Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 501 to 525 of 975 results

501. Christmas 1

Isaiah 61:1-11, Isaiah 62:1-12, Galatians 3:26--4:7, Luke 2:21-40

Bulletin Aid

Paul A. Laughlin

First Lesson: Isaiah 61:10--62:3 Theme: A holy family, a wholesome future Exegetical Note The first part of this poetic text contains two loosely related metaphors, wedding and germination, which celebrate Jerusalem’s present and future salvation. Taken together, the two images suggest fertility and the promise inherent in a truly nurturing environment. Call to Worship Leader: Good Christian people, rejoice in God, and let the world know no end to our celebration! People: FOR, IN THE PERSON OF A CHILD, GOD ...

502. Easter 5

Acts 8:26-40, 1 John 4:7-21, John 15:1-17

Bulletin Aid

Paul A. Laughlin

First Lesson: Acts 8:26-40 Theme: The Spirit’s surprising, subversive strategies Exegetical note The real central character in this well-known story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch is the Holy Spirit, under whose guidance the disciple is "subverted" from his succcessful Samarian mission to make a "least likely" but most promising contact: a foreigner (Ethiopian) of a different race (Nubian) and social status (eunuch), who is already devoutly religious (a practicing Jew). Call to Worship Leader: People ...

503. Pentecost

Ezekiel 37:1-14, Acts 2:1-13, Acts 2:14-41, John 15:18--16:4, John 16:5-16

Bulletin Aid

Paul A. Laughlin

First Lesson: Ezekiel 37:1-14 Theme: The life-giving power of God’s Spirit Exegetical Note The point of this well-known passage, written during the Babylonian exile and envisioning the future restoration of Israel, is the power of God’s Spirit to animate the community of faith even in situations of utter hopelessness and despair. The relevance of the "dry bones" imagery for an observance of Pentecost should be obvious; and the resonance of both with the resurrection of Christ should not be lost. Call to ...

504. Proper 13

2 Samuel 12:1-31, Ephesians 4:1-16, John 6:25-59

Bulletin Aid

Paul A. Laughlin

First Lesson: 2 Samuel 12:15b-24 Theme: In the wake of death, life goes on Exegetical Note Though the idea that God would strike down a child because of a parent’s sin seems dated and unacceptable, the idea that one who suffers the loss of a loved one - and especially of a child - must somehow move beyond grief and reaffirm life is timeless, and provides an opportunity to address the fact of the fragility and preciousness of life, which are so poignantly felt in the wake of death. Call to Worship Leader: ...

505. Proper 27

1 Kings 17:7-24, Mark 12:35-40, Mark 12:41-44, Hebrews 9:11-28

Bulletin Aid

Paul A. Laughlin

First Lesson: 1 Kings 17:8-16 Theme: The miraculous power of God’s Word Exegetical Note This story of Elijah’s first miracle in a foreign land is an example of a classic biblical genre; the generation of much food from little by God’s power. Elijah had actually caused the drought and famine alluded to here (17:1), and has come to Zarephath (Phoenicia) under orders from God. The woman and her child are on the verge of starvation, yet upon the declaration of God’s word of promise, she gives her all, with the ...

506. The Discipline of Witnessing

Isaiah 43:1-13

Sermon

Today we talk about witnessing, or "TELLING OTHERS ABOUT JESUS CHRIST." This is even more difficult for most of us. For, quite frankly, we Presbyterians don’t like to think about witnessing. We leave it to the Mormons, or the Jehovah Witnesses, or some of the fringe groups; we much prefer to do things "decently and in order." Somehow witnessing sounds too fanatic! Someone has characterized us as being parallel to those men who belong to the military reserve. We go to drills once a week but we are not on ...

507. Sharing with Our Brothers

2 Corinthians 8:1-15

Sermon

Ewart E. Turner

Paul wrote this appeal under great emotion. Word had come to him of the joyous sacrifices made by the impoverished churches of Macedonia when they learned that their beloved leader Paul was collecting money for the persecuted mother church in Jerusalem. With justifiable paternal pride, Paul overflows with joy at the free initiative of love exhibited by his "children" in the infant churches of Macedonia. A father and mother in an Ohio city recently told their pastor of a "first" in the life of their small ...

508. Feed My Sheep

John 21:15-25

Sermon

Ewart E. Turner

There are times when honesty demands that we "spiritualize" a teaching of Jesus. He did not mean steel swords when in those last hours he told his disciples, "let him who has no sword sell his mantle and buy one" (Luke 22:36). He meant, as Paul meant in Ephesians 6, "the sword of the Spirit." His dazed disciples did not translate the striking figure that he used into the Master’s intended meaning. Witness what they did: they brought him two steel swords, maybe blood flecked. Anticipating a kind of "good ...

509. An Old Plan For New People

Genesis 17:1-27

Sermon

Larry Powell

A mother dashed hurriedly into the nursery when she heard her five-year-old son howling. Much to her relief, she learned that his outburst resulted because his baby sister had been pulling his hair. "Never mind, darling," she comforted, "your little sister doesn’t know it hurts you when she pulls your hair." Within moments, the mother rushed back into the nursery, this time to check on the screaming baby girl. "What’s the matter with baby sister?" she anxiously asked the little boy. "Nothing much," he ...

510. A Good God and the Problem of Suffering

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

"I don’t know what to do about them, they won’t get out of the way." "Who?" said Stef. "There’s disaster rolling down the hill and they won’t move." "Who won’t? Whom are you talking about?" "I can’t make them pay attention, they just stand there ..." Steinbeck sounded as if he might break into tears. "They won’t heed me ..." Stef was growing irritable. "Who?" he repeated. "What are you lamenting? Who won’t move?" "My characters!" Steinbeck exploded. He was writing Of Mice and Men.1 This could be God ...

511. Paul's Thorn In The Flesh

2 Corinthians 12:1-10

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

Around the turn of the century a young man named Ole took his girlfriend on a summer outing. They took a picnic lunch out to a picturesque island in the middle of a small lake. She wore a long dress with about a dozen petticoats. He was dressed in a suit with a high collar. Ole rowed them out to the island, dragged the boat into shore, and spread their picnic supplies beneath a shade tree. So hypnotized was he by her beauty that he hardly noticed the hot sun and perspiration on his brow. Softly she ...

512. Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand

John 6:1-15

Sermon

Brett Blair

Lance Armstrong. Going for his eighth Tour de France. His heart is nearly one-third larger than that of the average man. At resting, it beats an average of 32 times per minute, during peak performance, 200. He burns up about 6,500 calories every day for three weeks while in the race. One of the stages of the race is 120 miles long-that day he will burn 10,000 calories. You and I burn 3,500 and that’s on a good day. His lungs can take in twice the oxygen. His body fat level is 4 percent. Yours is 16. He has ...

513. How to Profit from Prophets

Luke 1:67-80

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

Many would claim the profit motive to be one of the stronger motives of our humanity. Though purists may snub their noses at it, and socialists may sneer at it, capitalists say profit and the profit motive are the driving force of any successful economy. Welfare recipients might criticize the high profits of some persons and businesses. But those same persons and businesses would gladly quote former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher that any welfare system presupposes that someone, somewhere, is ...

514. Why Prophets Get Under Our Skin

Luke 3:1-20

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

To tell you the truth, you might not like him if you met him. Chances are you would not invite him for cocktails at the club or for dinner at home with some of your prestigious friends. The likelihood is your children would think him curious and your teenagers would scorn him as not worth an autograph. The tabloids might attempt to puff him up as an oddity or curiosity piece for the sake of profit. But the respectable newspapers might think the news he had was not fit to print. I speak, of course, of John ...

515. A Match Made In Heaven

Hosea 1:1-2:1

Sermon

John W. Wurster

I have a friend who wanted me to preach on this passage at his wedding. A good friend, a minister friend, someone I love and trust, wanted me to read and preach from Hosea before some 300 people, his own parishioners, at his own wedding: “Go take for yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord” (1:2). I protested loudly, not wanting to stand up and in any way imply that my friend was marrying a woman of dubious character. It’s just ...

516. Changing Seasons, Constant Love

Jeremiah 8:4--9:26

Sermon

John W. Wurster

Another season has come and gone. Promises that were made have not been fulfilled. Good intentions haven’t yielded any tangible results. Dreams have not come true. High hopes have proven to be only wishful thinking. Nothing has really changed; nothing has really improved. The time keeps moving along, but we seem stuck in the same ruts. Old routines remain, prejudices persist, dullness and anxiety continue to be constant companions. Lingering in the air is that nagging sense that things aren’t quite right, ...

517. The Fruit of One's Doing

Jeremiah 16:1--17:18

Sermon

Harry N. Huxhold

A biography of Humphrey Bogart by Sperber and Lax portrays the star of the golden era of Hollywood as a troubled man. Bogart reached stardom in Hollywood as only a limited number have. He was the leading male box office attraction. He was financially secure. He married Lauren Bacall. Yet his discomfort with what he did was obvious always to those who knew him. He worked intensely at his craft. Yet one day while on the set making a new film, he remarked, “What a way to make a living!” On one occasion a ...

518. Christian Liberty

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

Brett Blair

Jesus died penniless. Roman soldiers cast lots to divide among themselves Jesus' only possessions--the clothes on his back. And he looked at his disciples and said, blessed are you who are poor. Jesus died hungry. There is no record that Jesus had anything to eat the day of his death. What we call The Last Supper on Thursday evening may very well have been Jesus' last meal. He died on the cross Friday at sunset with an empty stomach. Looking at his disciples he said, blessed are you who hunger now. Jesus ...

519. Remember!

Deuteronomy 31:30--32:47

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Oft in the stilly night, Ere slumber's chain has bound me, Fond memory brings the light Of other days around me.(1) Memories...we like them...and we need them. And as those words of Thomas Moore remind us, we are comforted and instructed by them. That is why a day such as this is a GOOD day. I have WONDERFUL memories of Oakdale. I remember our first night together - a covered dish dinner, our Erin just one week old (and now a sophomore in high school), and Emily Beamguard insisting that I sing. I remember ...

520. Grace and Golf

1 Corinthians 9:1-27

Sermon

David E. Leininger

"Beatin' balls and beatin' balls." That title comes from our fair city's attention to golf this week with the presence of the PGA Tour here for the Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic. (It will always be the GGO to me though.) "Beatin' balls and beatin' balls." Whoever happens to win this afternoon will undoubtedly offer a phrase like that to anyone looking for advice about how to win at golf. Get out on the practice tee and spend hour upon hour upon hour upon hour "beatin' balls and beatin' balls." As ...

521. The Lord's Prayer: "Thy Will Be Done"

Matthew 6:5-15

Sermon

David E. Leininger

"THY WILL BE DONE." GOD'S will. What is God's will? Do YOU know what God's will is? Lots of folks think they do, but I wonder. I hear that Pat Robertson is about to spend $1.4-million because he is convinced that President Clinton's Health Plan is NOT God's will. Randy Shilts died last week. Randy was a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle who wrote the best-seller, And the Band Played On,(1) the story of the inception of the AIDS epidemic in America. Randy died of AIDS. He was gay. Some folks would ...

522. Rejoice

Philippians 4:2-9

Sermon

King Duncan

William Everett, a Congressman from Massachusetts in the late 1800s, told the story of a congregation in England that needed new hymn books but lacked the money to pay for them. The churchgoers learned that a large company, a maker of patent medicines, would furnish hymn books at a penny each if the books could carry some advertising. The congregation saw no harm in making that concession, and so they ordered the books. The new hymnals arrived at the church on the day before Christmas. On Christmas morning ...

523. The God Of The Living

Luke 20:27-40

Sermon

King Duncan

Jewelry salesman Alexander Makowski was devastated. Just three weeks before, in Phoenix, his sample case had been stolen. Now he had returned to the parking lot of the San Diego hotel where he was staying to find that his car and jewelry worth $100,000 were missing. Alexander could take no more. He climbed to the balcony over the hotel atrium lobby, lifted himself over the railing, and plunged five floors. Mr. Makowski ended his life at fifty-nine years. The real tragedy was that if he had looked in the ...

524. News From The Vineyard

John 15:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

Some of you may know the story of Dawson Trotman, founder of the Navigators, an organization originally begun with the goal of reaching men serving in the Navy. Trotman began to meet with a Navy man named Les Spencer, teaching him basic truths from the Bible. After a while, Spencer brought a friend from the ship to Trotman and said, "Dawson, I want you to teach him all you have taught me." Trotman refused. He said, "I am not going to teach him; you are going to teach him. If you cannot teach him what I ...

525. Waiting On God

Mark 13:32-37

Sermon

King Duncan

Little Benjamin sat down to write a letter to God asking for a little baby sister. He started the letter out: Dear God, I've been a very good boy.... He stopped, thinking, "No, God won't believe that." He wadded up the paper, threw it away, and started again: Dear God, Most of the time I've been a good boy...He stopped in the middle of the line, again thinking, "God won't be moved by this," so into the trash can went the wad of paper. Benjamin went into the bathroom, grabbed a big terrycloth towel off the ...

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