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 4676 to 4700 of 4943 results

4676. Paul of Tarsus

2 Corinthians 12:1-10

Drama

Michael L. Sherer

"I am content with persecutions for Christ’s sake ..." 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 Characters: Lector Announcer Antagonist Protagonist Participants enter and take their places in the chancel. As they come forward, the congregation sings the hymn "In the Cross of Christ I Glory." When the hymn is completed, the drama begins. LECTOR: I am most happy ... to be proud of any weaknesses, in order to feel the protection of Christ’s power over me. I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and ...

4677. Let Us Cross To The Other Side

Mark 4:35-41

Sermon

Ron Lavin

The sea - the turbulent, unpredictable, wild, stormy sea. Our story begins with Jesus, standing on the edge of the Sea of Galilee, saying to the apostles, "Let us cross to the other side." As they crossed, the wind began to blow, the waves began to rise, and Jesus began to sleep. Have you ever been in a storm at sea or on a wind-tossed lake? One sea captain describes a storm at Cape Horn at the tip of South America like this: This mighty swell of waters that giant forces seem to be pressing upon us, this ...

4678. Heal the Sick; Cast Out the Demons

Matthew 10:5-8

Sermon

Ron Lavin

In his sermon to the graduates of Union Theological Seminary in New York City, Paul Tillich, the theologian, preached on the theme of healing and casting out demons. He told the graduating seminarians that they would experience two difficulties as they went to their new parishes with this message of healing and casting out demons: (1) Many people will say that they do not need to be healed and (2) Many will laugh at the absurdity of casting out demons that rule their lives; they may tell the proclaimer ...

4679. Job - A Probe Into the Shadow World of Despair

Job 6:1-7:21

Sermon

In Robert Frost’s The Masque of Reason God tells the "Easy Answers Committee" that it is mistaken. This sermon does the same. Its probing, illuminating force conforms to the terrain of human experience. It conforms to the terrain of God’s experience in Emmanuel - God with us. Rich textual reference, literary allusions, carefully chosen language, experience common to all keep the listeners listening, the readers reading. An atheist is expected to ask the "Why?" of things. It’s part of the practicing atheist ...

4680. The Gospel in Two Words

Mark 7:31-37

Sermon

The healing of the deaf and mute person becomes a metaphor for a deeper and more difficult healing, the changing (if not the character, then at least the attitudes) of those touched by the Healer. And all have been touched. This sermon suggests that being deaf (being closed) happens in more than one way. Biblical and contemporary examples flavor the meaning of the biblical "Be opened," and the contemporary "Be open." The fluidity of response to the crucified and Risen Christ breaks barriers, which, if ...

4681. Go ... Be the Church ... Do the Gospel

Sermon

The hearers’ level of expectation is especially high on given occasions, such as a congregational anniversary. The dangers for the sermon are many; the victories few. Through the skillful interweaving of congregational history, the Church’s history, biblical history, the history of persons, and a knowledge and sensitivity of worship - always with the hearers in mind - this sermon forges a victory for the hearers. The sermon focuses the hearers where the focus is to be - on the Lord of the Church and the ...

4682. 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 ...

4683. A Christian's Duty in Time of War

Nehemiah 4:1-23

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

We gather for worship on a weekend that we will long remember as the beginning of the liberation of Iraq. We are concerned about our troops and the innocent people of Iraq. We Christians love peace; therefore, we automatically recoil against the death and suffering associated with war. Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” But as a World War II veteran reminded me, “Somebody has to take care of the peacemakers while they are making peace.” That task has fallen upon the armed forces of the United ...

4684. It’s not what you know, but who you know!

John 1:19-28

Sermon

Daniel G. Mueller

In a dark room, pitch black except for the glaring light from the naked bulb of a small lamp set on a table, there are three men. One, bedraggled and covered with sweat, sits at the table, his face exposed to the light. Standing next to him are the two other men who move in and out of the light, sometimes shoving their faces right into the face of the man who is seated. No doubt you have watched enough television dramas to know what’s happening in that room. The man seated is being interrogated. "Where ...

4685. Jesus Knows Everything! Jesus Is God!

John 1:43-51

Sermon

Daniel G. Mueller

It is part of God’s nature to know all things. We call this quality omniscience. God knows everything. There is nothing he does not know. Jesus once said that the Father’s knowledge is so total that he even knows when a single bird falls out of the sky and he knows the number of hairs we have on our head. In the case of some of us it is easier for him to keep track of that last statistic. That God knows how much hair we have is just one indication of how intimately he knows each one of us. In Hebrews we ...

4686. The Best Advertising of All

Mark 1:14-20

Sermon

Daniel G. Mueller

One of the biggest industries in the United States today is the production of advertising. Billboards, signs on benches, magazines, newspapers, placards on the sides of buses, messages on the insides of match books, "junk" mail, computer phone calls, radio and, of course, television, all seek to commercial-ize us, to sell us something. Commercials make a host of promises. We’re told that if we just use what they sell, people will notice us; we’ll be healthier, happier, sexier; smell better; look better; ...

4687. All I Need Is A Little Rest!

Mark 1:35-39

Sermon

Daniel G. Mueller

One of the most effective sermons I have ever preached was shared ten years ago when I was just beginning to preach. I didn’t expect it to be good because I was tired when I wrote it and tired when I preached it. In fact, I was afraid I was failing the people that day because I thought the sermon wasn’t much good at all. In the sermon I shared with the folks why I was so tired, all the things that had happened to me that week. A child had died in City Hospital. The parents had no friends, no family, no one ...

4688. How Can You Tell When People Are Religious?

Mark 2:18-22

Sermon

Daniel G. Mueller

For seven days King David fasted. Day and night he went without food as he prayed desperately for the life of his newborn child. The baby had been born as a result of his affair with Bathsheba, an adulterous affair that had led to the murder of Bathsheba’s husband. From the moment the baby was born, it was evident the child’s life was hanging by a slim thread. So David prayed for the life of the child. He prayed with great intensity. He fasted as part of his prayers, hoping that by his petitions and by his ...

4689. Saved!

Mark 10:17-31

Sermon

Warren Thomas Smith

"Then who can be saved?" (v. 26) We have a sublime vignette before us, a scene in the ministry of Jesus which reveals not only secrets about people, life and values, but the nature of salvation itself. Unhappily, we frequently fail to understand, miss the point, strain at the gnat, and swallow the camel in attempting an explanation. An Honest Soul Our young man is transparently honest. (I call him young because he sounds like a student.) Like Jesus, we love him, and his good qualities are abundant. At ...

4690. Ode to Wisdom

Job 26:1--31:40

Sermon

Alton F. Wedel

This is an Ode to Wisdom - wisdom that is not discovered in computer banks, nor taught in schools and colleges, nor learned from parents, nor symbolized in Wall Street winnings. "Where, then, shall wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding?" (v. 12). In this age of new enlightenment, in our high tech society, this Ode to Wisdom simply doesn’t fly. When God came down from heaven to survey the Babel tower that the people back in Genesis 11 had designed, he was both amazed and amused. This ...

4691. The Lord Has Saved His People

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

Alton F. Wedel

Perhaps this is the best that I can offer you today as good news in a world of grizzled news, this shout of praise from Jeremiah’s lips: "The Lord has saved his people." "Sing aloud with gladness for Jacob, and raise shouts for the chief of the nations; proclaim, give praise, and say, ‘The Lord has saved his people.’ " But it seems to this observer who is more than casual in his observing that the church has punctuated Jeremiah’s praise with question marks instead of exclamation points. "The Lord has saved ...

4692. Christ and Time

Galatians 3:26--4:7

Sermon

T. A. Kantonen

At the beginning of a new year we are confronted with the mystery of time. The familiar old year has passed away, and an unknown segment of the future, which we call the new year, has taken its place. "Time, like an ever-rolling stream, bears all its sons away." Where did this stream originate and where does it finally end? What is this invisible something that we call time? What is this mysterious series of hours and days and years and centuries that moves steadily on and carries us to the end of our ...

4693. On the Night when He Was Betrayed

1 Corinthians 11:17-34

Sermon

T. A. Kantonen

There is a unique beauty and tenderness about the hour of sunset. The sun impresses its memory upon a darkening world by tinting the western sky with its most original and harmonious colors. The last hour of the day is its most beautiful and memorable. So it is in human relations. The tender beauty of sunset glows from the hour of farewell. We say goodbye to those who are not so intimate but reserve the last precious moments to those nearest our hearts. And after all else is forgotten we remember the ...

4694. The Priesthood of All Believers

1 Peter 2:4-12

Sermon

T. A. Kantonen

"We are all priests." These are the words of Martin Luther. But he did not invent this revolutionary idea. He discovered it in the Bible. When the Bible says, "You are a royal priesthood" and "He made us to be priests," it is not speaking about ordination but about every Christian man and woman. In rediscovering the gospel, Luther also rediscovered the principal means by which the gospel operates, the priesthood of all believers. What does it mean to be a priest? It means to be consecrated to serve. That ...

4695. The Communion of Saints

Hebrews 12:1-13

Sermon

T. A. Kantonen

Whenever we confess our faith in the words of the Apostles’ Creed, we include the affirmation: "I believe in the communion of saints." What do we mean when we say this? Who are the saints? And what is the "communion" of saints? All Saints’ Day prompts us to look for an answer to these questions. According to the New Testament, the saints are not a select group of persons with haloes around their heads. They are simply the members of the Christian fellowship, men and women who live by faith in Jesus Christ ...

4696. Paul's Thorn In The Flesh

2 Corinthians 12:1-10

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

Around the turn of the century a young man named Ole took his girlfriend on a summer outing. They took a picnic lunch out to a picturesque island in the middle of a small lake. She wore a long dress with about a dozen petticoats. He was dressed in a suit with a high collar. Ole rowed them out to the island, dragged the boat into shore, and spread their picnic supplies beneath a shade tree. So hypnotized was he by her beauty that he hardly noticed the hot sun and perspiration on his brow. Softly she ...

4697. A Lack of Feeding in the American Dream

Romans 6:1-14

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

I would like us to consider a subject which becomes important to us all from time to time, but which is generally confusing and threatening so that we normally try to pass on from it as quickly as possible. The subject is suicide. There are a number of reasons why I am concerned with talking about it. I am continually involved as a minister in suicide cases, both accomplished and contemplated. The other day, our ministerial association met with the staff of the mental health clinic, and they told us that ...

4698. The Courage to Be Me

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." There is a certain courage to be who we are built into the dynamics of Christian faith and grace. DONALD C. HOUTS (see biographical note preceding Smart, Wise, and Foolish) relates this courage to three common debilitating fears in his sermon The Courage to Be Me: The fears of doubt, self-disclosure, and failure. There is a sense in which vitality in human life is a product of the tension between fear and faith. If all were certain, then our concept ...

4699. When You Reach Wit’s End

Psalm 107:1-43

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

Ray Balcomb's Ph.D. is in New Testament studies. He is the author of many books and until his recent appointment as a District Superintendent, his weekly sermons were distributed nationally where they were well-known for their classical three point construction and supportive illustrations. His sermon included here was preached to the congregation of the First United Methodist Church in Portland, Oregon, where he had been senior pastor from 1963 to 1982. Balcomb concludes the volume, dealing with the ...

4700. Backsliding

John 6:60-71

Sermon

Brett Blair

There was once a term frequently used in the church. In the old days it was used often. You rarely ever hear it today. Indeed, in my 12 years in the ministry I have never preached a sermon on the topic until now. Despite the infrequency with which it is mentioned, the concept, I think, is still valid. It is backsliding. The term backsliding, I discovered in my research, was popularized in the 1600’s by John Bunyan in his very famous allegory Pilgrim’s Progress. In the story, you may recall, the character ...

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