Sermon and Worship Resources

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451. Why Did The Cheering Stop? - Sermon Starter

Matthew 21:1-11

Illustration

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 ...

452. Laying Hold On God's Willingness

Matthew 7:7-12

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... elders and his family followed suit. Then on the next day another family, and so on for forty days. Within a week, leaders received a phone call about a church which wanted to sell its building on Chicago's northwest side, an ideal spot. Within the forty days the building had been inspected and the financing arranged. Shortly after completing the forty days, they closed on the property. Prayer is honest, humble, persistent communion with God, opening avenues for God's wise and wonderful intervention. Prayer ...

453. Like Buoys In The River

Exodus 19:1-25

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... if we don't; we take them seriously because the One who issues them loves us and always seeks what is best for us. When I was a youngster of seven or eight years of age, we had a short, wide street in front of our house. It was an ideal place to play baseball. A little tough on the pants when sliding but otherwise very good. It was flat and wide and you could get a true bounce on the ball off that surface. Also, when we played roll-at- the-bat, you had a realistic chance to hitting the ...

454. Straight Talk With A Young Adult

Matthew 19:16-30

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... .” The young man responded, “And what hockey team did she play on?” A bright, quick-witted young adult is always a delight. Most of us who are older would not want to be teenagers again, but we delight in the enthusiasm, vitality, and idealism of youth. Jesus enjoyed children and young adults. One day he encountered a young man with a big question on his mind. The gospel writer Mark describes Jesus’ reaction to the young man: “And Jesus, looking upon him, loved him.” My focus this morning ...

455. With What Shall I Come?

Micah 6:1-8

Sermon

James Bjorge

... humbly with God. Jesus wore this gift with beauty. We remember so well the Gospel account when he took a basin of water to wash the feet of his disciples. No work that will help men is too low or dirty for God. In classical Greece the ideal seemed to be the "high-mindedness" of Aristotle. Humility did not fit their thinking. Gladstone said it well, "Humility was a sovereign grace in the creation of Christianity." Joseph Sizoo says that some years ago a man and his wife were visiting Rome and they went to ...

456. Hungry for Anything?

Matthew 6:25-34

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

... slaves. We can become as nobodies, but we are the children of God! That’s the thrilling thing! The only way to save your desires to be important from degenerating into one of these tragic perversions is to link yourself to a cause or a purpose or an ideal so strong that when people think of that noble cause, they will think of you. Have you ever noticed how it is with the people who have passed from us? Who is remembered the longest, the person who had devoted his life to the church and to the furthering ...

457. Perhaps Next Summer...

Acts 24:1-27

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

... ��it might have been.’ " Is "it might have been" the story of your life thus far? I wonder, honestly, how many of you are working at something that you really love and are finding a challenge to your total capacities? How many of you are living up to the ideals and the aspirations that you set for yourself in your youth? Or, on the other hand, how many of you are just eking out an existence, grubbing along until the day that you can retire and do all of those things that you have been postponing? How many ...

458. Free to Be

Acts 4:23-31

Sermon

Michael J. Anton

... commune. July 4, then, in addition to fireworks and flag-waving, is a time for serious evaluation of where we are after almost 200 years of declared independence. And a day of recommitment as Christian citizens to the questions before us in light of the noble ideals we have established in the Bill of Rights and Constitution. Independence Day is time for recognizing that with all its flaws and flys in its ointment, the U. S. of A. has been a good home for most of its citizens. It has done many things right ...

459. ATHLETE

1 Corinthians 9:25; 2 Timothy 2:5

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

... world. Carvings made in ancient Egypt and other lands show men in a variety of athletic sports and games. But athletics had their real beginnings in ancient Greece. Among the Greeks, the fullest possible development of both body and mind was a cherished ideal. The Greeks’ admiration for beautifully developed bodies set them apart from all other peoples. A large part of every boy’s education was conducted in the gymnasium, where he learned to wrestle, run, jump, and throw the discus and the javelin. The ...

460. THE DAY LABORER

Deuteronomy 24:15; Matthew 20:1

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

... , but we can say that our text from Deuteronomy was possibly the first social legislation in all human history; and it established the principle of man’s necessity to care for his less fortunate brother. Of course, as with all noble considerations and lofty ideals, the Hebrews often fell short of this principle, but, nevertheless, it was a statute of which they might be justly proud. By the time of Christ, the rabbis had given a great deal of consideration to the working man and they had scrupulously laid ...

461. PHILOSOPHERS

Acts 17:18

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

... -mathematician, Pythagoras said, "If you have a wounded heart, touch it as little as you would an injured eye. There are only two remedies for the suffering of the soul - hope and patience." However, as with so many of man’s nobler ideals, the whole issue became clouded with narrower and more worldly concepts, so that by the time of the Acts, there were many branches of philosophy, such as Cyncism, Stoicism, Epicureanism, Platonism, Neo-Platonism, Gnosticism, and many more. And, too, many philosophers led ...

462. Parents, Tend Those Lambs!

John 21:15-25

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... impressed when she heard her four-year-old grandson count backwards. She asked, "Did you learn that in Pre-School, dear?" "No ma'am," he said, "I just watch the microwave." Children watch us even more closely than the microwave. Parents, let me describe the ideal scenario. In the home we teach Jane and Johnny to pray and read the Bible regularly. We train them to trust God and to sharper their ethical sensitivities. We help them love the church as their spiritual home. Then gradually as they get older, they ...

463. I Love You But I Don't Like You

Ephesians 4:17--5:21

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... IN ORDER. Not apologies for the confrontation, but for the friction that made the confrontation necessary. This is no time to place blame. Marriage is no courtroom relationship. The words "I'm sorry" seem to come harder for husbands than for wives. One wife said, "My husband's ideal of settling a quarrel is to put me in a sweatbox until I say, 'You were right. He thinks that he and God are the only perfect beings, and he has some questions about God." It's always easy to list the faults of the other, but if ...

464. Aiming at Perfection

Philippians 3:4b-14

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... unwise to grab for a tube of toothpaste in the dark and get Ben-Gay instead. Christian perfection is not the same as abstract perfection. St. Paul and Mr. Wesley were talking about functional perfection. The word for perfection in the Greek- "teleios"- means to be ideally suited or adapted for a specific function. Here is the goal that St. Paul and John Wesley would commend to all of us Christians: To aspire, with the help of the Holy Spirit, to grow as close to Christ as possible, in love, in usefulness ...

465. Marriage: God's Idea

Genesis 2:4-25

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... our roots. Genesis, chapter two, tells us that the first wedding took place in the paradise of the Garden of Eden. God introduced Adam and Eve to each other. You could say that He officiated at the ceremony, such as it was. Some say that Adam and Eve had the ideal marriage. He didn't have to hear about the men she could have married, and she didn't have to hear about the way his mother cooked. NOTICE THIS FIRST TRUTH ABOUT MARRIAGE: GOD SAW ADAM’S NEED BEFORE ADAM DID. Eve was in the mind of God long ...

466. Reconciliation

Luke 23:26-43

Sermon

Burton F. Blair

... him? To be truthful, we know nearly nothing about this Dymas. We have no ready answers as to the mystery of why he responded this way. He does not leave us his story. We know nothing of his family, his career, the demons that ate at him, or the ideals that may have once inspired him. All we know is that he was a convicted thief, and, after rebuking Gestas for his words to Jesus, he made a simple request, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." We really do not know what caused Dymas to put ...

467. Reviving Our Moral Responsibility

2 Chronicles 36:15-23

Sermon

Donald Macleod

... responsible to a moral order that we defy or disregard at our peril. We are living in a time when order of any kind appears to be the least of all realities. Indeed it seems at times that the bottom has dropped out of everything. The ideals and hopes that Christians have held dear seem to be caught up in a whirlwind of opposing forces bent on their destruction. Christians believe in love, but everywhere throughout the world we see the fingerprints of the agents of hate. Christians affirm the power of right ...

468. Service Without Witness

Isaiah 50:1-11

Sermon

Donald Macleod

... those who are sick" (Matthew 9:12 RSV). In our serving, do we give greater attention to those who are well and whole rather than to those in genuine need? It was said of Plato that his message was for the "noble and good." His theory of the ideal State was good, but in his opinion it could be created only by cultured, refined, well-bred people. He had little use for the poor, the ignorant and the sinful. Indeed Judaism, too, leaned in a similar direction. It worked well with the morally righteous but not ...

469. Song of a Stargazer

Psalm 8:1-9

Sermon

Gordon Pratt Baker

... world. However the poet came by the concept, it nevertheless speaks to an area of distinctive concern for him; and he cannot neglect it. Like all poets, the author of the Eighth Psalm is something of a dreamer; and he is dreaming at this point of an ideal humanity. He makes no prophecies. He offers no panaceas. Instead, he holds before his hearers the vision of a new race rising from the old once men and women respond to the Almighty’s design for them. A Transcendant Love The Eighth Psalm is foremost a ...

470. The More Excellent Way

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Sermon

Robert Allen

... means different things to different people. But the Apostle Paul is very clear that faith means a commitment to Jesus Christ. It is not enough to believe that he was a good man - though he was. It is not enough to believe that he was a man with high ideals - though he was. It is not enough to believe that he was a great moral teacher - though he was. We must reach that point where we are willing to commit our lives to the One they called Jesus the Christ. Otherwise, we are just going through the motions of ...

471. You Can Go Home Again!

Jeremiah 3:6-4:4

Sermon

Frederick C. Edwards

... a year, and poor Sergei was stuck up there all that time. Some people say that you can never return home. Sergei Krikalev might agree. Much of what he left ceased to exist while he was gone. Sometimes we wish we could return home - home to some idealized place and time kept sacred in our memory. Sometimes we try and are disappointed. Have you ever tried going back just to see some place where you used to live? The neighborhood looks different. The trees are bigger. Strangers who live in the house now look ...

472. The Scandal Of Redeeming Love

Hosea 2:2-23

Sermon

Frederick C. Edwards

... is, he was one who deliberately chose to separate himself from the Jewish community and become a collaborator with the Roman occupation forces, serving as a tax collector. It was a way of getting rich, and we are familiar with the fact that principles and ideals are often compromised for personal gain. In the understanding of the Judaism of the time he had knowingly separated himself from the precepts of the covenant, and add to that what they saw as disloyalty to Israel, and for all of that there was no ...

473. Wheel Within The Wheel

Acts 1:12-26

Sermon

Durwood L. Buchheim

... . Without some sort of structure and organization there would be chaos. This was made very clear already in the book of Exodus. Moses was in charge of a congregation that was getting too large for him to handle alone. We also know it wasn’t an ideal congregation. It was a congregation on the move, looking for a building site and it was full of complainers. We are told the members were lined up outside his office door from morning until evening. It was not a good situation. Moses was wearing out and ...

474. A Man With Lips on Fire

Isaiah 6:1-13

Sermon

R. Blaine Detrick

... certainly worth all the time and all the effort that it will take to study it. It is a jewel! Lips Set Aflame Isaiah could be called a man with lips on fire - the reason is his own story of his call by the Lord (Isaiah 6). His hero, his ideal - the great king, Uzziah - had died. Isaiah went into the temple - to worship, perhaps to mourn. There in the temple, it happened for him, as it should happen for us: he saw the Lord! He said, "I saw the Lord ... high and lifted up." And he tried to describe the ...

475. A Man Who Was a Lion-Tamer

Daniel 6:1-28

Sermon

R. Blaine Detrick

... still face, and must resist, these same temptations today; the "old-fashioned" temptations are just as modern as tomorrow’s television newscast. How many times every week are you tempted to be impure? To break the moral laws of the universe? To sacrifice your ideals? To lower your standards? To go along with the crowd? How many times every week are you tempted to be insincere? To be dishonest? To tell lies (just "little white lies" - lies that will make life easier, lies that will bring more wealth, more ...

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