Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 501 to 525 of 4937 results

501. Zeal!

John 2:13-22

Sermon

John Jamison

Have you ever had one of those times when you had just had enough? One of those times that you have held your breath, you have turned away, maybe many times, because you just don’t like what you see going on, but then finally come to the point that you just can’t turn away one more time? You’ve had enough, and you decide you just can’t be silent any longer. So you do something fairly dramatic. Looking back on it, it may not have been all that smart, but you had had enough and you did it. Can you remember ...

502. Rend Your Heart

Joel 2:12-17

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

“But Even Now” (2:12-14): 2:12–14 This is one passage in Joel where it is absolutely necessary that we understand what the original Hebrew says, because the NIV translation has missed the force of the opening words. Verse 12 begins with “But even now,” the “but” being translated from what is known as a waw adversative, and it is that “but” that is all important. If God had not said “but” in human history, the human race would be lost. That lostness is pictured for us in the primeval hamartiology (doctrine ...

503. Getting Your Attention

John 2:12-25

Sermon

King Duncan

[While King Duncan is enjoying a well deserved retirement we are going back to his earliest sermons and renewing them. The newly modernized sermon is shown first and below, for reference sake, is the old sermon. We will continue this updating throughout the year bringing fresh takes on King's best sermons.] A famous news anchor tells about attending a revival as a boy in his home town of Bloomington, Texas. It was a spectacular extravaganza the whole town attended. The tent was open, the floor was sawdust ...

504. Amazing Grace

Romans 5:1-11

Sermon

Edward Inabinet

When Al Smith was the governor of New York, he was invited to speak at Sing Sing prison. He was asked to address a gathering of the prisoners, and he wondered how he should begin. After they ate, he stood up and just automatically said "My fellow Democrats." Well that didn’t suit, because he felt that "no good Democrat should be in prison." So he backtracked and he started again. He said to them, "My fellow citizens." And then he realized that some of those fellows had lost many of the privileges of ...

505. Grapes Of Wrath Or Grace?

1 Kings 21:1-29

Sermon

Barbara Brokhoff

A musician in a camp meeting where I preached wrote a country-gospel song titled, "Sin Will Take You Farther Than You Want To Go and Keep You Longer Than You Want To Stay." Nineteen words is a tad long for a song title, but it does state a succinct and compelling truth: sin will get you in serious trouble. In this lesson, Ahab is king and is married to the wicked, Baal-worshipping Jezebel, and covets the vineyard belonging to a worshipper of God named Naboth. Ahab had plenty of property of his own, but he ...

506. His Triumphal Entry

Luke 19:28-44

Sermon

Brett Blair

Seven days changed the world. These seven days have been the topic of a million of publications, countless debates, and thousands of films. These seven days have inspired the greatest painters, the most skilled architects, and the most gifted musicians. To try and calculate the cultural impact of these seven days is impossible. But harder still would be an attempt to account for the lives of men and women who have been transformed by them. And yet these seven days as they played out in Jerusalem were of ...

507. Fishing Stories

John 21:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

One day many years ago, a fisherman's wife blessed her husband with twin sons. They loved the children very much, but couldn't think of what to name them. Finally, after several days, the fisherman said, "Let's not decide on names right now. If we wait a little while, the names will simply occur to us." After several weeks had passed, the fisherman and his wife noticed a peculiar fact. When left alone, one of the boys would turn toward the sea, while the other boy would face inland. It didn't matter which ...

508. Punishment for Israel

Hosea 9:1--10:15

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

Israel’s Loss of the Stuff of Life (9:1-4): Some commentators would regard 9:1–9 as the first complete unit in this chapter. Others would point to 9:1–6. Judging on the basis of rhetorical criticism, it seems best to divide the chapter into five separate oracles: verses 1–4, 5–6, 7–9, 10–14, 15–17. What we have here are several oracles, strung together by the redactor/disciple of Hosea on the basis of the common theme of the loss of vitality. In this instance, however, the beginnings and endings of the ...

509. Warnings and Exhortations for Jerusalem and Judah

Zephaniah 2:4-7, Zephaniah 2:8-11, Zephaniah 2:12, Zephaniah 2:13-15

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

Declarations Concerning Other Peoples—and Jerusalem: The main part of this section comprises four declarations about different nations. They vary considerably in form and thus look like prophecies of separate origin that have been brought together here to form a sequence. As a result, they offer a survey of the surrounding nations, like the surveys found in Isaiah and Amos, but briefer. Zephaniah began with the world as a whole (1:2–3a) and then moved to the implications for Judah (1:3b–18). He follows the ...

510. A Difficult but Joyous Journey

Luke 1:39-55

Sermon

King Duncan

Pastor Melvin Newland tells about a man in Salt Lake City who decided to send out 600 Christmas cards to total strangers. He got telephone directories from several cities, addressed 600 cards to people he had never met, put his return address on the envelopes and mailed them. Amazingly, he received 117 responses from these total strangers. One lady wrote, “It was so good to hear from you. Your card arrived the day I got home from the hospital, and I can’t tell you what an encouragement it was to hear from ...

511. Eternal Echo Of Easter - Part 1

Matthew 28:1-10

Drama

Esther R. Russ

PROGRAM 1. Candlelight Ceremony Choir 2. In the Beginning Narration 3. "I, Mary, Mother of Jesus" Reading 4. Jesus’ Ministry Narration and Drama 5. Choral Arrangement Depicting the Upper Room Choir 6. The Betrayal Narration 7. Choral Arrangement Depicting the Betrayal Choir 8. The Garden of Gethsemane Narration 9. Choral Arrangement Depicting the Garden Choir 10. The Trials Narration and Drama 11. The Soldiers, Part One Dialogue Drama 12. The Processional and Crucifixion Choir, Drama 13. The Soldiers, Part ...

512. A Liturgical Drama For Advent

Drama

Tom Eberle

Advent The seasons of the church calendar are like the headings for each act of a theater production. They provide the particular setting in which one element of the divine drama of God’s revelation in Christ is presented to us. The liturgical seasons are sometimes thought of as optional observances, like a fancily-iced cake. They make worship more attractive, but are not part of the basic recipe. This collection of liturgical dramas for worship is written, not as frosting, but with the intention that the ...

513. The Agony of Defeat

2 Samuel 11-12, 1 Kings 15:5

Sermon

James Merritt

He was elected on his first try as a United States Congressman. He was elected on his first try as a United States Senator. At 39, he became one of the youngest men elected as Vice President of the United States. He went on to be elected as President of the United States, and then re-elected in the third largest landslide in U. S. history. But that is not how you remember him. I can say just one word, and everyone now, and probably for centuries, will know instantly who is being spoken of. The word is ...

514. Miracle Six: Stilling A Storm

Mark 4:35-41

Sermon Aid

Harold H. Lentz

BACKGROUND MATERIAL Jesus sometimes got into a boat and headed for the farther shore in order to be free of the demands of the crowd who now followed him in great numbers. On this day he was weary from his work and from arguing with the scribes who constantly took issue with his pronouncements. He was on the Sea of Galilee, also known as Lake Gennesaret. The lake was about eight miles wide and twelve miles long, so it would take at least an hour to make the crossing. Because of his weariness Jesus lay down ...

515. Bad Good News Won’t Sell!

Jeremiah 28:1-17

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

Then the prophet Jeremiah spoke to Hananiah the prophet in the presence of the priests and all the people who were standing in the house of the Lord; and the prophet Jeremiah said, "Amen! May the Lord do so; may the Lord make the words which you have prophesied come true, and bring back to this place from Babylon the vessels of the house of the Lord, and all the exiles. Yet hear now this word which I speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people. The prophets who preceded you and me from ...

516. OUR LORD DENIED

Sermon

E. Jerry Walker

In the depths of the night, pilgrims still moved along the streets of the Holy City, streets which normally at this late hour would have been deserted to a lonely Roman guard. But now, for the religious festival of Passover, Jews had come from all the world, more than the city could absorb, and the large, tall man, his robe hooded about his head, attracted no more attention than any other. Peter drifted without direction, a shadow moving among shadows on the dark streets. A few short hours before his life ...

517. Proper 13

Psalm 17:1-15, Romans 9:1-29, Matthew 14:13-21, Genesis 32:22-32

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

OLD TESTAMENT TEXTS Genesis 32:22-31 is the account of Jacob's fight with God at the Jabbok River, while Psalm 17:1-9, 15 is a psalm of lament that ends with words of confidence. Genesis 32:22-31 - "A Story of Transformation" Setting. An interpretation of Jacob's struggle with God at the Jabbok River requires that we look briefly at the larger context of the Jacob cycle and return to a topic that was introduced in the opening lesson on the Jacob cycle—namely, the power of names in the shaping of the ...

518. Israel Unrepentant

Hosea 6:1--7:16

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

Israel’s Hollow Repentance (6:1-6): Contrary to the LXX, which connects this passage with 5:15 by the addition of the word, “saying” (as in the RSV), this pericope is complete in itself as one more record of Israel’s deceitful ways toward God. Overcome by Assyria’s engulfment of them (see the comment on 5:8–15), the Israelites call a day of repentance in the effort to secure for themselves God’s aid once again. Such fasts of repentance are held in Israel whenever there is a calamity of any sort—defeat by ...

519. The Prophet of Locusts and Honey

Luke 3:1-20, Luke 3:21-38

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Props: locusts in a small aquarium or a plastic locust / honeycomb or bowl of honey We call him “John the Baptist.” Some prefer to call him “John the Baptizer” just to be clear that John isn’t seen as baptizing Jesus into the Baptist church, making Jesus a Baptist. Some of you Baptist may disagree on this. But when we think of “John the Baptist,” or “John the Baptizer,” the first thing that comes to mind is not water, but probably something else: strange clothing and weird eating habits. At least they seem ...

520. Once Save - Always Saved

John 10:27-29

Sermon

James Merritt

There was a man who lived in a small southern town, and after twenty years of shaving himself every morning, he decided he had had enough. He told his wife he wanted to go down to the local barber, just for once, and get shaved himself. When he put on his hat and coat, went to the barbershop, which was owned by the pastor of the Baptist church, the barber's wife, whose name was Grace, was working, so she is the one that shaved him. After she shaved him she said, "That will be $20." Well, he thought the ...

521. How To Treat Your Enemies

2 Samuel 18:1-18

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

Did you hear about the man who went into the preaching ministry, worked for seven years, then resigned to go back to medical school and become a doctor? "People," he explained, "don't want spiritual health. They just want to feel good." But after working as a physician for seven years, he again resigned, this time to go back to school. "I'm going to become a lawyer," he explained, "because, in the end, people don't want spiritual health. They don't even want physical health. They just want to get even." I ...

522. At War with Myself

Romans 7:15-25a

Sermon

William G. Carter

In a certain church, a woman was leading the congregation in the prayer of confession. She called the people to confess, reminding them of the sin within their hearts, and then all joined in reading the prayer of confession. She paused for the silent confession, and she kept pausing for a good long while. So long, in fact, that the people began to rustle as they waited for the next part of the service. It was awkward, and more than a few worshipers thought she had lost her place or mislaid the piece of ...

523. Peter Speaks to the Onlookers

Acts 3:11-26

Understanding Series

David J. Williams

Luke’s report of Peter’s speech in Solomon’s Colonnade very likely contains a genuine recollection of what was actually said on this occasion. But in any case we may regard it as typical of what was generally said at this time by Christians in their approach to Jews. The speech exhibits a more developed Christology than that of the Pentecost address—or at least the Christology is expressed in far richer terms, though these are still distinctively Jewish and of the earliest period of the church. Here Peter ...

524. Disobedience and Defeat

Judges 2:6-3:6

Understanding Series

Cheryl A. Brown

Survey of Israel’s Early History: Joshua to Judges · Here begins a new section, but not immediately a new subject. In fact, rather than carrying the story forward, the text looks back to the period immediately after the Israelites renewed their covenant with the Lord at Shechem (Josh. 24). The text picks up nearly where the book of Joshua left off. Joshua 24:28 almost word for word corresponds to Judges 2:6. The section that follows (vv. 10–19) points to the author’s special concern with Israel’s spiritual ...

525. For the Love Of God is Forgiving

Luke 7:36-50

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

The headlines, news reports and newspaper stories all make it very clear that there is something out of kilter in our world. Whether you agree with its content or not, the crime bill is the biggest of its kind. It's because dealing with crime is on everyone's mind. Who'll be the next victim of a drive by shooting or a drug problem. Who'll be the next victim of gang violence or a drunk driver. While the Peace Talks are going on in the Middle East between Israel and Jordan and the Palestinians, the fighting ...

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