Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 451 to 475 of 538 results

451. That’s Why We Call It Good

Isaiah 52:13--53:12

Sermon

David J. Kalas

At the end of the day, God saw that it was good. Indeed, that is the recurring refrain in the story of creation. For at the end of each day, God saw that it was good. Modern minds may like to quibble about the science of the creation account in scripture, but no one can dispute the beauty of it. Phase by phase, the beauty unfolds. When the curtain opens on the mysterious pre-creation scene, it is a frightening blackness. We read of both chaos and emptiness, and all of it in the midst of an enveloping, ...

452. The Two Ultimate Questions of Life

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

King Duncan

Someone has made a list of what she calls “The World’s Worse Questions.” Are you ready for these? Will you promise not to get mad it I ask you something? Do you have any statistics to back up that statement? You don’t honestly expect me to believe that, do you? Haven’t you any sense of humor? You don’t remember me, do you? Have I kept you waiting? NOW what’s the matter? You asleep? So what? WHEN are you going TO GROW UP? (1) The World’s worst questions. A friend once asked Isaac Isidor Rabi, a Nobel prize ...

453. Jesus Warns of Presuming Reward and Status

Matthew 20:1-16

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

Big Idea: While promising eternal reward to the first who have followed him, Jesus also warns against presumption of reward and status by telling a parable about the equalization of status that will occur in God’s kingdom. Understanding the Text Peter’s initial question in this passage about the rewards that he and the rest of the Twelve will have for leaving everything to follow Jesus (19:27) connects directly with the previous passage, in which a rich man chooses his wealth over the chance to follow ...

454. You Reap What You Sow

2 Sam 13:1-39

Teach the Text

Robert B. Chisholm Jr.

Big Idea: The Lord ensures that justice is satisfied, sometimes by allowing one’s children to repeat the parent’s sins. Understanding the Text The Lord confronted David with his sin and announced that he would severely punish him. Through Nathan’s entrapment technique, he even maneuvered David into imposing his own penalty. David must pay fourfold for his theft of Uriah’s wife (2 Sam. 12:6). The first installment of this payment came almost immediately, as the first baby born to Bathsheba and David died. ...

455. Holy War: Fighting Right the Right Fight

Ephesians 6:10-20

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

Paul’s argument has reached its final stage. God has redeemed, adopted, and sealed the readers as members of his new creation. They can now live together in unity, newness, love, light, and wisdom—essential characteristics of that new creation. Yet Paul is fully aware that believers in their current context face fierce resistance to living out this new lifestyle of God’s future. They are engaged in a holy war. As he closes the letter, Paul reassures the beleaguered readers that they are not left alone and ...

456. A Commitment to Hope

Luke 3:1-6

Sermon

Derl G. Keefer

The story is told of young boy in a church Christmas program who had one line to remember. His role was that of the Angel of the Lord and his one line consisted of: “Behold, I bring you good tidings.” He wasn’t clear about the word “tidings” so he asked his mother what it meant. She defined it as “news.” Sunday morning the play was going smoothly and all was well. He was sent onto the stage as the Angel of the Lord announcing to the shepherds about God’s message. When he got on stage and looked out at the ...

457. Out of the Darkness

Isaiah 9:2-7

Sermon

King Duncan

On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, was assassinated by a well-known actor named John Wilkes Booth. Lincoln was the first U.S. president to be assassinated, with his funeral and burial marking an extended period of national mourning. Occurring near the end of the American Civil War, Lincoln’s assassination was part of a larger conspiracy intended by Booth to revive the Confederate cause by eliminating the three most important officials of the United States ...

458. The Window Of Time Is Closing

2 Peter 3:8-15a

Sermon

Ronald Love

Jane Goodall is best known to the world as the foremost expert on chimpanzees. She began her study of chimpanzees in 1960, when she was 23-years-old. She spent the next 55 years studying wild chimpanzees social and family interactions. At the age of 78, she retired from her work as a primatologist and an anthropologist. Her new venture in life has become being an activist for climate change. Her mother taught her that the best way to change the minds of individuals is to tell stories. Goodall now travels ...

459. Godly Sexual Passion For An X-Rated World

Song of Songs 2:1-17

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

The Hebrew word for love, awhab or awrag, means "to pant, to long for, to breathe heavily after." Psalm 41:1 says, "As a deer pants for the waters so my soul longs after you." In John 3:16, the idea is that God so loved the world, so breathed heavily after you and me, that he gave his only Son.... God is passionate for you. His breathing is labored. He loves you. There is a book in the Old Testament that is full of heavy breathing. It is titled, "Song of Solomon," or "The Song of Songs." And it deals ...

460. Membership Has Its Privileges

Acts 16:16-40

Sermon

Rodney Thomas Smothe

Our text today is one of those passages in the New Testament that is well known in the Christian community. The story of Paul and Silas and their dynamic escape from prison has for many years been a favorite among preachers. Many talented and gifted sermon crafters have taken the images of midnight, earthquake, and open doors and painted a picture in the hearts and minds of the faithful. The images of ridicule, imprisonment and deliverance become images of witness, prayer, and the power of God's ...

461. God Is Not Yet Finished With You

Genesis 1:1-2:3

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." On a pastor’s desk was a sign, "Be patient with me, for God is not yet finished with me." It was a humorous way of telling his people that he was not yet perfect as a Christian. It is a fact that God is not finished creating his universe or his people. Contrary to popular opinion, God has not finished his creation, for scientists claim that our universe is expanding at the rate of twenty-six million miles per hour. Likewise, the creation of ...

462. What Do You See?

John 1:43-51

Sermon

Thomas Long

It was a rollicking night at the theater. A young actor named Tom Key was playing the part of Jesus in the play Cotton Patch Gospel and he was clearly bringing the house down. The play, a romping, bluegrass musical which depicts the ministry of Jesus as if it had occurred in the cotton fields and Baptist churches of rural south Georgia, was in its final performance run, and Key was feeling confident and even inventive with his lines. His spontaneous enthusiasm was contagious, and he had forged between ...

463. What’s Happened To My Dear Old Church?

Mark 7:1-23

Sermon

Richard Patt

"Why is it that your disciples do not follow the teaching handed down by our ancestors, but instead eat with ritually unclean hands?" (v. 5, TEV) There’s a grand old hymn I haven’t seen in many hymn hooks, but we used to sing it in my boyhood church. The opening words are these: My church, my church, my dear old church, my fathers’ and my own. On prophets and apostles built, and Christ the cornerstone. All else beside by storm or tide may yet be overthrown, But not my church, my dear old church, my fathers ...

464. 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 ...

465. Christmas Is On Top Of A Steep Hill

Luke 2:21-40

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Now will you hear the scripture lesson of the morning, from the 2nd chapter of Luke’s gospel, beginning with the 22nd verse and reading through the 35th verses? “And when the time came for their purification, according to the Law of Moses, they brought Jesus up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. As it is written in the law of the Lord, every male that opens the womb shall be called Holy to the Lord, and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord. A pair of turtle doves, or ...

466. WaterFire Disciples

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Does your church have a mission statement? There are very few now that don't. Remind your congregation what it is. Can they recite it by heart? Does your church have an image statement? There are very few now that do. But in an image culture, it's more important to have an image statement than a mission statement. The city of Chicago came up with an image statement for itself in 1999 and it brought into the city hundreds of millions of dollars. The image that best captured their history and heritage was ...

467. There Will Be No Adults in Heaven

Mark 10:13-16

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

[A great way to begin your sermon this morning is to feature the favorite hats of your preteen or teen boys. Arrange ahead of time for them to come up to the front wearing their favorite caps. If one of them has a collection of hats, have them show it off. See if you can get them to take their hat off. Have fun with this group that is so often neglected in church.] Ever since he was three years old our son Thane has worn a hat a baseball-type cap. He might as well have been born bald. We never get to see ...

468. Holy Spirit Holes

Acts 2:1-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Where are your Holy Spirit holes that open you to the Divine? The Bible has been a book for 500 years ever since Gutenberg invented the printing press. How did people come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ before the Bible was a book? Your ancestors who were living in the medieval period how did they come to be Christians? We mistakenly nickname the "Middle Ages" the "Dark Ages" those centuries after the old Roman Empire fell but before Europe established itself as the new center for intellectual ...

469. Hebrews 11:29-12:2

Hebrews 11:29-12:2

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

The epistle to the Hebrews was almost certainly not written by Paul. But it almost certainly was authored by someone who was a very close associate of Paul, someone who knew his theology and thinking, his style and syntax. This author also speaks with a Jewish voice, one comfortably familiar with Jewish theology, tradition and soul. Some favorite candidates for authorship offered by scholars have included Barnabas, Silas, Luke and Apollos. Among these four, Apollos appears to hold the best qualifications ...

470. Everything Is Meaningless

Ecclesiastes 1:1-11

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Huwiler

Opening Matters: This opening section of the book of Ecclesiastes consists of three distinct segments. First, a superscription identifies the work but is not part of the book proper (1:1). The following verse provides a motto for the book (1:2). Closing the introductory section is a poem that incorporates many of the themes and much of the vocabulary to be developed in the remainder of the work (1:3–11). Because this section functions as an introduction to the book as a whole, it is not surprising to find ...

471. The Baby or the Window?

Matthew 13:44-46

Sermon

King Duncan

It was one of those terrible summertime scenarios you read about from time to time. It was early September in San Antonio, Texas. The thermometer stood at 99 degrees. A woman accidentally locked her 10-month-old niece inside a parked car. Quite frantically she and her sister, the baby’s mother, ran around the auto in near hysteria. A by-stander tried to help. He attempted to unlock the car with a clothes hanger. Soon the infant was turning purple and had foam on her mouth. It was becoming a life-or-death ...

472. Getting It Right in the Coming Year

Galatians 4:4-7

Sermon

King Duncan

It seems strange that New Year’s Eve should fall on a Sunday. But that, of course, is what today is. Many of you are looking forward to New Year’s Eve parties. I’ve always appreciated writer Bill Vaughan’s words: “Youth is when you're allowed to stay up late on New Year's Eve. Middle age is when you're forced to.” I won’t ask how late some of you will be up. Some of you will celebrate via your television. I also like what some comedian said about that. He said, “I love it when they drop the ball in Times ...

473. A Robot in the Pulpit

John 14:15-31

Sermon

King Duncan

Here’s something for you to chew on this morning: A poll taken by the Center for the Governance of Change in the United Kingdom revealed that 25% of European citizens believe that robots and artificial intelligence algorithms would do a better job of making policy decisions than politicians would. [I’m tempted to throw in my two cents worth, but I will refrain]. In Germany and the Netherlands, the figures are even higher. According to this poll, citizens throughout Europe are so disillusioned by their ...

474. Standing Firm

Philippians 3:17-4:1

Sermon

Bonnie Bates

The call of Paul in this letter is to stand firm in the Lord, to not falter, to not align our minds on our earthly life but focus on the eternal life to come. Sounds like a big task, doesn’t it? I woke up hearing the words sung by Sidewalk Prophets, but I was remembering the first words of the refrain as “stand firm in the Lord.” You should look up the beautiful lyrics online. As I had been thinking about the title I had given for this message, I wondered about the emotions Paul was feeling in this letter ...

475. Calming the Storm

Mark 4:35-41

Sermon Aid

Richard A. Jensen

In the overall structure of Mark's Gospel we now move into material that follows the Parable of the Sower, which is the plot synopsis of the first ten chapters of Mark. This story of the disciples in the boat, along with the whole of Mark 5, is about different kinds of soil. The Sower sows the word and people hear and receive that word in different ways. The rocky-ground disciples are afraid. Fear is one of the fundamental responses to the Sower in Mark's story. Mark's Gospel, in fact, ends with a note of ...

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