Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 4476 to 4500 of 4937 results

4476. The Shepherd King

Revelation 7:9-17

Sermon

On those Sundays when I am able to attend worship services in the parish to which I belong, I am confronted, upon entering and taking my place in the nave, with an artist’s attempt to transport the image of the oldest Christian representation into the twentieth century. It is a painting of the risen and ascended Lord, obviously sitting upon a throne in the heavens, surrounded by a half-halo of angel faces amid the clouds. The pastor and building committee, who commissioned the piece of art, knew what they ...

4477. The Housing Problem

Luke 11:14-28

Sermon

Harold Warlick

One of the most nerve-wracking experiences in life is finding a place to live. It's as true for college students as it is for older adults. Everyone at some time or another has to house hunt, roommate hunt, room hunt or apartment hunt. In fact, one of the biggest changes in life occurs at the end of the freshman year in college when you can actually have a choice as to where you will live and with whom you will live. The freshman experience is an unknown experience. The school assigns you a roommate and a ...

4478. The Message of Christmas

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

Christ was not born in the clean, sterile rooms of a local hospital. He was not born in the southeastern part of the United States. He was not Caucasian. He was not American. His humble family was not known outside the city of Nazareth. We know very little about Joseph except that he was a carpenter, a just and honorable man of the house and lineage of David. We know very little of his mother, Mary. We do know that she probably belonged to the anawiem, the poor ones of Palestine, and we know that she was a ...

4479. The Most Beautiful Sacrifice

Mark 14:1-11

Drama

Setting: Lights dim, except for center area of the stage. A woman appears, wearing shawl or head covering, carrying an opaque flask or vase and a towel. Throughout the drama, she should be busy, or talk as she works. Perhaps other props might include table and water basin, food and utensils. Text: Mark 14:1-16 Cast: A woman from Bethany A man in the congregation who will sit among the people in a place where he can stand and be heard. Time: Her testimony is timeless, although the events she describes ...

4480. Who Has Everything?

Matthew 5:5

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

Some years ago the News and Observer of Raleigh, North Carolina, published an article entitled, "Do You Measure Up As a Man?" The article stated that some extensive research had been conducted on the twentieth century standards for measuring a man. The eight criteria are quite interesting: his ability to make, conserve, and amass money; the cost, style, and age of his car; how much hair he has or has not; his size and strength; the job he holds and how successful he is at it; what sports he likes; how many ...

4481. Miracle On Main Street by Dr. George A. Buttrick

John 1:1-18

Sermon

Leonard Mann

There’s always mystery on Main Street, and one day the miracle occurred. You look into the mirror. You don’t say, "Who am I?" No, a Voice asks, "Who are you?" You don’t say, "I needn’t be here." No, the Voice says, "It is inevitable that you are here." Try it, and see. You are meant to be here. Then trouble begins. Who meant your life? "My parents," you say. Oh no, parents don’t create life: they only transmit life. We shouldn’t speak about "my children." They are not ours: they are God’s, every one of ...

4482. Here Comes Jesus

Luke 3:1-20

Sermon

James Bjorge

Johnny Carson has a side-kick who opens the evening television talk show with a phrase that never varies. Big Ed McMahon bursts forth with the introduction, "Here’s Johnny!" Then the talk man comes forth from the wings to entertain his audience and television viewers. As the herald of the show, Ed McMahon plays an important role in getting the show off the ground with gusto. Jesus was coming to stage the greatest drama the world would ever witness. It would unfold the mighty act of redemption. While he was ...

4483. Parents, Tend Those Lambs!

John 21:15-25

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

Two children, a four-year-old and a six-year-old, gave their mother a houseplant for Mother's Day. They had used their own money, and she was thrilled. The older child said with a sad face, "There was a bouquet at the flower shop that we wanted to give you, but it was too expensive. It had a ribbon on it that said, 'Rest in peace."' A parent, particularly a mother, gets little chance to rest in peace this side of heaven. Parenting is intensive leadership, 24 hours per day. The Bible describes parental ...

4484. Feeling Down And Looking Up

Isaiah 40:1-31

Sermon

Frederick C. Edwards

The scripture for today is from the portion of Isaiah which scholars know as Deutero-Isaiah, or Second Isaiah - chapters 40 to 55. Those chapters certainly were not written by the eighth century B.C.E. prophet whose name it bears, but rather by an anonymous observer of the events in the closing years of Babylonian rule, and who interpreted the meaning of those events to the Jewish exiles in Babylonia. A momentous event stirred him to prophesy to the captives, and that event was the rise to power of Cyrus, ...

4485. Peter Becomes the Rock

Drama

G. Franklin Gray

Cast Narrator Peter Mary of Magdalene John Jesus Nine other disciples Costumes Contemporary dress is recommended for entire cast. For contrast Jesus wears white clothing. Properties Needed Fishing net Short sword about 24 inches long with broad blade tapering from 2 1/2 inches to a sharp point, painted gold. Lights and microphones as needed. The play is designed for presentation in a sanctuary with no scenery. Choir O Come and Mourn McGlohan Narrator Jesus has been crucified and it is now the third day ...

4486. The Sheep And The Goats

Matthew 25:31-46

Sermon

Brett Blair

Like it or not, judgment is a fact of life. That is true whether we are talking about the histories of nations or the events of our own personal life. If we break the law, then society will judge us. If we live immorally drink too much, engage in sexual promiscuity, live a lifestyle of constant stress then our bodies will judge us. We simply cannot escape judgment in life. Jesus rarely spoke about the final judgment, but on one occasion he did paint a picture for us in one of his stories. The parable that ...

4487. Academics, Fanatics, and Other Disciples

Mark 1:14-20

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

I must confess that for years I have tried my hand at fishing, but the Izaak Walton League would be sure to look the other way if I applied for membership. To be sure, growing up in Wisconsin I did try my luck at some of those beautiful trout streams. But you would have been unwise to wait with a hearty appetite while I tried to catch our dinner. And, yes, my friends and I did go fishing on the nearby Mississippi River. And, yes, we did throw in a line from time to time, but at that age -- our teenage ...

4488. When God Is At Work

Mark 1:40-45

Sermon

Brett Blair

They really didn’t understand it. But, of course, they really had no means to. How could they possibly know that it was contagious only after long periods of very close contact? The only thing they knew about it was what it looked like and what it did to a person in the advanced stages. That they knew well. They understood how it maimed and disfigured. And that was enough for fear to take over. I’m talking about the disease of leprosy. In a world and a time in which the disease has all but been eradicated ...

4489. Strong Faith For Tough Times

Mark 5:1-20

Sermon

James W. Moore

It is always sad when nations go to war. In recent years the sadness has been magnified because just a little more than a decade ago, we seemed so close to a lasting peace. The wall had gone down in Berlin. Eastern Europe had opened up. The cold war with Russia had thawed… and at that time in the early 1990s, we thought, “Finally! At long last, we can have a peaceful world. But then suddenly on August 2, 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait launching a crescendo of tension-packed events that led to the Persian Gulf ...

4490. Just Follow The Signs

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

Daniel G. Mueller

"God so loved the world ..." begins one of our best-known scripture verses. God loved the world! He didn’t love only one small corner of the world. He didn’t love only one little race, one tiny tribe in the world. God loved the world! He loved Jews and Gentiles alike. He loved a man and a woman named Joseph and Mary. He loved some shepherds. He loved some Wise Men living way off in the East someplace, nobody knows exactly where. God loved the world, even nasty, murderous, old King Herod, who tried to kill ...

4491. The Friends of Jesus

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Brett Blair

Already there is talk about the next Presidential election, even though the old one finished barely 6 months ago. Pollsters, political pundits, and newscasters are already trying to figure out the candidate for the party out of power, which means dividing the population up according to gender, race, age, sociological standing, religion and a half dozen other categories. While this sort of information may have some strategic significance in terms of strategizing a political campaign, to many of us it ...

4492. The Healing of the Gerasene Demoniac

Mark 5:1-20

Sermon

James W. Moore

4493. His Death

Luke 23:26-43

Sermon

Brett Blair

We are continuing our Lenten series on the Passion of the Christ, the last week of the life of Jesus. We are nearing Easter. On the first Sunday of Lent we looked at the events of Sunday when he enters Jerusalem on the donkey fulfilling the Messianic prophecy of Zechariah. It was a day of celebration. On Monday Jesus weeps over Jerusalem, curses the fig tree, and clears the Temple of the moneychangers. It is a day of emotions. Tuesday was the day of teaching, a day of critics questions. Wednesday was the ...

4494. Good Friday: The Three Crosses

John 18:1-11

Sermon

Brett Blair

The Cross. It struck fear in the hearts of the world. It was Rome’s means of controlling the people. According to Roman custom, the penalty of crucifixion was always preceded by scourging; after this preliminary punishment, the condemned person had to carry the cross, or at least the transverse beam of it, to the place of execution, exposed to the jibes and insults of the people. On arrival at the place of execution the cross was uplifted. Soon the sufferer, entirely naked, was bound to it with cords. He ...

4495. Journey To Jerusalem

Luke 9:51-56

Sermon

Brett Blair

In 1536 Reformer William Farel recruited John Calvin to come to Geneva, Switzerland to pastor St. Peter's Church. Calvin, a sickly man all his life, was on his way to Strasbourg to be a quiet scholar, but he relented under this need, this request, to become a pastor. Two years later, the city fathers publicly banished Calvin from Geneva. Actually, Calvin felt relieved. The moral chaos of the city was terrible. He went to Strasbourg. Three years later in 1541, the same city fathers who had tried to ...

4496. The Forgiveness Business

Luke 7:36-50

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Wonderful story. At least, it is to me. Others might not like it so well. It is certainly astonishing. Put it in the context of a dinner party at your own home or even a supper downstairs in Fellowship Hall. By this time in Jesus' ministry, he had garnered quite a bit of public notice. All sorts of people had been attracted to him - rich, poor, educated, illiterate, from the highly respectable to the lowly riffraff. To have this famous rabbi come to dinner was very special and everyone would have been ...

4497. Building a World

Acts 2:1-21

Sermon

King Duncan

Geoff Burch is a sales trainer in England. He tells about a man named Fred he met in the course of his research into sales methods. Back in the 1950s Fred had been a traveling salesman hawking washing machines. This job was on commission only, but included a valuable and unusual perk: the then almost unheard of luxury of a vehicle. At the beginning of each week Fred was sent off in his van with five washing machines; so long as all five were sold each week, Fred could keep the van. This he succeeded in ...

4498. God's Plan For Empowerment

John 1:1-18

Sermon

King Duncan

Did you know that there was once a sit-down strike in space? It's true. This strike occurred on the Skylab 4 flight in December 1973. Ground control in Houston was trying to make this final space mission as profitable as possible. They scheduled the astronauts' days so tightly that they were even forbidden to participate in their favorite pastime ” watching the sun and the earth. Houston daily "sent up about six feet of instructions to the astronauts' teleprinter." The civilian physicist on board begged ...

4499. Beaten And Bloody, But Fortunate Nonetheless

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

King Duncan

"Why me, Lord? What did I ever do to deserve such treatment? My head's hurting so bad. They even took my clothes. And look at the blood. God, if somebody doesn't come soon, I could bleed to death . . . Is that it, Lord? Is this how my life is going to end? Beaten and bloody, lying naked by the side of the road? What about my family? Who will look after them? What about my wife? I may not deserve to live, but surely she doesn't deserve to be a widow. I have no brothers to look after her. How will she eat? ...

4500. Blood Sprinkled On A Modern Altar

Exodus 24:3-8, Mark 14:12-16, 22-26, Hebrews 9:11-15

Sermon

King Duncan

Wesley Tracy tells about a letter he once received. “I have hundreds of biblical photographs,” the letter said, “including several of the Garden of Eden.” “Wow!” says Tracy, “I have seen and taken a lot of photos of biblical places—tiny mustard seeds on the Mount of Olives, the Temple courtyard, and the Lord’s supposed birthplace guarded by a soldier with an automatic weapon—but Eden? Did they have cameras in [Eden]?” “Where was Eden anyway?” he asks with tongue firmly in cheek. “Though a headline in a ...

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