Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 4776 to 4800 of 4915 results

4776. The Character Of Christmas; Herod: The Not So Great

Matthew 2:13-22

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

I don't remember where I gleaned this story, but it was in some of my readings this week in sermon prep. But Brenda Roberts of Stone Mountain, Georgia is a Sunday School teacher. She was reading the story of Jesus' birth to her day-care children one morning. As usual, she stopped to see if they were paying attention and understood. "What do we call the three wise men?" she asked. "The three maggots," replied a bright 5-year-old. "What gifts did the Magi bring baby Jesus?" the teacher corrected. That the ...

4777. Who Touched The Remote Control?

Jeremiah 17:7-8

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

Maybe you've heard about the family who was asked by their pastor how much time they spent together in meaningful discussion. The father said that they spent about two-and-a-half hours a day in meaning discussion. The pastor was impressed. "That's wonderful! That's more than I spend with my own family, a lot more! What kind of things do you discuss?" Mom rolled her eyes and then volunteered additional information left out by the father. She said, "We only discuss one thing: who gets to hold the remote ...

4778. Celebrating Generosity

Mark 12:38-44

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

A number of years I read a newspaper article from Indianapolis about a wealthy widow, Mrs. Marjorie Jackson, was found dead in her home. She was dressed in flannel pajamas and a housecoat, was found on the kitchen floor. There was no foul play involved. But the strange part of the story is that the police discovered over 5 million dollars in cash stuffed in trash cans, shoe boxes, drawers, tool boxes, paper bags, the pockets of clothing and even in a vacuum cleaner bag. Most of the money was in $100 bills ...

4779. The Essence of the Gospel

2 Corinthians 4:1-18

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

I don’t know how It Is with you, but I can recall occasions when a text of scripture grabbed my imagination, gripped my mind, burrowed its way into my soul, and became a part of my being. In many instances, I can relive the setting when that happened, and it energizes my life. Our scripture for this is such a case. It was Senior Recognition Day at Candler School of Theology, Emory University, 1958. From the time I answered the call to preach as a seventeen- year-old country boy in Mississippi, I’ve always ...

4780. Contemporary Prophets Speak the Truth

Deuteronomy 18:14-22

Sermon

Richard Gribble

Dorothy Day, a woman who many people today believe to be a prototypical saint for twentieth-century society, was born on November 8, 1897, in Brooklyn, the eldest daughter of John Day, a roving newspaper sportswriter and his wife, Grace. Because of the nature of her father's work, the Day family moved often during Dorothy's youth. In 1906, the Days were living in Berkeley, California, when the great earthquake and subsequent fire destroyed a large portion of the city of San Francisco across the bay. The ...

4781. Galatians 2:15-21

Galatians 2:11-21

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

One of the most satisfying experiences in life is getting off the perfect “zinger.” When the right words pop into your head and then out of your mouth with perfect timing, completely undoing your opponent’s argument and precisely making your point: that’s almost heaven. More often than not, when that kind of synchronized synapse occurs it is fired off more by passion than by planning. For me it’s more not than often. I think of the perfect zinger, but hours or days later. I’m an expert in what the French ...

4782. In Pisidian Antioch

Acts 13:13-52

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

The missionaries cross to Asia Minor, where Paul’s first recorded sermon is preached in Antioch. The speech is given at length, so that on other occasions Luke needed only to say that Paul “proclaimed the word of God in the Jewish synagogues” (13:5; 14:1; etc.) without feeling obliged to give the content of the preaching each time. And like the speech, the response was also a paradigm, with some Jews believing but many rejecting the gospel. It is possible to see in the pattern of ministry outlined in this ...

4783. Deborah

Judges 4:1-24

Understanding Series

Cheryl A. Brown

Deborah and Barak: The story of the fourth of Israel’s judges is full of the unexpected. Deborah is a multigifted woman whose roles parallel those of Moses. Barak behaves as anything but a hero of faith. Jael, a simple, non-Israelite woman, is privileged to deal the death blow to a powerful warrior—with highly unconventional weapons, a tent peg and hammer. Unlike other judges’ stories, the narrative account is followed by a poem, the Song of Deborah, which celebrates the Lord’s miraculous victory on behalf ...

4784. The Shepherd and His Flock

John 10:1-21

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

The brief exchange between Jesus and the Pharisees in 9:39–41 is only the beginning of a discourse extending (with one interruption) through most of chapter 10. The pattern found in chapters 5 and 6, a miracle followed by a discourse interpreting it, is maintained here as well. What chapter 10 interprets, however, is not the healing of the blind man as such but the events that followed the healing, that is, the former blind man’s expulsion from the synagogue and his confession of faith in Jesus. Two ...

4785. The Suffering and Glory of the Servant

Isaiah 52:13--53:12

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

A New Revelation of Yahweh’s Arm: Like 48:20–21, the end of the previous section, 50:4–52:12, both suggested closure and questioned it. The comment about the impossibility of shalom which followed 48:20–21 led into the new twist to the servant motif in chapter 49. The point is less explicit at the end of 50:4–52:12, but the implication is again that not all the prophet’s agenda has been handled. Everything is in place for the restoration of the community to Jerusalem and for the restoration of the city ...

4786. Signs and Oracles of Judgment

Ezekiel 4:1-5:17, Ezekiel 6:1-14, Ezekiel 7:1-27

Understanding Series

Steven Tuell

The material between Ezekiel’s call (chs. 1–3) and his vision of Jerusalem’s destruction (chs. 8–11) falls into two parts. Chapters 4 and 5 present a series of four sign-acts depicting Jerusalem’s siege and fall (4:1–3, 4–8, 9–17; 5:1–17). Chapters 6 and 7 are oracles of judgment directed against the mountains of Israel (ch. 6) and the people, particularly the leaders, of Jerusalem (ch. 7). However, these two sections are neatly interwoven. In the fourth sign-act, the Lord calls down destruction upon ...

4787. Meet Israel’s New King

1 Sam 9:1–10:8

Teach the Text

Robert B. Chisholm Jr.

Big Idea: Even when his people’s faith falls short of his expectations, the Lord remains faithful and makes provision for their deliverance. Understanding the Text Israel demanded to have a king like the nations that lived around them (1 Sam. 8). They wanted a leader who would ensure national security (8:19–20) through an army and alliances. Despite how they may have viewed this request, the Lord regarded it as a rejection of his authority (8:7): it showed that the people were not willing to demonstrate ...

4788. Obedience Is Better Than Sacrifice

1 Samuel 15:1-35

Teach the Text

Robert B. Chisholm Jr.

Big Idea: The Lord gives greater priority to obedience than to religious formalism. Understanding the Text In this account the narrator’s pro-David/anti-Saul agenda continues to gain momentum. In chapter 13 Samuel announced that Saul would have no royal dynasty, placing the king on thin ice. Chapter 14 did nothing to ease our concerns about Saul, as he exhibited a preoccupation with his own honor and an obsession with religious formalism, particularly oaths. He was ready to execute his own son, and he ...

4789. The Womb of Amazing Grace

John 4:5-42

Sermon

Robert Leslie Holmes

In John 3 we have the record of an amazing encounter between Jesus and Nicodemus, a man described as a leader among the Jews and a member of the sect of the Pharisees. John 4 presents another stunning encounter, one even more startling. It involves a person from "the other side of the religious and political tracks," someone who lived out her life at the other end of the social and religious strata of that time and place. It is hard to imagine any greater contrast than that which is pictured in these two ...

4790. Living Sacrifices

Romans 12:1-8

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

The person who is justified by faith shall live (1:17). That is the theme of the epistle. In chapters 5–8 Paul began to discuss the characteristics of the “new life” (6:4), but not until chapter 12 does he devote himself to the ethical and ecclesiastical shape of it. Justification by faith produces neither moral passivity nor permissiveness. Rather, the indicative of chapters 1–11 leads to the imperative of chapters 12–16. The faith which saves is a faith which can and must be lived, and only the faith ...

4791. The Natural Look

Luke 9:28-36 (37-43)

Sermon

Susan R. Andrews

It was a special day, a spiritual day, the passage from childhood into young adulthood. I was just shy of my thirteenth birthday and I was excited. For six months we had sat through boring classes memorizing the catechism, taking notes, trying to be good at God. After all, the closest thing I knew to God was my teacher, who happened to be my daddy. And I didn’t want to disappoint either God or Daddy! Yes, back then confirmation was a big deal. Nobody ever dreamed of missing a class. We memorized all 196 ...

4792. What Will We Do When He Is Gone?

John 13:1-17, 31b-35

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

John Dickinson understood the importance of being attentive to details. As an elected leader of his local congregation John insisted every decision of the church board follow proper procedure. As the in-house attorney for a small insurance company in a mid-western city, he paid close attention to every word in every corporate contract and insurance policy. John believed that there was a right and a wrong way to do everything. Consequently, he insisted that everything be done “decently and in good order.” ...

4793. Responding to God's Love

1 John 4:7-21

Sermon

Richard Gribble

A long time ago there lived a little boy whose parents had died. He was taken in by an aunt who raised him as her own child. Many years later, after the boy had grown and become successful in business, he received a letter from his aunt. She was terminally ill and from the tone of her letter quite afraid of death. Thus, the man who had been raised and touched by this woman decided to write her a letter in response. He began, “It is now 35 years since I, a little boy of six, was left quite alone in the ...

4794. The Grip

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Readiness. This is a word that our culture often has lost sight of. We tend to be a rather impulsive people today. When we want something, we want it now, …or better yet, yesterday. We leap into new ventures without checking them out fully. We rush headlong into situations that may or may not do us harm. We rack up credit by the thousands without a plan to pay it back. We have children without thinking through what those responsibilities will mean for us. We lash out at our friends, partners, and spouses ...

4795. In The Eyes of God

Isaiah 20:1-5

Sermon

Gerald Whetstone

Consider how differently you've felt before another person's eyes. Think how you may have withered under the stare of an angry teacher. How your head may have begun to swim in the dreamy gaze of a lover. How belittled you felt as your boss seemed to look right through you without seeing you. Or how you could have burst with joy in the proud eyes of your parents. How differently we can feel in another person's eyes. And how differently eyes can see us -- differences not dependent on optical issues, but on ...

4796. More Than Sex

Sermon

John N. Brittain

Song of Solomon 2:8-16a, 8:6-7; 1 John 3:11-23; John 15:12-17 My beloved speaks and says to me: "Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away; for now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. ... Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away. O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the covert of the cliff, let me see your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely." My beloved is mine and I am his -- Song of Solomon 2:10-16a Every summer, like many university chaplains ...

4797. A Cultural Breakthrough

Acts 16:6-10

Sermon

Rodney Thomas Smothe

At first glance this story seems a bit out of place. Perhaps some background of the events leading up to this text would be helpful. Paul and Barnabas along with the other disciples had gathered in Antioch to encourage and strengthen one another prior to continuing their journeys. Prior to Paul's departure, he and Barnabas had a sharp disagreement over who should continue on the journey. Barnabas wanted to take John, also known as Mark, with them, but Paul did not think it wise, because John had deserted ...

4798. Yes, It Becomes Unclean

Haggai 2:11-17

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

Thus says the LORD of hosts: Ask the priests for a ruling: If one carries consecrated meat in the fold of one's garment, and with the fold touches bread, or stew, or wine, or oil, or any kind of food, does it become holy? The priests answered, "No." Then Haggai said, "If one who is unclean by contact with a dead body touches any of these, does it become unclean?" The priests answered, "Yes, it becomes unclean." Haggai then said, So is it with this people, and with this nation before me, says the LORD; and ...

4799. Thanksgiving

Lk 17:11-19 · 1 Tim 2:1-4 · Phil 4:6-20 · 2 Cor 9:6-15 · Deut 8:1-18 · Ps 65

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

COMMENTARY Lesson 1: Deuteronomy 8:1-18 The people of Israel must remember God's goodness in leading them through the wilderness into the promised land. Since God has blessed them by bringing them into a rich and fruitful land, thankful lives are called for. When the people enjoy prosperity, the children of God must resist the temptation to pat themselves on the back and take credit for all their good fortune.They must render thanksgiving to the Lord, for he is the source of all blessing. The Lord is the ...

4800. I Want To Go South, Lord

Sermon

Jerry Eckert

August 8, 1982 Comment: One of the great figures of Genesis, Abraham,amazed me the first time I read the story of his argumentwith God over His plan to destroy Sodom. With that in mind,I got to wondering how Abraham might have handled hisanxiety over how his obedience to God was paying off. Ichose a time early in his career when that anxiety wouldhave been high. The first time I did this story sermon, a friend let meuse a classic old black telephone that dated from the early'40s. With it, I conducted a one ...

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