Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 4826 to 4850 of 4972 results

4826. Drink Deep

Mark 1:4-11

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... , and she asks Gloria if she should be afraid of him. When Gloria asks why Opal should be afraid, Opal replies, "For doing bad things; for being in jail." Gloria thinks for a second and then invites Opal to come to the back yard with her. They stop in front of a giant tree, and Gloria asks, "What do you think about this tree?" From nearly every branch of the tree hangs empty bottles, suspended by cords. The sunlight dances through the many-colored bottles. It is quite a spectacle. Opal wants to know why ...

4827. Discover the Perfect Gift of Christmas

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... in a different light. The Perfect gift which came wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger. B. Not only is this gift the Perfect Gift, it is the Most Important Gift. Conclusion Years ago a young man was riding a bus from Chicago to Miami. He'd a stop-over in Atlanta. While he was sitting at the lunch counter, a woman came out of the ladies' rest room carrying a tiny baby. She walked up to this man and asked, "Would you hold my baby for me, I left my purse in the rest room." He did. But ...

4828. The Gift Unwrapped

Luke 2:1-20

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... we could ever improve on the first Christmas." It's amazing how we've tried to improve on that first Christmas, isn't it? There was a little boy who was steeped in the Christmas story and loved it dearly. He was out shopping with his mother and stopped at the local toy store. There he wandered through the store, looking at everything in every department. Finally, he caught up with Mom and with a frustrated look on his face said. "I've looked everywhere. There's lots of toys but where's Jesus?" That's the ...

4829. Jesus Saves, We're Called To Invest

Matthew 25:14-20

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... Booker T. Washington. Washington started life as a black American slave. At the age of sixteen, he walked almost five hundred miles from his slave home to Hampton Institute in Virginia. When he got there, he was told that classes were already filled. But that didn't stop him. He took a job at the school doing menial jobs: sweeping floors and making beds and anything they wanted just so he could be around the environment of learning. He did these jobs so well that the faculty found room for him as a student ...

4830. One Lord, One Table

Exodus 20:1-4

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... comes to my family," said the father. "Everybody shouts too much," said the daughter who was ten. And the teenage boy didn't say a word. He sat as far away from everybody as he could with his arms folded. After listening for a long time, the counselor stopped them and said: "All right, this is what I want you to do. I want you all to sit down at the dinner table together every night and eat together. And I want you to start by holding hands around the table and saying grace." The objections starting coming ...

4831. Who Do You Put On?

Romans 13:8-14

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... New Orleans for the evacuation happening there. Pat Bodenhamer, Conference Minister with Mission in Outreach is organizing much of the effort. Churches and Camps are already helping people displaced in the state. "If people see a Louisiana license plate, they will stop and ask how they can help." One camp in the annual conference is already open to displaced people and five more are ready to accept people as a long-term place of residence. Texas Annual Conference The Texas Annual Conference is participating ...

4832. Dare To DV8

Romans 12:1-8

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... able to make music. Unfortunately, he couldn't sing or play an instrument. His voice was high and squeaky, so he wasn't welcome in the Boys' Choir. When he took violin lessons, the neighbors complained so much they persuaded his parents to make him stop. Still, Antonio wanted to make music. Because he couldn't sing or play an instrument, he often found himself alone and so he whittled. He could whittle almost anything. His friends kidded him because it seemed that his only talent was whittling. But he didn ...

4833. Do You Have Beautiful Feet?

Romans 10:5-15

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... finally agrees and this is one of the poems he recites on air in the show. FEET by Scoutmaster Allen A Poem glorifying the pedal extremities. You need feet to stand up straight with, You need feet to kick your friends, You need feet to keep your socks on, And stop your legs from fraying at the ends. You need feet to stand on tippy-toe, Or to dance the hootchie-koo. Yes, the whole world needs feet for something, And I need feet to run away from you. B. I'd dare say that when it comes to the word ...

4834. If Everybody’s Okay, What’s the Problem? (Series: Real Faith for Real People)

1 John 1:5--2:14

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... valley low enough, ain’t no trouble deep enough, ain’t no sin serious enough to separate you from the love of God. A. The grace of God is SAVING GRACE. It justifies. It pardons. It pays the debt. It sets the prisoner free. Both Sandy and I have been stopped for speeding in front of the church. The violation cost me $118.00. She got off free. Some say she is better looking than I and deserved the pardon. I contend she got a gift. She was guilty as she could be. Nevertheless she was set free. Has anybody ...

4835. Where There’s Hope, There’s Life

Isaiah 2:1-5

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

The poet Emily Dickinson wrote: Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul, And sings the tune without the words, And never stops at all. Here we are in December. December is not so much another month as it is another mood. We start talking about faith, hope and love just because it’s December. We send greeting cards to people we have seldom seen all year. We decorate our houses with greenery ...

4836. Follow Your Questions (Series: An Invitation to Christian Discipleship)

John 20:24-31

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... a much loved spouse calls into question all the certainties of life and death. From her own experience of losing her husband and countless years of counseling others through life’s losses, she has written a book and given it this title: And Not One Bird Stopped Singing. Faith is the courage to believe, where we have not seen. Jesus says to Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Some faith is born of certainty. God shows up in mysterious ways and we are filled with wonder ...

4837. Kingdom Values According to Jesus (Series: Questioning our Values)

Luke 4:14-30

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... current release Amazing Grace. It’s the moving story of William Wilberforce and his life-long struggle against slavery in the Parliament of England. This young man of unusual ability and noteworthy power relentlessly appealed to the consciences of sophisticated people to stop what no normal person could stand to embrace. He literally gave his life trying to set people free. What the movie does not include is the fact that slavery was finally, fully outlawed in England on July 26, 1833. William Wilberforce ...

4838. Radical Love is Risky (Series: Radical Love in a Risky World)

Luke 6:27-36

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... a suicide bomber blows up a crowded bus in Israel. Israel responds by destroying an entire Palestinian village. The Palestinians react with more suicide bombers. It’s been going on for centuries. It didn’t just start the last few years. Sooner or later somebody has got to stop it! If it’s cheek for cheek, will we not eventually run out of cheeks? Let me explain what I mean by turning the other cheek. What I mean by that is not some sort of masochism or martyrdom. “Wow, hit me again. It’s good for ...

4839. Winning the War Over Stuff (Series: Winning The War Over Daily Life)

Luke 12:13-21

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... . During the Wesleyan Revival in England two hundred and fifty years ago, Wesley noted that his converts often grew in wealth, some near one hundred fold in twenty years. That’s a pretty good return, even on the Stock Market, isn’t it? When people stopped drinking and carousing and started living responsible lives many of them started making money. Clean living can do that for you. Wesley started preaching this principle: Earn all you can, save all you can and give all you can. And yet, we come to this ...

4840. Stewardship of the Earth (Series: Stewardship: Discover This Word and Love It!)

Psalm 8:1-9

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... want to do better. In recent decades, great strides have been made toward reducing the pollution of our air and water. Creeks and rivers once filled with debris now flow with fresh streams of fish and wildlife. Concerned leaders came together some years ago to stop the arms race, possibly avoiding a nuclear holocaust. Even the Berlin Wall came tumbling down. Let us not lessen that resolve. To think that in the last 100 years, women got the right to vote and blacks got the right to eat at lunch counters ...

4841. Does Love Really Make the World Go ’Round? (Series: Real Faith for Real People)

1 John 4:7-21

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... emotionally, some physically. It is a human tragedy to regard as enemies anyone unlike us. Demonizing has become a tragic sin of modern America. It infiltrates our country, our churches, our communities, our common conversation, and it needs to stop. Police profiling is wrong. Name calling by religious institutions is immoral. Economic segregation by housing needs to be reconsidered. Class, color and creed discrimination is increasing, not decreasing. One way to diffuse this rampant hate might be to get ...

4842. Why Am I So Lonely? (Series: Real Faith For Real People)

Acts 2:42-47

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... who are not here that God will have none of that. We need all the parts to be the whole body of Christ. Maybe there was a time when we could practice our faith privately, get our religion electronically, and pursue our beliefs individually. Not any more. When the world stopped turning that September day, we discovered that we did not want to be alone. We needed to belong. We need faith to carry on. So, I say to you on the edge, come on in. Welcome home. Brought to you by FaithBreaks.org

4843. Hope That Hangs In There

Isaiah 35:1-10

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... desert. The first thing he asks is this “What are you doing here? You are not alone; there are 600 faithful on your side. Get up and get out of here.” Do you ever feel like Elijah? Nobody understands. Nobody cares. I am all alone facing this difficulty. Stop complaining long enough to listen. There is another Voice in the wilderness. It is God coming to get you, to lead you to higher ground. God is in the desert. Somebody wrote this prayer that I think is worth sharing: Lord, I need to keep things in ...

4844. Follow Your Mentors (Series: An Invitation to Christian Discipleship)

John 14:15-31

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... people. Other mothers fail to fulfill the fundamental responsibilities of parenthood and even dump their babies in trash cans. Mothers, like all the rest of us, stand in need of grace, which God alone supplies. Yet it is a good, right, and a proper thing to stop once in a while and give thanks to God that: somebody fed us when we could not feed ourselves; somebody clothed us when we could not dress ourselves; somebody taught us how to read; somebody gave us the tools to survive; somebody introduced us to ...

4845. Follow Your Failures (Series: An Invitation to Christian Discipleship)

John 21:1-14

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... . God has a way of wanting to transform our whole lives. Sometimes it all gets to be too much. As a lady once told me, “I couldn’t keep listening to you preach on Sunday and still sleep with my boss on Thursday. So it just seemed easier to stop coming to church.” If you are feeling all alone in your sinfulness today, hear this word from Romans 3:23, “All sin and all fall short of the glory of God.” “There is none righteousness, no not one” (Romans 3:10). “We err and stray from God’s ways ...

4846. Rethinking Our Riches (Series: Questioning Our Values)

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... plenty of preachers around who will tell you that God’s blessings are health, wealth, and prosperity. If you give enough out of your poverty they will gladly enjoy the bliss. But Jesus said, “Woe!” I don’t know what woe means, but here I think it means, stop, step back, pause, take another look, and evaluate. Jesus says if your mission in life is to make money, enjoy it while you can, for what you see is all you get. There is nothing else to live for. Money is a rival god. Jesus said, “You cannot ...

4847. Radical Love is Forgiving (Series: Radical Love in a Risky World)

Luke 7:36-50

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... dine in a fine restaurant and clean the headlights of passing motorists at the same time. It gave me a new definition of close quarters. It was somewhat like that in Palestine. While Jesus and Simon ate bread and drank wine, pedestrians passed by. Some of them stopped to listen. One was a woman of the night who lived a sinful life in that town. When she saw Jesus reclining at Simon’s table, she stood behind him weeping, wetting his feet with her tears. Then doing something no respectable woman would do in ...

4848. Jesus’ Trail of Tears (Series: Questioning Our Values)

Luke 19:28-44

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... is over, the trial is finished, He is on His way to the cross, carrying an 0ld rugged cross on his back. The critics are there, the common people are there, no longer shouting Hosannas, but stunned to silence. The women are weeping and wailing. Jesus stops and turns to them saying, “Daughters of Jerusalem, don’t weep for me, weep for yourselves and your children” (LUKE 23:28) Do not weep for me, it is all settled. Weep for yourselves and your children. Weep in the hope salvation has come. Hugh Price ...

4849. This Is the Day!

Psalm 118:1-29

Sermon

King Duncan

... the alcohol that so often had been her downfall. “I’ve always believed in God,” she told me, “but this was the first time in my life that God actually did anything.” She thought maybe she was crazy because she felt so good and she hadn’t been able to stop crying tears of joy this time. God was giving her direction. She needed more. “I want to do things for people, now,” she said. “I’ve got to find a place where I can do some service. It’s just what I want to do . . . to give back. What ...

4850. John 21:1-19

John 21:1-14

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... “feed my lambs,” “tend my sheep,” “feed my sheep.” Jesus’ commands put Simon Peter in a pastoral role, charging him to care and feed Jesus’ “flock” — those of whom Jesus can say “I know my own, and my own know me” (10:14). Jesus stops short of reminding Simon Peter that “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (10:11). But that is clearly the kind of “love” that is being required of this First Follower. In his first two inquiries, Jesus asked Simon Peter if he ...

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