Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 551 to 575 of 1230 results

Mark 1:29-34

Sermon

King Duncan

... forget relatives and friends, to tend only to their own needs . . . But what happened was just the reverse. Those who retreated to a universe limited to their own bodies had less chance of getting out alive, while to live for a brother, a friend, an ideal, helped you hold out longer." (4) "People, who need people," says the song of the sixties, "Are the luckiest people in the world." We know it's true. When we live only for ourselves, our lives are sterile and unfulfilling. When we give ourselves in service ...

552. Willing And Able

Mark 1:40-45

Sermon

King Duncan

... to home for citizens of affluent "First World" countries like ours. According to Nietzsche, the Last Man is the man who, lulled by too much comfort and affluence, becomes apathetic to the world around him. He has no passion or compassion. He rejects "religion, transcendent ideals, or (any) causes larger than his own self-interest." In fact, the Last Man's life consists of nothing more than sitting in his easy chair and watching the world go by. (2) Nietzsche may be describing some of us. Have you lost that ...

553. Haunted By The Cross

John 18:1-11; 18:33-19:16; 19:28-42

Drama

King Duncan

A Drama for Good Friday [This Good Friday drama can be approached in two ways: Ideally you have talented people in your church who will memorize their parts and perform in costume. This would be powerful and memorable. Otherwise, it could be presented as Readers' Theater, with a narrator and actors simply reading their lines. Suggested hymns to play softly in the background during readings and ...

554. Bacon Grease And Abounding Grace

Luke 7:36-50

Sermon

King Duncan

... once prized in order to take hold of that which is without price. Danny Cox, a former Air Force pilot who helped pioneer supersonic flights, reports that there was a problem in the early jets with the process of ejecting pilots out of their seats. Ideally, the process went something like this: pull up both arm rests in the flight seat, squeeze the ejection triggers, let go of the flight seat and trigger the parachute. But some pilots made the mistake of holding onto the flight seat after ejecting from the ...

555. The Forward Look

Luke 9:57-62

Sermon

King Duncan

... is upon starting new congregations, rather than trying to revive old congregations. The past is too great an obstacle. People have a certain picture in their minds of what church ought to be. It is a picture, usually, of the church of their youth. So the ideal church for many people is a church that by its very nature is geared to the needs of a previous generation rather than the present generation. Dealing with the past has always been a tricky proposition for religious people. The story is told of a ...

556. Do Not Disturb

Isaiah 11:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... parent can relate. This man was invited to a Christmas party with several of his friends. Those attending the party were to bring a "gag gift"--a gift so worthless that people would laugh when they opened it. As this man searched among his things for an ideal gag gift, he happened across a small taco warmer made of straw. It had in the lid the letters "TACOS" scrawled flimsily with yarn. The perfect gift, he thought to himself. He wrapped it up and headed for the party. That evening the gift was unwrapped ...

557. Like A Big Happy Family

1 Peter 3:8-22

Sermon

King Duncan

... this church family who is dead against us. And yet within the happiest of families there are bound to be conflicts. St. Paul advises us to watch our tongues, to pray for one another, to forgive one another, to love one another. A big, happy family--that is the ideal model for the church. But how do we recapture that harmonious relationship in the church today? Where do we find the electricity that will cause a hundred of us or a thousand of us to jump into the air at the same time? We find it by reminding ...

558. The Other Woman

Genesis 21:8-21

Sermon

King Duncan

... important to us? Because they are still being lived out today. Problems of trust. Times of stress within families. Sins of the father visited on the children. And one hope--faith. Faith in one another. Faith in God. Abraham and Sarah were not perfect people. They did not have an ideal marriage. But they had faith in a perfect God--and they had faith in each other. With God's help they made it through.

559. The Dynamic Law Of Love

Romans 13:8-14

Sermon

King Duncan

... Americans when foreign aid was 4 percent of our national budget. Today it is less than 1 percent. Any thinking Christian must be concerned about the "Me first!" kind of spirit that pervades our land today. What has happened to us? What has happened to the idealism of our earlier years? What has happened to our sense of love, our sense of compassion, our sense of mission? E. Stanley Jones tells the story of a missionary woman who took abandoned girls into her home. Now this woman lived in China at a time ...

560. Maturity in Stewardship

2 Corinthians 9:6-15, 2 Corinthians 8:1-15

Sermon

Edward Inabinet

... was the dilemma Adam and Eve faced in the garden and every person must face. Human beings must worship something. If we do not let God be God, then we will make something else into our God. It may be ourselves, our possessions, another person or some ideal or institution. Something will rule over our lives. Frank Sinatra sings, "I did it my way." It may be unrecognized by most folks, but this is the theme song of their lives. Our way is not God’s way. Our way often leads into difficulty and heartbreak ...

561. The Stewardship of Time

Romans 13:11-14

Sermon

Edward Inabinet

... is to help others to know the saving love of Christ. One other truth can help us be better stewards. TIME IS BUT A PRELUDE TO ETERNITY. The WALL STREET JOURNAL had a column recently on how we waste much of our lives dreaming about an ideal situation that is never realized. In middle age, some people still fantasize about what they''ll do when they grow up. Most people between 35 and 44 continue to daydream about their careers: to anticipate a job change, compensate for something missing, or escape from day ...

562. Forgiveness: Human and Divine

Matthew 6:12-15

Sermon

Edward Inabinet

... him we can have that forgiveness, that cleansing from guilt and sin and be made whole in him. The New Testament uses five major words for sin. One means to miss the goal or to miss the mark. It simply means that we do not live up to God''s ideal for us; we do not become what God intended for us to be. Why? Because we shut God out of life. We do not allow him to recreate us and help us to become all that he wants us to be. Another word for sin means to step across the ...

563. The Death of a Child

2 Samuel 12:1-31

Sermon

Edward Inabinet

... three-year-old daughter, Robin, had leukemia. She hung on for eight months, with Barbara, whose hair began turning white, sitting at her bedside. Friends say George and Barbara Bush "handed their grief back and forth, acting alternately as mourner and supporter." It is the ideal way for two people to process a tragic event. Mrs. Bush says, "George held me tight and wouldn''t let me go. You know, (many) people who lose children get divorced because one doesn''t talk to the other. [George] did not allow that ...

564. Food for the Fed-up

John 6:25-59

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... a-day diet under a doctor’s supervision. 300 calories! That boggles the mind! I inhale 300 calories just smelling the aroma of a good pizza. But my friend on the three-hundred-calorie-a-day diet lost sixty pounds, and as a result reached his near-ideal weight in a very short time. But one cannot subsist indefinitely on a 300-calorie-a-day- diet. Sooner or later there must come and end to the dieting, for starving oneself in this manner is highly dangerous. In like manner, to starve oneself spiritually can ...

565. God’s Strange Arithmetic

Mark 10:1-12

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... when two become one in a real marriage? Some think that it reduces your individuality. Too often one party or the other seems to be saying: “Alright - we two shall become one...and I AM the one!” Obviously, such a marriage is headed for trouble. Ideally, when “two become one” it means that each one is doubled, but not duplicated. You still retain your individual identity, but you add to yourself the identity of the other, and the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts. “For this reason a ...

566. Knight of the Woeful Countenance

Mark 10:17-31

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... I AM GLAD THAT THE COMMENTARIES TELL ME THAT THIS IS NOT A COMMANDMENT FOR ALL PEOPLE FOR ALL TIME. Halford Luccock says: “This was a prescription for a particular person with a specific need. Jesus was not laying down poverty as either a requirement or ideal for everyone. He was a Good Physician, and did not prescribe the same pill for every patient.” (THE INTERPRETERS BIBLE, New York and Nashville: Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1951,Vol. 7, p.804) Whew! That lets me off the hook. Or does it? Jesus was not ...

567. On the Threshold: From Law to Gospel

Matthew 3:1-12

Sermon

David Busic

... don’t. If you do not repent, you will die. This is what you are doing, these are the consequences. Stop what you are doing, and there will be different consequences. Very straight forward. But is this the Gospel? There is something less than ideal about a repentance that is done to avoid punishment. A psychologist named Kolberg developed an elaborate test to measure maturity in the area of moral reasoning. He concluded that morality to avoid punishment is the very lowest motivation for doing what is right ...

568. When It Is Tough to Follow Jesus: The Third Word

John 19:17-27

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... a virgin, pure in body and mind--but the evidence that Joseph saw declared otherwise. In Luke 2:1-7, we read of the less-than-comfortable journey that the young couple made to Bethlehem to register for a tax census. We further learn of the less-than-ideal birthing room in which she would deliver the baby Jesus. Now turn to Luke 2:35. As soon as Mary and Joseph experienced the incomparable joy of the birth of their child, like all parents, they went to the temple to present their newborn son to Almighty God ...

569. The Telling Trademarks of Truth

James 3:13-18

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... to know how much this part of the tunnel that was supposed to aid in discovering the secrets of the universe has cost. "Now the question arises: Does this tunnel that goes nowhere have any use? Answer: Someone thinks so. The tunnel contains the ideal growing conditions, a businessman says, for growing mushrooms. Now some of us must think about this. A multi-multi-multi-million dollar tunnel built to discover the secrets of the universe will quite likely end up being used as a mushroom farm." (1) This is ...

570. Tired of Trying?

James 5:7-12

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... after this entry, the hiding place was found and the Nazis sent all the inhabitants to concentration camps. Seven months later, Anne died in the camp at Bergen-Belsen. She wrote that day in July: It''s really a wonder that I haven''t dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can''t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery and death. I ...

571. A Tireless and Timeless Image

John 10:1-21

Sermon

Robert Noblett

... of the sheep. Additionally, when the sheep were resting for the night in a cave, the shepherd would recline in its entrance. This made it possible for him to intercept any intruder from the outside, while at the same time stopping any sheep from leaving. Ideally, when children are young, they have regular occasions when they are safely tucked into bed, and then sent off to sleep with words and gestures from both Mom and Dad, indicating they are loved beyond measure and totally safe within the boundaries of ...

572. No Salt in the City?

Mark 9:42-50

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... A.D., became the first Christian emperor of Rome. The Sigma Chi's seek to emulate the Christian leadership qualities of Constantine. At least, that was their intention when the fraternity was formed. Yet time, like a careless laundryman, shrinks many of our ideals. And many a fraternity like Patrick's has devolved into a society of drinking, swaggering, and partying hard all day, everyday. At the lunch table the brothers tell dirty jokes. And for every bad joke, Patrick tells a funnier clean joke. After ...

573. Grace in the Midst of Guilt and Shame

Ephesians 1:1-14

Sermon

Glenn McDonald

... Sadly, church can be a place where many people experience the heaviness of shame. Sometimes it's because a congregation doesn't know how to speak of grace. Other times it's because worshipers can't imagine being embraced by a God who has any standards of excellence. Our ideal is to think like Jesus and talk like Jesus and be like Jesus. But in truth the vast majority of us have extended periods of time when we don't want to be anything like that at all. Maybe we sit in church and daydream about punching out ...

574. How to Recognize a Prophet

Deuteronomy 18:14-22

Sermon

Curtis Lewis

... . Moses is a wounded healer; he is a teacher and also an intercessor. These same characteristics are to be found in the life and work of future prophets. As important as these characteristics are, there is a distinguishing function that makes Moses the ideal prophet. Moses' primary function is as the proclaimer of the Word of God. This function is given to Moses by the people and by God. An undergirding principle of the book of Deuteronomy is the relationship of prophecy with the communication of God ...

575. Preparing for Our Homecoming

Joel 1:1-12

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... the road less traveled, the path that Jesus walked and in the process brought the possibility of eternal life to all who believe. The famous British essayist and novelist, Gilbert Keith (G.K.) Chesterton, expressed the Christian challenge so aptly: "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult, and left untried." The cross was an instrument of torture and pain, but it was the vehicle by which salvation came to the world. Thus, the Christian people must not run ...

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