Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 4601 to 4625 of 4937 results

4601. This Is Water

John 7:25-44

Sermon

Ron Lavin

What comes to your mind when you think about water? The seashore? A beautiful lake? Swimming? Fishing? A cool drink on a scorching day? If we could ask Helen Keller that question, she would probably say, "a water pump," because it was at a pump that this blind and deaf woman learned that things have names. "W-A-T-E-R," her teacher, Anne Sullivan, spelled into her hand for what seemed like the millionth time. "The thing has a name - W-A-T-E-R." And young Helen sprung to life, understanding for the first ...

4602. The Healing Community

Mark 5:21-43

Sermon

Ron Lavin

Dr. Granger Westberg, the founder of Wholistic Medicine, Inc., Chicago, Illinois, asks this question when he talks to nurses, doctors, and pastors: "What is the healthiest hour of the week?" How would you answer that question? Dr. Westberg surprises many people by answering, "The hour of worship on Sunday morning." Why is that true? In order to answer that question we need to consider two other questions which Dr. Westberg often puts to his audiences: (1) What is the major factor in sickness? and (2) What ...

4603. Smart, Wise, and Foolish

1 Corinthians 1:18--2:5

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

The current President of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors is DONALD C. HOUTS. Formerly a local pastor, a chaplain-supervisor, and professor of pastoral care and counseling at St. Paul School of Theology, Kansas City, Missouri, he is presently Director of Pastoral Care and Counseling for the Illinois Area of the United Methodist Church. His sermons offered here were directed to the congregation of Wesley United Methodist Church in Champaign, Illinois, where he sometimes is asked to preach for ...

4604. Anything Better Than the Golden Rule?

Luke 6:27-36

Sermon

William G. Carter

A few years ago, I accepted an invitation to preach in a church in upstate New York. The sermon was based on Matthew’s version of what we have just heard from the Gospel of Luke: “Turn the other cheek. Give to everyone who begs from you. Pray for those who curse you. And love your enemies.” These are nearly impossible words to put into practice, much less hear, and I said as much in my sermon. Jesus is instructing us to take the initiative for making peace, to move beyond revenge and retaliation. We cannot ...

4605. Salvation Includes Social Justice

Jeremiah 23:1-8

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

On this last Sunday of the Church Year (we call it Christ the King Sunday) our attention is directed to the reign of Christ — to his glorious reign which has already begun with the resurrection on Easter. It is a Sunday to think about salvation, because where Christ reigns salvation is effected. These themes are especially evident in our First Lesson. Jeremiah conducted his ministry in Judah (the Southern Kingdom of the Hebrews ruled by David’s heirs and centered in the great capital of Jerusalem) in ...

4606. Carrying Worshipers out on Stretchers

Acts 2:1-21

Sermon

King Duncan

William Willimon tells about a church in a town he was visiting years ago. According to the newspaper, the church was having an all-day meeting of the church’s “medical auxiliary.” Willimon figured this was a meeting of church folks who occasionally volunteered at the local hospital. He was wrong. A friend of his, someone who knew more about the church and its denomination than he did, told him that this was not the case. He said “the medical auxiliary consists of those persons who handle the stretchers, ...

4607. The Cross: A Gift Of Life

Isaiah 52:13--53:12

Sermon

King Duncan

Good Friday For Chester Szuber, it was the gift of life. The cost, however, was so dear he almost didn't accept it. The youngest of his 6 children an exuberant 22-year-old nursing student had been killed in a car accident and it quickly became clear her heart could be transplanted into his chest. According to an Associated Press story, the family had little time to decide. Patti's death on a mountain road in Tennessee came while she was on a trip with a friend before her return to nursing school. The car ...

4608. No More Pain!

John 8:31-41

Sermon

King Duncan

There is a ridiculous story about a weight lifter who appeared at an agent's office. The muscle-bound performer was carrying a stone, a big hammer, and a huge suitcase. "This big stone," he explained to the agent, "is placed on my head, then my assistant takes the hammer and swings it as hard as he can, and breaks the stone." The agent's head nearly ached just from the description, but he was quite enthusiastic. "Sounds wonderful!" he shouted. "But if you need only the hammer and the big stone for the ...

4609. His Nature Is Light

John 1:1-18

Sermon

King Duncan

We run across truth in the strangest places. Sometime back it was revealed that a major university offers a course on Donald Duck comic books. These particular comics were created by Carl Barks. From the early 1940s until his retirement in 1966, Barks produced some 400 comics about Donald Duck, his stingy billionaire Uncle Scrooge, and three frenetic nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie. In one classic series, the rich uncle's billions nearly have driven him crazy. Everybody is asking him for money, and Scrooge ...

4610. A Society Out Of Control

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

King Duncan

I don't think any of us would term television personality, Phil Donahue, a rigid moralist. On his show sometime back, one of the guests was a man who has written a book on "sexual addiction." The thesis of the doctor's book is that there are people in our society who are addicted to various kinds of inappropriate sexual behavior just as other persons may be addicted to drugs or alcohol. Often in the program, as he described problems such as promiscuity, child molestation, obsession with pornography, etc. ...

4611. How God Gets His Kicks

1 Corinthians 1:18--2:5

Sermon

King Duncan

The title is frivolous, but this message could change somebody's life. How does God get His kicks? What is it that gives God the most pleasure? The answer is, He gets the most pleasure from taking something that the world perceives as worthless and giving it value. "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" they asked about Jesus. (John. 1:46) "But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel...." (Micah 5:2) " ...

4612. In The Valley Of Dry Bones

Ezekiel 37:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

"The toe bone's connected to the foot bone, the foot bone's connected to the ankle bone, the ankle bone's connected to the shin bone...now hear the word of the Lord." That delightful little spiritual brings to mind one of the most dynamic, hopeful images in all the Old Testament. It is Ezekiel's vision of the valley of dry bones. "By the Spirit of the Lord," Ezekiel testifies, "I was set down in the midst of a valley; it was full of bones." Perhaps these were the bones of an army that had been trapped in ...

4613. Why Won't They Listen?

Matthew 13:1-23

Sermon

King Duncan

Why won't they listen? Why won't they turn back before it is too late? Don't they see what they are doing to themselves? Is there any experience in life more frustrating than to see someone you love committed to a course that can lead only to heartache and despair and yet not be able to get through to them? An aging mother begins shutting herself off from her family and friends. She refuses to care for herself or to get out for social occasions. She becomes obsessed with her physical aches and pains, ...

4614. The Ultimate Success Formula

Mark 8:31--9:1

Sermon

King Duncan

Jesus would turn over in his grave, if he were in his grave -- which, of course, he is not. However, I want to suggest to you this morning that the ultimate formula for worldly success is found in a portion of his words in Mark 8:34, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." In a secular sense that text alone would guarantee any person's success in the wonderful world of business or art or education or sports or whatever career you may choose. After all, ...

4615. Eat And Live

John 6:25-59

Sermon

King Duncan

This morning we want to talk about food. That's a relevant subject for most of us. The two biggest sellers in any bookstore, according to Andy Rooney, are the cookbooks and the diet books. The cookbooks tell you how to prepare the food and the diet books tell you how not to eat any of it. Orson Welles once said, "My doctor has advised me to give up those intimate little dinners for four, unless, of course, there are three other people eating with me." Champion archer Rick McKinney confesses that he ...

4616. Does Jesus Care?

Luke 7:11-17

Sermon

King Duncan

Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz, speaking at the annual sales meeting of the Western Insurance Companies, said, "I've been on the top and I've been on the bottom. At Arkansas my first year, we won the Orange Bowl. Then everybody loved me. "They put me into the Arkansas Hall of Fame and issued a commemorative stamp in my honor. The next year we lost to Texas, and they had to take away the stamp. People kept spitting on the wrong side. "One year I tried to sell cemetery plots for a living. My wife told ...

4617. Focusing On The Possibilities

Matthew 14:13-21

Sermon

King Duncan

Dr. Robert Schuller, who is known for his emphasis on positive thinking or possibility thinking as he calls it, tells about a man he once met on a flight to Los Angeles. The man was a mathematician named George Dantzig. Schuller made the observation to Dantzig that this was the first time it had occurred to him that there was a field of endeavor to which positive thinking didn't apply. Mathematical problems have only one right answer, so they can't be affected in any way by how a person thinks. Dantzig ...

4618. Embedded In Bedrock Or Destroyed By A Typhoon

John 18:25-27

Sermon

Dale Dickerson

On March 17, 1930, construction began on what was to be the tallest skyscraper ever built. Towering 1,472 feet, an incomprehensible 102 stories, the Empire State Building remained the tallest man-made structure from 1931 to 1970. It was built at a cost of more than 40 million dollars. During a typical storm this great structure absorbs as many as 20 bolts of lightning. In July of 1945, due to low visibility, a B-25 bomber inadvertently crashed into the side of the Empire State Building. Strangely enough ...

4619. What Are You Tied To?

John 15:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

Two men, walking through the woods, come across a big deep hole. "Wow . . . that looks deep," says one. "Sure does," says the other. "Toss a few pebbles in there and see how deep it is." They pick up a few pebbles and throw them in and wait . . . no noise. "Hey, that is REALLY deep," says the first man. "Here, throw one of these great big rocks down there. That should make a noise." They pick up a couple of football-sized rocks and toss them into the hole and wait . . . and wait. Nothing. They look at each ...

4620. Invited To A Feast

Matthew 22:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

A first grade teacher gave her 6-year-olds an assignment. The next day they were to bring in a symbol of their religion. The next morning she called on Isaac, who stood up and said, "I am Jewish and this Star of David is the symbol of my religion." The teacher then called upon Mary, who stood up saying, "I am Catholic and this Rosary is a symbol of my religion." Next came Bobby. "I am [Presbyterian]*," he said, and held up a casserole dish. Have you ever noticed how often food and drink are mentioned in ...

4621. The Young And The Restless

Genesis 12:1-8

Sermon

King Duncan

There was an article in the newspapers sometime back about a British husband who walked out on a 38-year marriage because he could not stand his wife obsessively moving the furniture. John Turner filed for divorce, complaining he was sick and tired of his wife Pauline shifting chairs, tables, the television--and anything not fixed to the walls--every single day of their married life. "Moving furniture about was just something I did and I always will do," Pauline says. "I suppose everybody has their little ...

4622. Nothing Is Impossible With God

Luke 1:26-38

Sermon

King Duncan

In January of 2002, a hospital in London, England, mistakenly sent letters to over 30 unsuspecting patients informing them that they were pregnant. The hospital's computer system, which normally is used to send form letters telling people that their operations have been postponed, was in the hands of a clerical worker who hit the wrong key. And so, instead of informing patients about a rescheduled procedure, the computer sent identical form letters telling the recipients that they were "great with child." ...

4623. Finding Peace

John 20:19-23

Sermon

King Duncan

Recently, passengers on a flight from Hawaii to Los Angeles were surprised when a passenger got up from his seat and began pacing the aisles, reading his Bible very loudly. The other passengers and the flight crew were unable to get the man to sit down and be quiet, so they subdued the man and duct-taped him to his seat. When the plane landed, Los Angeles police officers took the man into custody. (1) What do you suppose got into this individual? Was he afraid of flying, or had he suffered some severe ...

4624. People of Influence

1 Thessalonians 1:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

I want to tell you about two “powerful” men who lived at the turn of the 13th century. The first of these men chose the name Innocent when he was unanimously declared Pope in 1198. He took Jeremiah 1:10 as his ordination verse: “See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.” Pope Innocent lived by this verse. Innocent believed that his position gave him the power to rule over all people; anyone who challenged him was subject to ...

4625. To Hell and Back

Luke 15:1-7

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

Visitors to Michigan never fail to be amused when they discover that our state contains both a Hell and a Paradise, Michigan. Paradise is in the Upper Peninsula, and Hell is not too far from Ann Arbor. I have no idea what that means. The first week I arrived in Ann Arbor, I recall reading a startling headline in the Ann Arbor News. I kid you not, this is what it said: “Dam water recedes; Hell out of danger.” In this sermon I would suggest that, Biblically speaking, Hell is never out of danger as long as ...

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