Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 501 to 525 of 832 results

Numbers 13:25-33, 14:1-10

Sermon

John E. Harnish

... and ministry in the name of Jesus Christ around the world. Well, I had a hard time deciding what to end this sermon with. (Get it?) In the end, it's not the prepositions. It's the active verbs that make all the difference. Following, please find a copy of the full "Shared Vision" of First United Methodist Church. If you would like to the see the Me Church video, go to www.sermonspice.com. Click on "View Videos" and scroll down to Me Church. More information about our mission work at Kusayapu school in Chile ...

502. Praising God on an Oatmeal Box

2 Samuel 6:12-23

Sermon

John E. Harnish

503. A Matter Of The Heart

Psalm 51:1-19

Sermon

John E. Harnish

... would put it to song: O for a heart to praise my God, a heart from sin set free. A heart that always feels thy blood so freely shed for me. A heart in every thought renewed and full of love divine. Perfect and right and pure and good, a copy, Lord, of thine. [2] If hardness of heart is the diagnosis and open heart surgery is the cure, then a heart strangely warmed, a new heart, is the result. And that brings us to the text for the morning, Psalm 51. It begins with that cryptic note at the top ...

504. Outrageous Love

John 13:1-15

Sermon

Shirley Gupton Lynn

... !" John 13:9 Early one April a retired Kansas farm couple were rescued from their car where they had been trapped by snowdrifts for thirteen days. Orville and Nellie Obendorf said they survived the ordeal with the aid of prayer, blankets, one copy of Good Housekeeping Magazine, and two boxes of Girl Scout cookies – peanut butter and mint. The sturdy couple, shaken but unharmed, were finally spotted by a local farmer clearing a road with a tractor. Surprisingly, aircraft from the Kansas National Guard had ...

505. Oh, You'd Better Watch Out!

Mark 13:32-37

Sermon

King Duncan

... that I decided to eliminate from consideration right from the beginning. Songs like “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.” According to one survey, “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer” is now the most requested Christmas song ever, and has sold more than 10 million copies. It also spawned a MTV video. I will add, however, that some polls also rate it the most hated Christmas song of all time. (2) I can’t imagine why. Anyway, I decided not to use it. I decided instead that the familiar first line of ...

506. Mary, Did You Know?

Luke 1:26-38

Sermon

King Duncan

One of the most beautiful of the modern Christmas songs was written by a man who is best known, perhaps, as a comedian. His name is Mark Lowry. Lowry is also a musician of some note. He performed for many years with the Gaither Vocal band. In 1984 he was asked to pen some words for his local church choir and he wrote a poem that began like this, “Mary, did you know that your baby boy would one day walk on water? Mary, did you know that your baby boy would save our sons and daughters?” A few years later ...

507. It’s Good to Know Who Is Calling

1 Samuel 3:1-10 (11-20)

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

... like most. She spent her life in the cage poking at a mirror and whistling while my mom played classical music. She was quite tame, and we all loved playing with her. One special skill that she acquired, however, was whistling. In fact, she was able to perfectly copy the whistle that my dad used to call our pet dog. It was amazing. You really couldn't tell whether it was my dad or the bird whistling. Neither could the dog. Often, two or three times a day, you could hear that shrill dog whistle come from ...

508. When You Think You're Finished, That's When God Starts

Jeremiah 31:7-14

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... . Consider that some of the biggest selling books in America today are astrology books. Not too long ago the paperback rights fee that broke an all-time record of $2,250,000 was for Linda Goodman's Love Signs, which has sold millions of copies. The human potential movement and the New Age movement, gimmicky gadgets like brain-boosting mind machines, and all forms of kinky and unproven "weird science" are all examples of what our culture demands for its daily dose of entertainment. But the shallow fakery of ...

509. A Lovehope Faith

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... Leary to Maya Angelou, from poets to scientists to religious leaders to everyday sages on the street") in a book entitled The Meaning of Life (New York: Little, Brown, 1991). We suggest going to your public library or local bookstore and getting a copy of this in preparation for this sermon. Indeed, your sermon could be nothing more (nor less) than citing how many of these people talk of love as the fount and foundation of meaning in life, and quoting from them. Among these thoughtful, thought provoking ...

510. Three Wise Gifts

Matthew 2:13-23

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... Og Mandino knows about grace - he is a recovering alcoholic who candidly admits that he owes his very existence to unmerited acts of grace given to him. Mandino is also a best-selling author whose inspirational and self-help books have sold over 20 million copies and have been translated into 17 languages. In his most recent book, A Better Way to Live (New York: Bantam Books, 1990); Mandino reveals some of his "secrets" to a full and grace-filled life. Among what he calls "17 Rules to Live By" featured ...

511. The Five Habits of Highly Spiritual Leaders

1 Peter 4:12-14, 5:6-11

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... scheme, team, lean and beam. Business leadership guru Steven Covey's The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990) has been on the New York Times bestsellers list for over 220 weeks. It has sold more than four million copies. Corporate America has snapped up Covey's books and tapes and lined up to attend his seminars as though he were offering them secret insider-trading information. So what is Covey selling? The evangelical message that doing well means doing good and that ...

512. Was Jesus the First Buster?

Matthew 21:23-32

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

As the first, in-your-face Buster, Jesus said: "Don't listen to people's WORDS; look at their DEEDS." 1996 is a very significant year for baby boomers because it is the year the first wave of boomers hit 50. Boomers like rocker Bruce Springsteen and actor Diane Keaton, director Steven Spielberg, basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and singer Dolly Parton (to name a few) are squinting into the sun of their golden years with a mixture of joy, fear and modulated anticipation. Boosters, the GI generation born ...

513. Tabloid Testaments?

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... tabloid reporting style are now spreading across all our media forms like one of those flesh-eating viruses. Tabloid television sells so well that the airwaves are in danger of transmitting almost nothing else but tabloidisms. At first, the tabloid TV track, Hard Copy, A Current Affair, etc., skirted around the prime-time hours. But anyone whose television has been on between the hours of 8 and 11 p.m. in the past year, knows that is no longer the case. Tabloidese journalism gossipy, headline-screaming ...

514. Spiritual Focus and Peripheral Vision

Luke 10:38-42

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... mind can be most at rest. My mind is never clearer or more focused than when my body is sweating and straining. We are being taught this phenomenon of achieving focus through peripheral vision through the Magic Eye books. (It would be great if you could have color copies made of a page from one of these books and walk through how you see it. But beware: Some people simply can't see it. Or as Elizabeth Rennie, speaking for the latter, puts it defiantly, "There are two kinds of people in this world those who ...

515. Romans 5:1-5

Romans 5:1-5

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... Paul's conviction that justification by faith is the key to our redeemed relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Yet even verse 1 sneaks in foreshadowings of Paul's dual affirmation of unmerited grace and an individual's free response. The most ancient copies of this text surprisingly read "let us have peace with God through Jesus Christ," a phrasing which implies we may choose to enjoy this peace or not. The subjunction "let us" suggests that even though we receive this justification, we still hold the ...

516. Deuteronomy 34:1-12

Deuteronomy 34:1-12

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Deuteronomy gets its name from the Septuagint's translation of 17:18, wherein the king is called to prepare "a copy of this law" literally in Greek deuteronomion touto (a second law). The book itself is organized into three addresses given by Moses to the people 1:1-4:43; 4:44-28:68; 29:1-30:20. The conclusion of Deuteronomy, therefore, is rather theologically surprising. Instead of Moses, the ...

517. Romans 5:1-5

Romans 5:1-5

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

518. Acts 19:1-7

Acts 19:1-22

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... the Holy Spirit, but of the very existence of a Holy Spirit in the first place. Since John the Baptist himself preached about the coming of the Holy Spirit, the admission of these disciples seems almost willfully ignorant. In fact the Western textual copy of this verse softens the obtuseness of these “believers” by finessing the text to read that they had not heard “that some are receiving the Holy Spirit.” In light of this cluelessness Paul’s next question delves deeper into the strange pedigree ...

519. John 1:(1-9) 10-18

John 1:(1-9) 10-18

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... , it is in large part due to the poetic flight of these words that John came to be symbolized by the eagle. The power of these words has been felt so deeply through the centuries that there emerged the Christian tradition of wearing an amulet containing a tiny copy of the prologue in the belief that it could protect the wearer from all manner of affliction. That John's prologue resonates so well with the ear as well as with the spirit has led many scholars to propose that it is a text best understood as an ...

520. The Most Stubborn Man in the Bible

Jonah 3:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... go the way of the dodo and the dinosaur. One report suggests that, if we are not on our guard, bananas may disappear in less than ten years. Here’s the problem. The vast majority of banana trees, regardless of location, are virtual carbon copies of one another. The modern banana lacks genetic diversity. Therefore, any parasite or disease that strikes one banana tree has the potential to wipe out the world’s entire supply. The fruit is threatened by its uniformity. Writer Mark Tabb makes this comment ...

521. A Very Different Top 10 List

Mark 1:21-28

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... made it possible for an upstart little group of creatures called mammals to thrive. Does anyone want to trade in their iPod for an eight-track tape player? Does anyone who works in an office miss the mimeograph machine, or typing and correcting carbon copies? The extinction of certain behaviors and attitudes is long past due. During his inaugural address as the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama recalled that only a few decades ago his own father would not have been allowed to sit and be ...

522. Just a Housewife Who Wanted To Know God

Mark 9:2-9

Illustration

Candice Hannigan

Germaine Copeland has a story to tell, but it's not the "great American novel" she once dreamed she would write. The author, who has sold more than 3 million copies of her "Prayers That Avail Much" book series, began her faith journey years ago when she was a homemaker on the verge of taking her life. "I had a problem with depression and had come to the place where I didn't want to live," recalled Copeland. As she was ...

523. Just Receive

John 3:16

Illustration

King Duncan

Harvey Penick, a 90-year-old golfer, hit the jack pot with two books on golf: The Little Red Book, and If You Play Golf, You're My Friend. Together these two books have sold nearly two million copies. In the 1920's Penick bought a red spiral notebook and began jotting down observations about golf. He never showed the book to anyone except his son until 1991, when he shared it with a local writer and asked if he thought it was worth publishing. The man read it ...

524. Perennial Money Changers

John 2:13-22

Illustration

Brett Blair

... this morning, we read that the ones who were trading and selling in the temple were the scribes and Pharisees the religious leaders of the day. That modern man is searching for spirituality is evident. The circulation of evangelistic magazines, which sold a modest 1 million copies per year back in the 1960's, has soared to past 12 million in sales in the 1990's. People are searching for spirituality, but many feel that they cannot find it in the walls of the church. The 20th century church seems to lack the ...

525. A Life of Trust

2 Corinthians 5:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

Tommy Nelson in his book, The 12 Essentials of Godly Success, tells about a young man named Curt. Curt is thirteen years old. But Curt is physically and mentally disabled. He can’t talk. He’s a bit fragile. He’s just now getting to the place where he can go to the bathroom by himself. He can feed himself. He can hug you and love you. But here’s what Nelson loves about Curt. “He is innocent and pure, and he loves people. You can be a big guy or a little guy, a female or a male, any race, any income, ...

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