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 4726 to 4750 of 4943 results

4726. Thinking about the Unthinkable - Ash Wednesday

Luke 12:13-21

Sermon

David E. Leininger

I came home from work last evening, greeted the family, changed clothes, and began reading the mail. This week's Newsweek was there, so I began flipping through. Early on I came to this rather striking ad: it said, "It's 1998. You're DEAD. What do you do now? Just for a minute, think the unthinkable. Think about when suddenly you're not there." And then the ad goes on to try to sell life insurance. (1) Years ago, a friend of mine who was an insurance agent would approach potential clients on the street and ...

4727. When The Risen Christ Comes Looking For Us

John 21:15-25

Sermon

James W. Moore

On November 1, 1972, our family left West Tennessee and moved to Shreveport, Louisiana so I could join the staff of the First United Methodist Church there as the preaching associate. For the next 12 years, I had the distinct, unique, and amazing experience of working side by side daily with Dr. D. L. Dykes. Dr. Dykes was without question… one of the greatest preachers I have ever heard, one of the most creative and innovative leaders I have ever known, and one of the most lovingly colorful and eccentric ...

4728. God Hears

Genesis 21:8-21

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Over the past several weeks the world's attention has been particularly focused on the news from Camp David. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yassar Arafat have been in the midst of peace talks. As the talks opened, Barak and Arafat engaged in a mock pushing match for the cameras as they entered the main cabin. Arafat, perhaps because he has been hunted as a terrorist for most of his life, likes to be the last into a room. Barak insisted the Palestinian go first. Arafat refused. So ...

4729. The Bush Is Still Burning

Exodus 3:1-22

Sermon

David E. Leininger

There is an old story of a very long evening. The search committee for a new pastor had been going over resumé after resumé in hopes of finding the perfect minister. None so far. Tired of the whole process, they were about ready to call it a night when they came upon this letter of introduction from a candidate: To the Pulpit Nominating Committee: It is my understanding that you are in the process of searching for a new pastor, and I would like to apply for the position. I wish I could say that I am a ...

4730. The Ten Commandments #7: No Adultery

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

David E. Leininger

I remember the first time I ever preached on this text. I was more than a little reluctant...not because I was concerned about the sensitivity of the subject, but rather its relevance. You see, I was serving a congregation at that time that was OLD. I mean REALLY OLD - twenty percent of them were over 80! Did they NEED to hear, "You shall not commit adultery?" But I was in the midst of a series on the Ten Commandments, so I could not comfortably skip this one. I mentioned my concern, and the word that came ...

4731. The Ten Commandments #9: No False Witness

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Have you been watching the impeachment hearings? I spent much of Thursday afternoon and evening glued to the tube. Not because the testimony and questioning were so scintillating or riveting, but because this was historic. This process is only occurring for the third time in our nation's history, and as a history buff, I wanted to watch. As we all know (and better than any of us is happy with), for the past four years, the Office of Independent Counsel has been investigating the President - first it was ...

4732. A Mother's Gift

1 Samuel 1:1-20

Sermon

David E. Leininger

If there were ever a day that felt like Mother's Day to Hannah, this was it. This was the day she would get to see her son, Samuel, for the first time since last year. Each autumn, Hannah and her family would make the pilgrimage from their home in Ramah to the religious center of the nation in Shiloh for the Feast of Tabernacles - the annual celebration of the harvest, a time to renew the covenant between Israel and her God - one of the three holiest festivals of the Hebrew year. To be sure, Hannah was a ...

4733. The Voice

1 Samuel 3:1--4:1

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Someone has suggested that the title for a sermon about this incident in the life of Samuel should be "The Danger of Sleeping in Church." As you Bible scholars know there is another story in the New Testament which could be titled the same way.(1) Young Eutychus of Troas was at worship one Sunday evening, seated on the window sill. The apostle Paul was the visiting preacher, and he DID preach...and preach and preach and preach. He preached till midnight. Eutychus dozed...and crashed. He fell out the window ...

4734. A New Look at an Old Treasure

Psalm 23:1-6

Sermon

David E. Leininger

"The Lord is my shepherd..." Probably as well-known and well-loved as any phrase of scripture: the twenty-third psalm. Generations have memorized it, in Sunday School or at the knee of parents or grandparents. It is one of the first Bible passages we learn, and, as often as we hear it funerals, it is among the last words said over us when we die. A wonderful affirmation of our faith in God's ability to protect. "The Lord is my shepherd..." There is an old story out there of the man who, in the midst of a ...

4735. Good News in the Ashes

Psalm 51:1-19

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Ash Wednesday. In the Christian church, the first day of Lent, occurring 6½ weeks before Easter. In the early church, the length of the Lenten observance varied, but eventually it began six weeks - 42 days - before Easter. But this provided only 36 days of fasting (because Sundays were not supposed to be fast days). So, in the 7th century, four days were added before the first Sunday in Lent in order to establish 40 fasting days, in imitation of Christ's fast in the desert. The custom of using ashes today ...

4736. There's No Such Thing as Too Much Sugar

Psalm 91:1-16

Sermon

David E. Leininger

The Archangel Michael. We meet him here in Revelation as commanding General of God's forces in heaven. We meet him in the book of Daniel as the guardian of the nation of Israel,(1) who, together with Gabriel, fought against the prince (the angelic patron) of Persia. Then we meet him once more in Jude 9 where we read of a strange dispute between the devil and Michael over Moses' body. We meet him today on the liturgical calendar - in some church traditions, today, September 29th, is the Feast Day of St. ...

4737. Good Medicine

Proverbs 10:1-32

Sermon

David E. Leininger

"A cheerful heart is a good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones." Amen? Amen! A really stupid old joke. Three fellows have just died and are at the pearly gates. St. Peter tells them that they can enter if they can answer one simple question: "What is Easter?" The first man replies, "Oh, that's easy, it's the holiday in November when everyone gets together, eats turkey, and is thankful..." "WRONG," replies St. Peter, and proceeds to ask the second man the same question, "What is Easter?" The ...

4738. The Handwriting on the Heart

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

David E. Leininger

"...I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more." What a comforting word. Especially for folks who knew with every fiber of their being that they were in their current mess (and BIG mess it was) because of their sin. It was a wonderful word of hope. The word came from what might have been seen by some in that day as a surprising source...Jeremiah. By this point in the prophet's career (probably 40+ years by now), he was fairly well known. He was NOT famous for bringing words of comfort ...

4739. Make It Right!

Matthew 5:21-26

Sermon

David E. Leininger

There is a church in Columbia, SC near the seminary I attended which has one of those bulletin boards out front to list service times, special events, sermon subjects, and so on. For several years there was one other thing on that bulletin board, one of those little "sentence sermons" that we see so often. It said, "The same Bible that says BELIEVE also says BEHAVE." I do not know if there were any significance to the fact that it was located so near to all us seminary students; perhaps someone figured we ...

4740. An Excuse to Be Better

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Lent. A fascinating time in the church year that Presbyterians and other Protestants are only beginning to appreciate. The name Lent has nothing to do with something previously loaned - it comes from an ancient word that meant "springtime," - that period of the calendar during which the days lengthen. Because the church season always fell at that time of year, the name came to apply there as well. Even after the word "Lent" no longer referred to spring, it was still used by the church to describe the ...

4741. The Jump to Judgment

Matthew 7:1-6

Sermon

David E. Leininger

I heard a story once. A Mr. Jones picked up the wrong umbrella in a hotel, and the umbrella's rightful owner called his attention to it. Embarrassed, Mr. Jones offered his apologies, picked up the right one, and went on his way. But the incident served to remind Mr. Jones that he had promised to buy umbrellas for his wife and daughter, so he went across the street to a store and purchased one for each of them. As he came out from the store and began to get in his car - THREE umbrellas on his arm now - the ...

4742. Are You the One?

Matthew 11:1-19

Sermon

David E. Leininger

A few years ago in Reader's Digest a lady reported searching for the perfect birthday card for her husband. She came across a promising one. On the outside it read: "Sweetheart, you're the answer to my prayers." Then she turned to the inside, which was inscribed like this: "You're not what I prayed for exactly, but apparently you are the answer."(1) OK. In a strange way, I will bet that something like that was running through John's mind as he sat there in that prison. He and his people had hoped and ...

4743. A Labor of Love - Labor Day

Matthew 16:13-20

Sermon

David E. Leininger

This sermon is based on Matthew 16:13-28 You are no doubt familiar with the Japanese word Kamikaze. The Kamikazes were the suicide pilots in World War II who, at the cost of their own lives, attacked Allied ships in the Pacific. Some 1200 died in sinking 34 ships. The word Kamikaze in Japanese means "divine wind" and recalls a typhoon in the year 1281 that crushed the invasion fleet mounted by the ambitious Mongol emperor Kublai Khan in the wake of his conquest of China. Six-hundred-plus years later, to ...

4744. The Freedom in Forgiveness

Matthew 18:21-35

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Forgiveness. Great word. Great concept. We believe in it. We love it. We live it. Right? Say AMEN! There was a man who loved dogs. He served as a speaker in various civic clubs to benefit the SPCA. He was known far and wide as a dog lover. One day his neighbor observed as he poured a new sidewalk from his house out to the street. About the time he smoothed out the last square foot of cement a large dog strayed across his sidewalk leaving footprints in his wake. The man muttered something under his breath ...

4745. The Judas Gene

Matthew 26:14-16

Sermon

David E. Leininger

As part of a study, a group of researchers from Harvard contacted an elementary school teacher at the beginning of a school year. They told the teacher that they had designed a test that would correctly predict which students were going to grow intellectually during the coming school year. (Someone called it "The Harvard Test of Intellectual Spurts" because he said it told which students were going to 'spurt' that year). The researchers promised it would indicate the right students. The test was said to be ...

4746. I Am Sombody!!!

Mark 1:9-13, Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

David E. Leininger

I suspect that, having made it to mid-January, you would say that you have successfully survived the holidays. True? The celebration of our Savior's birth - Christmas; then the New Year; finally the Feast of the Three Kings on January 6th - Epiphany (which for many has become the Feast of Taking Down the Decorations!). This morning I want to suggest that there is one more holiday we should be observing - THIS day, the one the liturgical calendar designates to remember the Baptism of the Lord. If the ...

4747. Ephphatha...Be Opened

Mark 7:31-37

Sermon

David E. Leininger

More than a generation of preachers at Princeton Seminary were schooled in their homiletical skills by Dr. Donald Macleod. Among the points Dr. Macleod would make during the semester was the importance of choosing a compelling sermon title. In fact, he asked students to give their sermon title before beginning each sermon. He used to tell of Mrs. O'Leary who would hop on the Fifth Avenue bus on Sunday morning in Manhattan and pass the great churches along that thoroughfare. As the bus would approach each ...

4748. A Story Worth Sharing

Mark 8:27-30

Sermon

David E. Leininger

WATCH YOUR MOUTH! What a lesson. There is a classic story about a minister who comes to church one snowy Sunday morning to find that only one lady has been able to make it to worship. As it happens, the text and sermon for the day came from this third chapter of James and focused on the damage done by gossiping. It also turned out that, of all the people in the congregation, this one lady was more guilty of this particular sin than anybody! So, one-person congregation or not, the pastor proceeded as if ...

4749. God Bless the Child

Mark 10:13-16

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Several years ago, the Presbyterian Church prepared new catechisms for the instruction of both children and adults in the basics of our faith. What we had been using up till then (or NOT using, as the case generally was), had been written in the seventeenth century and was in archaic language that was difficult for modern ears to understand. The new catechism for children begins this way: Question: Who are you? Answer: I am a child of God. Good start, I think. And what brings it to mind this morning is ...

4750. When Your Church Provokes You

Matthew 13:1-23, Hebrews 10:19-39

Sermon

David E. Leininger

...And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching. And now you know where the strange sermon title comes from. True enough, the church often DOES provoke us in the wrong way. You may have heard me tell of my father's response when, years ago, I asked him what the hardest part of being a minister was. I had posed the question just after he had ...

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