Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 601 to 625 of 655 results

Matthew 27:11-26

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

I hope you know by now that I believe that all preaching should have about it a note of Paul, an invitation to become a part of that great fellowship, which is the fellowship of the church. But more than that, that intimate call to be related to Jesus Christ. While I hope that that’s a part of all my preaching, my preaching today is specifically to that end. A great text like this one we’ve read helps us to really come to grips with it, to rehearse it in our own life and get the scene in which it is set ...

602. Set Apart For God's Purposes

1 Kings 21:1-29

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

Israel in the Old Testament and the Christian Church are both understood in the scriptures to be the covenant people of God. As such, both of them are called by God to be his "holy nation" (Exodus 19:6; 1 Peter 2:9). To be "holy," according to the Bible, does not mean to be morally pure, however. Rather it means to be "set apart" for God's purposes. Both Israel and the church, having entered into covenant with God, are God's "set-apart" people. As the ancient oracle of Balaam puts it, Israel is "a people ...

603. Set-Apart People

1 Kings 21:1-29

Sermon

Elizabeth Achtemeier

604. Dark Ugly Clouds

Isaiah 50:4-9a

Sermon

Bill Mosley

Things are hardly ever the way they appear and certainly not on Calvary’s hill. The Passion story from Luke makes the turning tables graphically clear. The king is crucified. The court of law is not legal. Justice is not done. Even the Roman governor can find no crime in this man. The evidence is compromised. Everything points the other way. So why does Jesus have to die? It’s a case of “inside every silver lining there’s a big dark ugly cloud.” Into every life some rain must fall. Even roses have thorns. ...

605. A Discussion Among Angels

Matthew 24:36-44

Drama

Matthew Powell

Cast Storyteller The Archangel Michael The Archangel Uriel The Archangel Raphael The Archangel Gabriel (The Storyteller stands off to one side. Michael, Uriel, and Raphael are seated in the center and stand when they speak and remain standing. Gabriel sits slightly farther back from the others. He stands and comes forward when he finally speaks) Storyteller: A company of angels, returning from their various labors on earth, was sitting in friendly conversation. There were three of the company who seemed to ...

606. Soren's Heart

2 Timothy 3:10--4:8

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

How many of you are wearing or have in your pocket or purse some sort of talisman - a small something that reminds you of something much bigger? We often call these things we carry around with us keepsakes or mementos or jewelry. But they're really talismans. According to the dictionary, a talisman is a trinket or piece of jewelry thought to afford some protection against danger and evil. Maybe you wear a locket that holds inside it photos of loves ones. Maybe you keep a worry stone (or a rosary?) in your ...

607. A Brand New Church Out of an Old Brand

1 Corinthians 1:18--2:5

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Who says it's a "brand" new world? I'll bet every one of you can fill in the best-known product that goes with each of the following brand names. Let's try it. · Wrigley · Singer · Gillette · Nabisco · Kellogg's · Kodak · Sherwin Williams · Del Monte · Campbell's · Levi · Coca-Cola These are the brands that built America. Each one of them was established with its basic product before 1925. Each one is still totally recognizable seventy-five years later. The term "brand" originally derived from the stamping ...

608. Professor Boltloose

John 20:19-23

Illustration

Carl Jech

What follows is a factual story. There once was a seminary student who was having a hard time accepting this idea that the writers of the New Testament Gospels took poetic license with their accounts of the life of Jesus. He was particularly bothered by the extreme view of some scholars that Jesus might not have been an actual historical person at all! One day as a fellow student was playing around with his tape recorder, the two suddenly fell into a spontaneous mock interview with the troubled student ...

609. God Really Cares

Matthew 27:46

Sermon

James Merritt

Thomas Wolfe, the author best known for the novel, You Can't Go Home Again, once said this about loneliness: Loneliness, far from being a rare and curious phenomenon...is the central and inevitable fact of human existence. When we examine the moments, acts, and statements of all kinds of people not only the grief and ecstasy of the greatest poets, but also the huge unhappiness of the average soul is evidenced by the innumerable strident words of abuse, hatred, contempt, mistrust, and scorn that forever ...

610. The Outstretched Arms

John 19:28-37, John 19:17-27

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

This week offers the challenge of confronting the scandal of the cross head-on. In order to prepare for Easter, the Church must first recognize just how shocking Jesus'' death by crucifixion is and be able to make some theological sense out of it. At almost no other time of the year does the church become such a cesspool of stagnant clichés and phantom phrases as during Lent. Perhaps, then, Lent is a good time for some doctrinal preaching that can help your parishioners come to a renewed appreciation for ...

611. An Action-Packed Faith

John 13:31-35

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Love is less what you feel than what you do. A recent USA Today (September 16, 1994) article prescribed an interesting course of treatment for medical professionals. In order to make patients feel better about their doctors and doctors feel better about their patients, some analysts are suggesting acting lessons. As accomplished actors, physicians who find themselves too swamped, stressed-out and suspicious to really feel any compassion for their patients can at least act like they care. The ultimate goal ...

612. Mark 10:35-45

Mark 10:35-45

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

This week's gospel text details the disciples' third and most blatantly wrong-headed response to Jesus' third and most graphic passion prediction. If ever there were showcase examples of selective hearing, James and John's response to Jesus' revelation in 10:33-34 takes the prize. How can we comprehend the fact that Jesus' one precision prediction of the Jerusalem horror is followed by such self-serving bickering? It's possible only by focusing on the opening and closing words of Jesus' teaching. After ...

613. Standing Tall in the Lord

Philippians 3:17-4:1

Sermon

Richard Gribble

History records the expression, Athanasius contra mundum — Athanasius against the world. These words aptly express the situation in the fourth-century church when heresy almost reigned supreme — save Athanasius, a bishop who was a persistent and staunch defender of the faith. Athanasius was born into a Christian family in Alexandria, Egypt, in 295 A.D. In his early twenties he was ordained and entered the service of Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria. He accompanied the bishop to the first ecumenical council ...

614. Some Not So Bright Thieves

Lk 23:33-43

Illustration

King Duncan

Not everybody who takes up a life of crime is all that smart. Sometimes movies or television glorify criminals. They make them appear sophisticated, even cool. Most criminals do not fall in that category. Like the guy who walked into a little corner store in England with a shotgun and demanded all the cash from the cash drawer. After the cashier put the cash in a bag, the robber saw a bottle of scotch that he wanted behind the counter on the shelf. He told the cashier to put it in the bag as well, but the ...

615. The Puzzle Began to Fit

Matthew 3:13-17

Illustration

Johnny Dean

About 2000 years ago (give or take a few) a small group of Jewish people, living under the tyranny of Roman rule, began to listen to the words of an itinerant preacher. They saw him reach out in love to the hurting people, the broken people, to comfort them and heal them. They heard him give radically new interpretations of the ancient Scripture. Then they watched in horror as he was arrested, tried on trumped-up charges, beaten, mocked, spat upon, and finally nailed to a cross to die between two thieves. ...

616. You Are God's Temple

1 Corinthians 3:1-23

Sermon

King Duncan

Since tomorrow is Presidents’ day, I thought I would begin with a favorite story about Abraham Lincoln. One of the endearing traits that Lincoln displayed was his ability to laugh at himself, and especially at his rather plain appearance. He said that sometimes he felt like the ugly man who met an old woman traveling through a forest. The old woman said, “You’re the ugliest man I ever saw.” “I can’t help it,” the ugly man said. “No, I guess not,” the woman admitted, “but the least you could do is stay home ...

617. Actions Speak Louder than Words

John 17:6-19

Sermon

John Smylie

Actions and words are both important, but sometimes actions do speak louder than words. Jesus is coming to the end of his ministry. He knows his time is short. He is aware that before much longer his days of teaching and preaching with his disciples will come to an end, a brutal and terrifying end, as he will be handed over, tortured, harassed, mocked, and finally crucified. As our Lord approaches the end of his life, he draws near to the source of life and in a way he summarizes the work that he has done ...

618. When the Golden Rule Isn't Enough - Mother's Day

John 15:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

Today we honor our moms. Not everybody can be a mom, but everyone at some time in their life has had a mom, and at that time our mom was the most important person in our world. Some of us had moms who made great sacrifices in our behalf. We are profoundly grateful for that. So today we honor our moms. It’s not easy being a mom. Here are some examples of some mothers and things they could have said: Mona Lisa’s mother: “After all that money your father and I spent on braces, Mona, that’s the biggest smile ...

619. Poem: Elegy Written In A Country Churchyard

Eulogy

Thomas Gray

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, The lowing herd wind slowly o’er the lea The plowman homeward plods his weary way, And leaves the world to darkness and to me. Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight, And all the air a solemn stillness holds, Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight, And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds; Save that from yonder ivy-mantled tower The moping owl does to the moon complain Of such as, wandering near her secret bower, Molest her ancient solitary ...

620. A Call to Repentance

Joel 1:13-20

Understanding Series

Elizabeth Achtemeier

A Call to the Priests: This entire section, which may be divided into five strophes (vv. 13, 14, 15–16, 17–18, 19–20) is directed at the priests in the Jerusalem temple, for if communion with God has been lost in Judah, the priests are those primarily responsible. 1:13 It was the priests’ duty in biblical Israel to teach and maintain their people in the ways of the Torah. But that did not mean simply teaching the people the law. Rather, the priests were responsible for preserving and handing on to the ...

621. The Lord Promises to Bless Jerusalem

Zechariah 8:1-23

Understanding Series

Pamela J. Scalise

Five Oracles of Salvation for Jerusalem (8:1-8): 8:1–2 God had not abandoned desolate Judah (7:12–14). Verse 2 here echoes 1:14, “I am very jealous for Zion.” The Lord’s passionate attachment to Zion overcomes the wrath that the people’s sin provoked (7:12). The nations that had been brought against Jerusalem for judgment had gone too far. “I was only a little angry, but they [the nations] added to the calamity” (1:15). God’s wrath will turn against the conquerors in order to rescue Zion. “I am burning ...

622. Happiness Is Being Yourself

John 4:5-26

Children's Sermon

King Duncan

Object: None Good morning, boys and girls. People look all kinds of place for things that will make them happy. Some think if they can have lots of money they will be happy. Some people think if they can always be Number 1 they will be happy. I've seen boys and girls who think, "Oh, if I can just fit in with certain people, then I will be happy." And in order to fit in with those certain people they become just like the people they want to fit in with. They wear the same clothes and they talk just like ...

623. The Pharisees Investigate the Healing

John 9:13-34

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

When their informal interview with the man who had been blind proved inconclusive, his neighbors brought him to the Pharisees (v. 13). The narrator takes the opportunity to add the significant footnote that the miracle happened on a Sabbath. In connection with this, he refers again to the actual procedure Jesus had used (v. 14), for it was this procedure, not the healing itself, that violated the Sabbath law (i.e., the Mishnah, Shabbath 7.2). Just as in the case of the Bethesda healing in chapter 5, the ...

624. Jesus and the High Priest

John 18:15-18, John 18:25-27, John 18:19-24

Understanding Series

J. Ramsey Michaels

A relatively brief interrogation of Jesus by the high priest (vv. 19–24) is framed by a two-part account of Peter’s denial (vv. 15–18, 25–27). The division of the denial into two scenes follows a precedent reflected in Mark (14:54, 66–72) and Matthew (26:58, 69–75; Luke on the other hand, puts the material in one continuous narrative, 22:54–62). As in Mark, the vivid picture of Peter warming himself by the enemy’s fire is the point at which the narrative breaks off (v. 18) and later resumes. But unlike ...

625. The Song of the Vineyard

Isaiah 5:1-7

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

Judgment Missed and Demonstrated: In length and theme chapter 5 pairs with chapter 1 and closes a bracket around 2:2–4:6. Chapter 5 comprises a mock love song; a series of woes that will be completed in 10:1–4; and a warning about Yahweh’s outstretched hand that will continue in chapter 9. In contrast to 1:1–2:1 and 2:2–4:6, no positive note is struck at the beginning or the end. Chapters 1–5 come to a close as bleak as their opening. Rebellion and darkness ultimately bracket them. 5:1–7 The chapter opens ...

Showing results