Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 626 to 650 of 2665 results

626. Looking A Little Bit Crazy

Mark 3:20-30

Sermon

William G. Carter

... churches on clowning. Not long ago, he was in a distant city, packing up after a workshop. The phone rang. Nobody was around. He answered. "Are you a minister?" somebody asked. "Yes, actually I am." "Come quickly," said the voice, "our child is dying of leukemia." Bill dropped everything. He ran out to his rental car and drove to the hospital. He parked the car, ran up the steps, through the double doors, and down the hall. Suddenly it hit him: he was still dressed as a clown, with a white face, red nose ...

627. How To Plant An English Garden

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

Sermon

William G. Carter

... in a way that he himself simply knows nothing about.2 The best lesson may come from a little girl who plants cherry tomato seeds in a paper cup. One day her father helps to fill the cup with topsoil. She pokes a hole in the soil with her finger, drops in the seeds, smooths over the top, and gives the cup to her daddy, who puts the cup on the kitchen windowsill. Then she says, "Is it a tomato yet?" Assured it will take a while, she runs off to play. A few minutes later, the little girl runs back ...

628. Resist Temptation

Mark 1:9-13

Sermon

Harry N. Huxhold

... up in a special pact between God and them. The sacrificial system of the ages had assured them of God's grace and love. Was it not for that reason the promised messianic figure should suddenly appear in the Temple? Would it not make good sense to drop into that scene like a bolt out of the blue so that the people could know that their great high priest had come? That certainly had to be an especially attractive scheme. That suggestion certainly had to twirl around in that great mind with great persistence ...

629. The Sponge And Wine

Mark 14:1--15:47

Sermon

Harry N. Huxhold

... is important for us is to note that Jesus accepts this offer of sedation. As Jesus did, we think back to a parable he told about the rich man and Lazarus in Abraham's bosom. In hell and in torment the rich man asked Abraham to send Lazarus with a drop of water to come and cool his tongue. Now as Jesus has completed his suffering of our hell and death upon the cross he permits a sinner to come and to cool his tongue with sour wine. We think also of how our Lord described his coming again to separate ...

630. Rainbows

Genesis 9:1-17

Children's Sermon

B. Kathleen Fannin

... , because there was no sun! We have to have sunlight in order to have rainbows. Do any of you know what clouds are made of? I ask with an abrupt change of direction. "Rain!" says one of the children emphatically. Yes, I agree, clouds are made up of little drops of water. And when the sunlight shines though them what do we get? "A rainbow!" several of the children declare. That's right. Now, who made the sun, and the clouds, and the rain, and all of creation? "God did," they answer. So, if we have to have ...

631. Crumbs

Matthew 15:21-28

Children's Sermon

B. Kathleen Fannin

... of you have a friend who has a dog?" Several children indicate they do. "Are these dogs allowed to come in the house?" Again, the response is affirmative. "Well, if one of these dogs was in the house while the family was eating dinner and if a crumb of food dropped off the table to the floor, what do you suppose would happen to the crumb?" "The dog would eat it!" comes the instant reply. "Yes," I agree, "that's what I think would happen too. Now, we've already seen that a crumb is a very small piece of ...

632. A Tale Of Two Trees

1 Corinthians 13:13

Children's Sermon

B. Kathleen Fannin

... !' " 'Why, thank you,' the dogwood replied. "As the evergreen admired the dogwood, it also became very aware of its own branches, covered just as they always were -- in green. It wished it could have such lovely flowers. "But, as spring faded into summer, the dogwood dropped its flowers and put on green leaves. 'This is better,' the evergreen thought to itself. 'Now I don't feel so out of place. We're both wearing green.' "But summer, of course, did not last. The days grew shorter, the air grew cooler, and ...

633. Least Coins

1 Corinthians 12:12

Children's Sermon

B. Kathleen Fannin

... of them were shiny and new, while some of them were dark from use. The shiny ones had the most recent dates. "As I looked at the darker ones, I thought about how they got that way -- from being out in the world, passed from hand to hand, dropped on the ground, or stuffed in someone's pocket, alongside who knows what else, only to be found later by some mother at the bottom of her washing machine because a child or husband forgot to empty his pockets. Pennies are our least coins, and because of that, too ...

634. No Strings Attached

John 3:16

Children's Sermon

B. Kathleen Fannin

... them to hold "Cecil," to whom I have attached a "leash" of rubber bands. As I hand the cat to Marie, I keep my fist closed around the end of the "leash." Before Marie has an opportunity to notice the rubber bands, I give them a tug. Surprised, she nearly drops the toy. "What happened?" I ask, as she now clings more tightly to the stuffed cat. "There's a string of rubber bands attached," Marie replies. "A string of rubber bands? Oh, like a leash ... and when I handed you the cat, I didn't let go of the ...

635. Alone

Matthew 28:19-20

Children's Sermon

B. Kathleen Fannin

... . Now, if someone had told me that, I would have thought, 'Okay. "A" is one word and "lone" is the other word.' But, that's not the way it is. 'Alone' is made up of 'all,' a - l - l, and 'one,' o - n - e. One of the l's was dropped when these two words were put together to make 'alone.' "But if 'alone' is 'all' plus 'one ...' That seems kind of strange for a word that means to be by yourself, doesn't it? Because, if it's 'all' PLUS 'one,' you have added something. And if you add something ...

636. The Merciful

Matthew 18:21-35

Sermon

John A. Terry

... and to frustrate her efforts. She and her fellow sisters were insulted and threatened with physical violence. One day a shower of stones and bricks rained down on the women as they tried to bring the dying to their humble shelter. Eventually Mother Teresa dropped to her knees before the mob. "Kill me!" she cried in Bengali, her arms outstretched in a gesture of crucifixion. "And I'll be in heaven all the sooner." The crowd withdrew, but soon the harassment increased. Even more irrational acts of violence ...

637. The Pure In Heart

Psalm 42:1-11

Sermon

John A. Terry

... . God can be seen in every situation, if we only have the eyes to see. There is a legend about the quest for the Holy Grail. The Holy Grail is the legendary cup used at the Last Supper, in which, it is reputed, that Joseph of Arimathea caught the last drop of blood which fell from Jesus' side as he died on the cross. Sir Galahad, along with other Knights of the Round Table, set out in quest of it. In the legend, they found it, but each saw it through the mirror of his own soul. To some it was ...

638. The Peacemakers

Ephesians 2:11-22

Sermon

John A. Terry

... God has given us. We do need to experience the peace of God within ourselves to help us understand the peace of God within the world. There is a peace that is a kind of inner tranquillity. It is like the words of John Greenleaf Whittier's hymn: Drop thy still dews of quietness, Till all our strivings cease; Take from our souls the strain and stress, And let our ordered lives confess The beauty of thy peace. This is not the peace of tranquilizers. This is not a peace that ends with settling inner conflict. I ...

639. Paul, The Great Missionary

Philippians 1:1-11

Drama

Jerry Eckert

... that might have meaning in that kind of historical context. While Paul was not a hostage in the classic sense, he was under house arrest a number of times, thus separated from his family and friends, and from his task as ambassador for Christ. I decided to drop the hostage notion and just concentrate on the way things were for the story line. Storytelling can do that to you, give you a premise and then take it away, and still come up with something you feel is worth working on. It was not hard, once ...

640. Fifth Sunday of Lent

John 12:20-36

Bulletin Aid

RobertT D. Ingram

... 're wrong! They're nothing but a bunch of slum landlords! And what they are doing has destroyed hundreds of lives already. Children have died in those rat-holes they call apartments! How can I let these people get away with murder? How can I let them drain the last drop of hope from those poor people who have no place else to go? Those people are counting on me. Terry: I'm counting on you too, Ken. I want to have children of my own. I want to live a normal life. I don't want to fight a war ...

641. How Does Religious Conduct Work?

Mark 7:31-37

Sermon

Donald Macleod

... one with us; but more: his groan meant he felt the heavy burden of human need. Just one deaf-mute before him, but, as Alexander Maclaren wrote: "The whole weltering sea of sorrow that moans around the world of which here (this man) is just one drop." This the scribes and Pharisees, with all their splitting of legal and theological hairs, could not see nor feel. But Jesus' lifestyle indicated that, in order to heal, one must stoop to the level of those to be healed. As someone said, "We must lower in order ...

642. Choosing Your Spirituality

Sermon

Charles R. Leary

... by reading a letter, sometimes by entertaining a visitor, sometimes by reading a book years later. Now, 2000 years later, the world you and I know is vastly different. Until only five hundred years ago the earth was considered to be small, flat, and having “drop-off” edges. Less than twenty-five years ago, one of our astronauts looked from outer space at the earth and blurted out, “Look, the only people I know live on that planet!” Think of it: you and I are citizens of planet earth. All human ...

643. Mission Ready!

Mark 6:7-13

Sermon

Charles R. Leary

... . The sixteen-year-old was rejected at his hometown school over the issue of AIDS. A widowed lady went into extended grief over the death of her husband. Every week she took flowers to the cemetery. When her doctor learned that she had secluded herself, dropping out of organizations and activities, he said to the grieving woman, “I have two patients in nearby hospitals. They have no family to visit them. Next Sunday, instead of taking flowers to the cemetery, why don’t you take them to those two lonely ...

644. Celebrating the Marvel of Growth

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

Sermon

Charles R. Leary

... your spouse has faith in your love and you believe in your own commitment. That makes the marriage succeed. Point Four: You can celebrate growth. A successful couple was invited to meet the high-school principal in his office. He advised them to let their son drop out of school. How would they ever celebrate being parents after a blow like that? The father was a successful lawyer, the mother an active club woman in the city. For years they had been despairing over their son’s poor report cards. They were ...

645. What Can I Do for You?

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

Thomas Peterson

... had an offer like that. This is a first, and I’m very moved. Let me think on it for a while. At the moment I don’t know of anything I need that isn’t in the works. I....” After dinner we were together again. He abruptly dropped conversation with the group and turned to me confidentially. “You didn’t ask me.” “Ask you what?” “If there is anything you can do for me” To my surprise his question “What can I do for you?” had been radically transformed. Now it came out as “What can ...

646. We Haven’t Got To Them Yet

Mark 12:28-34

Sermon

Thomas Peterson

... loves. Put your mind, heart, soul, and strength in him. Stop being preoccupied with your own petty purities and distillants. Keep the relationship first above all. Keep your heart and will on the primary concerns of life, God and the others whom he loves equally. Drop the desire for a self-graded performance, “How am I doing?” We know, for instance, that teachers are not perfect. We know they will never teach the children all there is to know in any one subject. But, we accept imperfections so long as ...

647. Wisdom for the Living of These Days

Proverbs 2:1-22

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... sent him off to college, one day he would steal the whole railroad! Education does not make one wise in character. When Gary Hart was seeking the Democratic nomination for president, he had an affair with Donna Rice, an affair that caused him to drop out of the race. Barbara Walters, on ABC television, revealed that Donna had graduated magna cum laude from the University of South Carolina. Nor is wisdom the same as scientific technology, which produces today’s miracle machines. It is said that the Devil ...

648. Renewal of the New

Jeremiah 30:1--31:40

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... by the end of the first century, there were a half million Christians in the Roman Empire. Then the church had vitality, passion and zeal. Why are so few of us concerned about the loss of church members? If we were business people and saw our customers dropping off and our productivity declining, we would ask the reason for it and get busy correcting it. Like everything else, a church that does not grow, dies. There can be no status quo. Why isn’t the church concerned about this unusual loss? Does it have ...

649. A Formula For Greatness

Mark 9:33-37

Sermon

Robert Salzgeber

... He worked darn hard to put me and my brother and two sisters through college. But there was never quite enough money so we all had to be on work study programs in order to make it through school. For a while I thought I was going to have to drop out my junior year because my classes and my job didn't integrate together. Remember I came to you for help? And you took such a personal interest in my predicament. You helped me work things out and I finally graduated with honors. Dr. Pagenkopf, I came here today ...

650. The Temple Of Wisdom

1 Kings 8:22-61

Sermon

Sue Anne Steffey Morrow

... sing a few hymns, to pray a few prayers, to think about the week that is past and what lies ahead. But on occasion, even in worship, something will break through our habit, the Spirit of the living God. For example, one Sunday this past winter, I dropped into the late afternoon service of "Evensong," on my way home from work, weary from the day's routine. It just happened that the boys' choir was singing softly. The boys sang, "Tell out my soul, the greatness of the Lord, unnumbered blessings give my spirit ...

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