Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 501 to 525 of 2665 results

501. More Than Gimmicks

John 6:24-35

Sermon

David Coffin

... quite meticulous in her worship habits. She prayed from her devotional books often three times a day. When her health made driving impossible for her to get to mass, my uncle felt obliged to chauffeur her. He wanted to drop her off at the church then go to the local bar or tavern. One day, he dropped her off and the church custodian motioned my uncle to come into the custodian’s back room. There the custodian broke open a case of beer and they sat beside the brooms, vacuum cleaners, and dust pans as they ...

502. Did Jesus Say What I Think He Said?

Mark 7:24-37 · James 2:1-9 · Isaiah 35:5-6 · Psalm 146

Sermon

Thomas C. Willadsen

... they subvert the cultural expectations that surround them. Here’s the best example I can give to a modern occurrence of this. My junior year in college, I had an internship that took me off campus Monday through Thursday between 8 am and 5 pm. I needed to drop a course and add a course, but the office where I needed to do that was not open on Friday. I was stuck. I went to the office anyway on a Friday morning, and explained the situation to the receptionist in the office. She hemmed a little, “Well ...

503. Steadfast Change

Mark 13:1-8

Sermon

Thomas C. Willadsen

... churches have been in decline for more than a generation in this country. Not only is the national percentage of Lutherans, Methodists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and United Churches of Christ dropping — and although we certainly have less influence on the culture at large than we did fifty years ago, our absolute numbers of members are also dropping. In fact, every year of my life has seen a decrease in the number of Presbyterians in the United States. One reason for this is that our worship services ...

504. Good News / Bad News

Luke 12:49-56

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

... when one of the teens in his church who had gone off to college, came home for a visit at Christmas time. Ron dropped by the church to say hello and chat with Darren, his pastor, and eventually the conversation rolled around to the topic that was ... to not put myself in harm’s way. It caused them no end of worry and vexation when I decided as a sophomore in college to drop out of school for six months and go to Chicago to live and work in an inner-city reclamation project. They did not forbid it, but they ...

505. A Gift With YOUR Name On It

Romans 1:1-7

Sermon

Heather Sugden

... of the wrapped presents that piled up underneath our Christmas tree. The tree was always in a corner of our living room, and beginning about a week before the day itself, gifts would begin appearing underneath the tree’s bottom branches. Some presents were dropped off by friends and neighbors. Some arrived in the mail. Some came home from school and church — little gifts from teachers we were to wait until Christmas to open. Each one got added to the pile, which grew and wrapped itself around the tree ...

506. Witnesses For The Lord

Acts 10:23b-48

Sermon

Douglas J. Deuel

... our need for God. Dan Webber used to work as a Senate aide in Washington, D.C. Ironically, he moved to Oklahoma City to escape the violence of city life. He longed to raise his family in the serenity provided by life in the Midwest. On April 19, 1995, Dan dropped off his three-year-old son at the America's Kids day care center. He then went on to work at his office nearby. A short time later he was sent flying across his desk by the force of a bomb's explosion. In shock, Dan raced from his office ...

507. New Wine

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

... receive the Holy Spirit. A man tells of being on a bus tour in Rome which was led by a guide who spoke English. Their first stop was a basilica in a piazza which was surrounded by several lanes of relentless Roman traffic. After they were all safely dropped off, the group climbed the steps for a quick tour of the church. Then they spread out to board the bus, which was parked across the street from the church. The frantic guide shouted for the group to stay together. He hollered out to them, "You cross one ...

508. Unusual, To Say The Least!

Amos 7:1-9, Amos 7:10-17

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

... droves, I swallowed some of them, and then, to further compound the already pitiful situation I was in, a cat came down the center aisle of the church, up to the pulpit, and rubbed against my legs. A "pillar" of the church came and took it from me and dropped it out an open window, and the floundering sermon continued. But the cat came back! I decided to let it alone and when it settled down behind me I breathed a sigh of relief. Then, I forgot about it, stepped back on it, and it yelped and scratched, in ...

509. Walking On Our Hands

John 8:31-41

Sermon

J. Will Ormond

For weeks now the Gospel lectionary readings have come from the Gospel of Luke. But today we encounter an intruder. Our journey through the last chapter of Luke's story is interrupted by another Gospel writer, John, who drops us into the middle of a debate between Jesus and "the Jews." It is well known that the Gospel of John differs in many ways from the other three Gospels. Robert Kysar's book on the Gospel of John is called John: the Maverick Gospel. This is how his introduction ...

510. Good News Among The Rubble

Luke 21:5-38

Sermon

J. Will Ormond

... Amy asked. In place of the house there was a desolate empty space against the sky. All the family could see was a pile of bricks with not one brick left upon another. Wooden beams were piled helter-skelter like so many oversized matchsticks casually dropped by a giant. Pieces of clothing hung at half-mast from trees left standing but stripped bare of their smaller branches. "It is nothing but a pile of rubble," mumbled the father. The family huddled together, hugged each other and cried. "Where are we going ...

511. A Hostage Repents

Luke 3:1-20

Illustration

Richard A. Jensen

Terry Anderson is probably the best known of the American hostages kept in Lebanon. Anderson, an Associated Press journalist, was held hostage for 2,454 days! His ordeal began innocently enough on March 16, 1985. As he dropped off his tennis partner after a morning match he noticed a green Mercedes pulled up just ahead of where he was stopped. Suddenly three young men came charging out of the car. Each had a 9-mm pistol hanging loosely on their hip. In a flash they were at Anderson' ...

512. The Narrow Door

Luke 13:22-30

Drama

Robert F. Crowley

... race, too. The runner must discipline herself to a regimen of exercise and correct diet so her body will respond the way she wants it to. Even little sins, if not confessed, will trip you up. PRISCILLA: There are some people who begin the race and drop out, of course. RAHAB: Naturally. I see them. They make a good showing, but when you get past the first easy miles, that's when training takes over. Some people make their appetites their gods, and think they can run the race on willpower or their reputations ...

513. Unfair - The Prodigal Son

Luke 13:1-9

Drama

Robert F. Crowley

... two jobs at once so he could buy himself a car. Isn't that something? How many boys do you know that can buy themselves a new car at the age of sixteen? And he never stopped. He worked hard. Why, I've seen that boy come home and just drop over with exhaustion. We used to do family things together, but that stopped because Johnny was always working. I guess he got it from my side of the family. My own father was a hard-working man. Of course, we didn't see my dad very much, but he was ...

514. Easter Jogging

John 20:1-18

Sermon

Harry N. Huxhold

... there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself." People who would rob a grave would not take the time to do all this neat folding of the napkin on his head. They might have dropped it in their haste to get out of there. Nor would they leave the linen cloths. They would have simply run out with him. So John gives the evidence that the rumor about stealing the body of Christ just does not make sense in face of the facts. The empty ...

515. The Parables About Response

Mark 4:30-34, Mark 4:26-29

Sermon

Ron Lavin

... missing paycheck. A father's love and discipline are crucial to character formation. And for children growing up without that love, the statistics are grim. Fatherless children display more antisocial behavior, do worse in school, and are twice as likely to drop out than children from intact families. They are more likely to use drugs and become sexually active at an early age. Approximately seventy percent of juveniles who end up in long-term correctional facilities grew up without a father at home. There ...

516. Tears At The Tomb

John 11:17-37

Sermon

William G. Carter

... face of death. He arrived in Bethany to offer a way out of death for people who don't know any way out. The Gospel of John says Jesus acted, but only on his terms and only according to his timetable. When he heard Lazarus was ill, Jesus didn't drop everything and rush to the bedside of his sick friend. Instead he remained where he was for two days longer. By the time he went to Bethany, Lazarus had been stone-cold in the tomb for four days. When Jesus arrived in Bethany, he seemed strangely free from gushy ...

517. All Stirred Up

Luke 10:38-42

Sermon

Richard Patt

... story's charm. Here is Jesus, about to undergo as heavy a human agenda as one could imagine, stopping in for a visit with friends! Even when the major challenge of his ministry and life looms before him, Christ is found in the center of humble human activity. He is dropping in on friends. God's "got the whole world in his hands," as the old folk song puts it, yet God never loses interest in each one of us. God's willing to spend time with us. You and I are part of God's continuing concern. Now I suspect ...

518. Called! Cleansed! Sent

Isaiah 6:1-13

Sermon

Robert A. Hausman

... We have striven for clarity, rather than mystery, for simplicity rather than majesty. In the old worship books, the Psalms were often punctuated with the word selah. As far as we know, it was some musical direction that we no longer understand, so it was rightly dropped. Still, I heard of one person, however, who was disappointed by its loss, since she said it made her feel good to say it: selah! We have also stopped using Greek and Latin terms, such as kyrie eleison and sanctus, although we have managed to ...

519. A Tree Well Watered

Jeremiah 16:1--17:18

Sermon

Robert A. Hausman

... mortals ... They shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when relief comes. They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land (Jeremiah 17:6). For people who lived in a very arid land, dependent upon every drop of moisture, this was a very vivid image. It is the picture of a wasted and barren life. What is interesting is that they give the appearance of life and they do not even notice when relief comes (v. 6). They have become so confused in their values ...

520. Made New By Interior Design

Luke 21:5-38

Sermon

Richard A. Wing

... ." He read the words "rejoice" and "hallelujah." That night George Frederic Handel was blessed by a "gentle cosmic light." He was led slowly out of darkness by a desire to write music at a feverish pitch. He worked tirelessly for days until, with manuscript complete, he dropped into a seventeen-hour, death-like sleep. A doctor was summoned to see if he was alive. Out of depression came the light of the Messiah. Out of that depression was left for us a light that would light the corridors of the lives of ...

521. Named And Claimed

Isaiah 43:1-13

Sermon

Tony Everett

... children of God. Certainly there are now, and will be in our future, times when we perceive ourselves to be drowning in the troubles of life. Certainly there are now, and will be in our future, times when it seems as if we are either burning out or dropping out from the pressures of daily existence. But God is with us. God has chosen us. God did not abandon the exiles. God will not abandon us. We are baptized! There certainly will be times when it seems as if the blazing fires of family problems or work ...

522. Dabar Adonai

Jeremiah 1:1-19

Sermon

Tony Everett

... that their teacher is writing on the board. Suddenly, their reverie is broken by the word of the teacher: "I need a volunteer to come to the board and solve this simple binomial equation." Immediately, students become deeply involved with books under their desks. Pencils suddenly drop to the floor. Eyes become engrossed on a page, any page, in textbooks. No one dares look at the teacher. "Jerry, what about you?" asks the teacher. "I know you can do it." Jerry's heart sinks to the bottom of his new high-top ...

523. When Wisdom Cries Out

Proverbs 8:1-36

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

... in combating the problems of education? While more funding is helpful, more commitment on the part of parents and others is needed to provide children with an education which will allow them to compete in tomorrow's world. Parents then must view schools as more than drop-off places and teachers as more than glorified baby-sitters. But where is the wisdom? Where is the relentless and tireless search for answers to fix the problem? One teacher remarked that she is so fed up now that all she does is come to ...

524. In Times Of Need

1 Kings 17:7-24

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

... did a newspaper article on how this church was in mission to the poor by feeding the hungry and clothing the naked. The church had gone into its operating budget to help people in need since its charitable contributions during the year had dropped drastically. People were impressed by how this church had faithfully and diligently helped those in need, even at the risk of having its own doors closed. Finally, letters poured in with contributions which eventually saved this church and its mission to the poor ...

525. Nowhere To Run, Nowhere To Hide

1 Kings 9:1-9

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

... on behalf of God. He could run from the deed, but he could not hide from the consequences and his personal responsibility for what had happened. Too often in life we try to escape responsibility for our actions. We blame it on God. The lady who dropped her six-month-old infant out of a fifth-story apartment window said that God commanded her to do it. We know of countless instances of people putting total blame and responsibility on God so as to evade personal responsibility for the consequences of their ...

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