basic theme of my theological thought. No doubt this goes back to the period of my first concern with questions concerning Christian faith and theology in real life, as a prisoner of war behind the barbed wire.... Shattered and broken, the survivors of ...

4479. A Glory Revealed in Liberty

John 8:31-41

Sermon

Jesus then said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." They answered him, "We are descendants of Abraham, and have never been in bondage to any one. How is it that you say, ‘You will be made free’!" They answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not continue in the house for ever; the son continues for ever. So if the Son makes ...

4480. The Passover Meal Of The Last Supper

Mark 14:12-26

Bulletin Aid

MAUNDY THURSDAY The Passover Meal Of The Last Supper A Communion Service This communion may be celebrated around tables or in the pews. It is possible for a meal to be served as part of the celebration, but not necessary to the service. This is not, strictly speaking, a Seder in the traditional sense, for many of the Seder traditions are rooted in the diaspora of post-biblical times. Rather, this is a celebration of the Lord’s Supper which includes some traditional Hebrew Passover prayers and symbolic ...

4481. Poured Out for Many

Exodus 24:1-18, Mark 14:12-26

Sermon

And Moses took the blood and threw it upon the people, and said, "Behold the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you in accordance with these words." (Exodus 24:8) The symbol of blood is both an attraction and a revulsion to Christian piety. For some, it is a rich expression of religious feeling. The hymnwriter says: "There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Immanuel’s veins; And sinners plunged beneath that flood Lose all their guilty stains." (W. Cowper, 1779) However, others feel ...

4482. Salvation: Authentic and Powerful

Amos 5:18-27

Sermon

King Duncan

Christian unity elevates authentic and powerful salvation. The fiery and abrasive Amos said many things his listeners did not want to hear! He was about as rugged as any individualist could be. Continually at odds with the power structures of his day, the prophet spoke directly, with no regard for those who tried to compromise his message. Our Lord’s plea for his church to be One is not a way of reducing denominations and Christians to forms that are listless. Ecumenism, by its very nature, seeks integrity ...

4483. Growing in Our Environment

Illustration

Bill Bouknight

It may surprise most people to know that one of the most popular fish for home aquariums is the shark. A shark grows according to its setting. Whereas in the ocean it can grow to eight or ten feet in length, it reaches only six to eight inches in an aquarium. People are like the shark in at least one respect. We grow according to the possibilities around us. If we live or work in a setting that is critical, harsh, and unloving, we never become very much. But if we live or work in a supportive, encouraging ...

4484. Do Wrinkles Hurt?

Illustration

Bill Bouknight

A seven-year-old girl was sitting on her grandmother's lap. As the little girl moved her hand across the older woman's face, grandma said, ‘Those are my wrinkles. They mean that I'm getting older.’ The little girl looked up and asked, ‘Grandma, do wrinkles hurt?’ she was asking not just about wrinkles but what is it like to get older. It's a matter of faith and attitude. Some of the happiest people I know are over 65. They age gracefully accepting the trade-offs. They keep growing, stretching their minds, ...

4485. The Truest Freedom

Illustration

Bill Bouknight

Navy Commander Charles Plumb spent six years in the infamous Hanoi Hilton prison, in solitary confinement most of the time. One day he heard a noise that sounded like a cricket. He investigated and found a moving wire. Then the wire disappeared. When it reappeared, a note was attached which said, ‘Memorize this code and then swallow this note.’ Thus he began communicating with another navy pilot. Soon afterward his new friend sent this message: ‘The biggest problem here is prison brain, thinking like a ...

4486. An NBA Angel

Illustration

Bill Bouknight

Professional basketball player Karl Malone of the Utah Jazz is a sensitive man. He met a 13-year-old boy named Danny who was battling cancer. They became good friends. Less than a month before Danny died, Malone arranged for him to see Utah beat Seattle in game 6 of the NBA western conference finals. In a post-game press conference, Malone said, ‘It's sort of a bittersweet win. I have a friend here tonight named Danny who is not doing too well right now, so this win is for him.’ A few weeks later, Danny ...

4487. Kingdoms In Conflict

Daniel 2:24-49

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

There are two groups in our culture self confident enough to make jokes about themselves--- lawyers and rednecks. The following story came from a self-identified redneck. He says that a fellow redneck over in the Ozark Mountains died. His redneck widow went to the local newspaper to have an obituary notice printed. The editor explained that it would cost 50 cents per word. She thought a moment and then said, "Print this—‘Billy Bob died.’" "Wait a minute," said the editor. "We have a seven word minimum." " ...

4488. Turn Out the Lights! The Party's Over!

Daniel 5:1-31

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

Many of you sports fans will remember Dandy Don Meredith, former great quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys, and later an announcer for Monday Night football. At that moment in a game when Don felt that one team was too far ahead for the other teach to catch, he would sing a little ditty with these words, "Turn out the Lights! The party’s over." Never was that song more appropriate than in the scene depicted in the fifth chapter of Daniel. Let me give you the historical setting. Old King Nebuchadnezzar, whom ...

4489. Is Jesus Still in the Healing Business?

Luke 4:38-44, Luke 4:31-37

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

In a city where I pastored years ago, a clergyman caused quite a controversy. When visiting his church members in the hospital, he would not pray for healing. He believed that the laws of cause and effect are constant and could not be swayed by prayer. It put me in a tight spot because his members began to ask me to come to the hospital and pray for them. There is no doubt that Jesus was in the healing business. Indeed, healing miracles made Jesus famous. Even Rudolf Bultmann, one of the most skeptical New ...

4490. The Touch of the Master's Hand

Luke 5:12-16

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

Although we have heard it many times, the poem about the old violin never fails to touch my heart. Myra Brooks Welch penned this masterpiece entitled, "The Touch of the Master’s Hand." "Twas battered and scarred, and the auctioneer thought it scarcely worth his while to waste much time on the old violin, but held it up with a smile. ‘What am I bidden, good folks,’ he cried. ‘Who’ll start the bidding for me? A dollar, a dollar’; then, ‘two! Only two? Two dollars, and who’ll make it three? Three dollars, ...

4491. Don't Let the Parade Pass You By

Luke 19:28-44

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

America’s great child-philosopher, Dennis the Menace, offered this observation as his mother washed his dirty hands: "Margaret’s Mom must like me. I heard her say, ‘I just wish he was my child for five minutes.’" The people of Jerusalem had a similar kind of love/hate attitude toward Jesus. They cheered him on the first Palm Sunday as he entered Jerusalem, but then shouted "Crucify him" the following Friday. The Palm Sunday crowd was enthusiastic but fickle. As the politicians would say, Jesus’ support was ...

4492. Habit or Getting Used to It

Illustration

Bill Bouknight

Psychologists often use this ‘three dollar’ word: ‘habituation.’ It just means to get used to something. For example, drop a frog in a pot of boiling water and it will immediately hop out. But drop it in comfortable water, and increase the water temperature very slowly. The frog will not jump out. In a little while it will be ‘habituated’ or cooked. There are some things we must not get accustomed to: like one million abortions per year in America - like strip joints in our city exploiting young women and ...

4493. September 11th

Illustration

Bill Bouknight

The atrocity of September 11th was shocking in that many people had never before seen the face of evil so starkly. Is it naïve to hope that some good might come out of that dastardly attack on innocent people? The bible teaches that God is in the business of bringing good out of evil. An Old Testament hero named Joseph was mistreated terribly by his brothers, but God made his suffering productive. Later Joseph said to his brothers, ‘You meant it for evil, but God used it for good.’ Romans 8:28 declares ...

4494. Grab Hold of Something That Holds!

Illustration

Bill Bouknight

In Herman Melville's classic novel, ‘Moby Dick,’ there is a poignant moment when the captain tightens a vice on his own hand. With a pain filled expression on his face he exclaims, ‘A man has to feel something that holds in this slippery world.’ We live in a changing, transient world. Nations like ancient Rome and Greece, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, all become strong and then corrupt. Finally, each one fell. Will America experience that sad cycle? Ozzie and Harriett moral values are declared ...

4495. Advance into Europe

Acts 15:36-41

Sermon Aid

CSS

Paul’s second missionary journey got off to a bad start. After several months at Antioch, Paul suggested to Barnabas that they retrace their steps over the route they had followed on the first journey. This would enable them to present to each congregation the message from the council at Jerusalem and also to revive and strengthen the faith of their earliest converts. Barnabas wanted to take with them John Mark, the young mam who had begun the first journey with them but had withdrawn from it in Pamphylia ...

4496. "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 a tourist mecca, carefully excavated and restored to indicate some of the amenities of Roman civilization - paved streets, aqueducts to bring ...

4497. Changing the "Too Much Syndrome"

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

David M. Oliver

Everyone I know has something to say about the time leading up to Christmas. I have heard people say that this season involves too much busyness, too much fatigue, too much pressure, too much eating, drinking, baking, and buying. With all the hopes, expectations, traditions, obligations, dreams and fantasies that surround Christmas, it is easy to see why this time seems to be reduced to too much of almost everything. I invite you to lay down and lay aside these experiences for the moment. This worship is ...

4498. Bitter-Sweet Recollections

Isaiah 50:1-11

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

"The Lord God has given Me the tongue of the learned, That I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary. He awakens me morning by morning, He awakens My ear to hear as the learned. The Lord God has opened My ear; and I was not rebellious, Nor did I turn away. I gave my back to those who struck Me, And My cheeks to those who plucked out the beard; I did not hide my face from shame and spitting. For the Lord God will help Me; Therefore I will not be disgraced; Therefore I have set my face ...

4499. Are There Two Baptisms?

Acts 2:14-41

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." Misinformation is often passed around as Gospel truth. It is like the two little boys who were talking between themselves. One of them couldn’t understand why they had holes in their tummies - where did their belly-buttons come from? But his little five-year-old friend had a ready answer. "Oh, that’s easy," he said. "You see, God makes ...

4500. Which Jesus? This Jesus!

Acts 17:1-9

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

"... This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ." A conductor said to the Lt. Governor of the State of Pennsylvania, as he was boarding a train, "Go right up the steps, sir, turn left, and take a seat." But the Lt. Governor turned right instead of left and found himself in an empty car. He had just settled himself down when some twenty people, all dressed exactly alike, came in the car. The conductor said, "Sir, I think you’ll want to move into the other car. You see, these people are all from the ...

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