Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 626 to 650 of 4946 results

626. Seeing God In The Ordinary: Family

Luke 4:16-30

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

Frank had his own very successful company. He employed about 20 people who were all paid well and happy. One day at work one of the critical pieces of equipment broke down and Frank was right in the middle of helping make repairs. After just a short time, they got it back up and running but he was all hot and sweaty. On top of that, on the way home, he had a flat tire. So when he got home he decided to jump in the shower. He was just stepping out of the shower one when his wife called and asked him to run ...

627. Cross Eyed: Focus

Mark 1:9-15

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

Wasn't the rain last week great? It did so much to refresh the parched ground. It was great but I've got to tell you that it almost caused me to be in an accident. You see, the rain made me lose my focus. You know how it is when you're driving and the first drops hit your windshield. It's not enough to really turn on the wipers but just enough to make it hard to see. And you know if you turn on the wipers all you're going to do is smear all the dirt around. Well, I waited for a little bit for the rain to ...

628. The Dirt on Jesus

Luke 12:13-21

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

How many of us have a garage that can no longer be parked anymore because it is filled up with so much other “stuff?” How many of us have an off-site storage unit because we have too much “stuff” to keep in our homes, so we arrange for visitation rights to see our “stuff?” The late comedian George Carlin famously did an entire monologue on this “stuff” — proclaiming that the “meaning of life is trying to find a place to put your stuff” and that “A house is just a place to keep your stuff while you go out ...

629. How to Have a Rich Future

Mark 13:24-37

Sermon

King Duncan

We have officially begun that wonderful season of waiting and watching known as Advent. Small children, of course, are waiting for Christmas Eve and the coming of jolly old St. Nicholas. I heard about one little boy who climbed onto Santa’s lap. Santa asked the usual question: “And what would you like for Christmas?” The child stared at him open-mouthed, horrified. Then he gasped, “Didn’t you get my Snapchat?” Well, let’s hope Santa consults his Snapchat account while he is deciding which toys he will be ...

630. What to Give Up for Lent

Luke 4:1-13

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

The Faithful Followers Sunday School class at the Church of What’s Happening Now was discussing the upcoming season of Lent. The congregation had never had such a discussion. This congregation prided itself on their core value of relevance. Adhering to ancient seasons such as Advent and Lent simply did not rise to that standard. Their church calendar had a softball schedule but no mention of Lent. Their new pastor, however, had suggested the congregation might find the rhythm of a traditional church ...

631. The Ten Commandments #4: The Sabbath

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Let me tell you a story.(1) It seems a young Martian was studying comparative anthropology and, in preparation for a doctoral dissertation which was long overdue, made a quick flight down to earth in his flying saucer to check on the habits of the residents of the planet. He could not get too close or make any prolonged inspection because his work had to be submitted in just a few days, so time was of the essence. He had made a fortunate choice of days and locations - a fine summer Sunday over the United ...

632. The Power Of Purpose

2 Timothy 3:10--4:8

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

The power of the purpose. Paul had laid down the flail of the persecutor and took up the torch of the evangel on the Damascus Road. There he began the course of a great adventure, an adventure that sent him trudging through the then-known world – through the deserts and over the mountains, through blinding blizzard and blistering sun, traveling in peril of his own life, shipwrecked, beaten by the Romans, stoned by the Jew. Yet, throwing back his great cloak to show the scars of his beatings there saying, ‘ ...

633. Saying Yes To Forgiveness

2 Corinthians 5:11--6:2

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Joe E. Trull tells of a primitive tribe located deep in the South American jungles. Anthropologists learned the most important role within the tribe was the "keeper" of the flame. Since fire is so precious -- and takes such effort to recreate -- one member is entrusted with the responsibility of keeping the flame alive. During the night the flame keeper adds wood to the fire. He keeps the fire alive whenever the tribe moves to another location -- carrying it in some vessel in order that the very difficult ...

634. Playing to the Right Audience

Matthew 6:16-18, Matthew 6:1-4

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

It was an incredible military breakthrough. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Commander Joe Rochefort broke the Japanese codes. From an intelligence base on Oahu, he predicted an attack on Midway Island for June 3, 1942. Because of Rochefort's skill, the United States surprised the Japanese Navy with its first defeat in 350 years. Four carriers were lost, one cruiser, 2500 men, 322 aircraft, and the best of their pilots. The tide turned in the Pacific; Japan never recovered momentum. Commander ...

635. Stone Testaments

Deuteronomy 26:1-11

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Mark the milestones in your life journey. [Note: This is an interactive, experiential, participatory sermon. You will need to arrange ahead of time for a flower or stone for every person, which is given to them with their bulletins. And you will need a musician, preferably a cellist, who will be a secret partner with you for this experience. The fewer the people who know what you are going to do, the better. The element of surprise is key to the narrative.] Have you ever had this experience? You arrive ...

636. Unstoppable Determination

Philippians 3:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

Years ago the Florida State University football team recruited a place kicker named Scott Brantley. Brantley lived in Colorado and was considered the premier high school place kicker in the country at the time. According to a report in Sports Illustrated one of the Florida State coaches asked Brantley how he would react if, in the biggest game of the year on the opening kickoff against Miami the only player they sent out on the field was himself, leaving the other ten players on the sidelines. Brantley ...

637. The Wedding Was Saved, but the Marriage?

John 2:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

Larry Davies in his book, Sowing Seeds of Faith in a World Gone Bonkers, tells about a wedding he performed once on a wooden boat dock over a beautiful pond in Amelia county, Virginia. To his surprise, on the night before the wedding the bride (we’ll call her Pamela) called to ask him to read a special set of marriage vows to her new husband after the formal ceremony was through. She would give him a copy of the vows just before the service started. The next morning, the groom (we’ll call him Paul) also ...

638. Personal Politics

Matthew 18:15-20

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

Thomas Browne said that "the vices we scoff at in others laugh at us from within ourselves." More than any other relational failure this is true of hurt and vengeance. When the great nineteenth-century Spanish General, Ramon Narvaez, lay dying in Madrid, a priest was called in to give him last rites. "Have you forgiven your enemies?" the padre asked. "Father," confessed Narvaez, "I have no enemies. I shot them all." Too often that is the story of our lives, and Jesus knows it. Lewis Smedes wrote a book we ...

639. A Reminder to God...and to Us

Genesis 9:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

Last April a 9-year-old African-American lad named Willie was kidnapped from his driveway in Atlanta, Georgia. After the man grabbed him, Willie explained later, and threw him in the back of his car, Willie just kept “praising God” with a song he learned in Sunday school. It was a song by Hezekiah Walker titled “Every Praise.” While he was singing, Willie said, his kidnapper yelled expletives at him. “He told me, shut up you [blankety-blank] boy,” said Willie. Willie, however, kept singing until his ...

640. Advice About Widows, Elders and Slaves

1 Timothy 5:1-6:2

Understanding Series

Gordon D. Fee

This paragraph serves as something of a transition in the argument. On the one hand, it flows naturally out of 4:11–16, with a set of two more imperatives to Timothy (in the second person singular), and the content continues to reflect concern over Timothy’s relationship to the church community, now in very specific ways related to his own youthfulness. This content, on the other hand, also serves as a kind of introduction to what follows: a long section on widows, old and young (vv. 3–16), a section on ...

641. Job's Third Reply to Bildad

Job 26:1--31:40

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

Sarcastic Introduction Job’s response to Bildad’s third speech is extended (six chapters long)—even for the usually loquacious Job! Many commentators divide up the chapters attributed to Job to supply an extension to Bildad’s brief speech, as well as to wholly reconstruct a missing third speech for Zophar. Such reconstruction, however, can only proceed on a presumptive assumption of what each speaker would have said—and is thus controlled ultimately by the reconstructor’s theory rather than challenged and ...

642. The Secret Man

Mark 8:27-38

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

In 1972 two relatively unknown reporters, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of the Washington Post, began to cover what was described by one person as “a third rate burglary.” On June 17, 1972, five men were arrested for breaking into the Watergate Hotel, where the Democratic National Committee had its headquarters. They were attempting to place a wiretap in the party offices. Even though it was an election year, the story didn’t seem to have much traction, because President Richard Nixon had such a large ...

643. Honor Graduate

Exodus 20:12

Sermon

James Merritt

To be an honor graduate is considered quite an accomplishment. These honors, as you know, are in Latin and they are used to indicate the level of academic distinction with which an academic degree is earned. There are typically three types of Latin honors in order of increasing level of honor. They are: Cum Laude (with honor), Magna Cum Laude (with great honor) and Summa Cum Laude (with highest honor). One of my goals when I went to college was to be an honor graduate. I didn't want to get an ordinary ...

644. Putting Ourselves into the Picture

Exodus 1:1-22

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

A doctor and his nurse responded to the anguished plea of a farmer, who was calling the doctor to attend to his wife who was desperately ill. The doctor with his ever-present black bag along with his nurse, were ushered upstairs to the bedroom where the woman was. The farmer stayed with his family in the parlor downstairs. After a few minutes, the doctor came down the stairs with a kind of troubled look on his face and asked for a screwdriver. After some time had passed, the nurse came down the stairway ...

645. Lost Baggage: The Middle Seat

1 Corinthians 5:1-13

Sermon

James Merritt

As a pastor, there are some phone calls that you never want to receive. The worst of all, I believe, are those revealing a significant sin of a church member or a staff member. In these cases, as a leader in the church, I want our members and staff to set a high example with their character, so failure in that area is especially difficult. You can remove a person from a position of leadership, but frankly, when people sin, and this will happen in even the most spiritually mature and positive environment, ...

646. No Turning Back

John 6:60-71

Sermon

King Duncan

Former heavyweight boxer James (Quick) Tillis is a cowboy from Oklahoma. Tillis fought out of Chicago in the early 1980s. A deeply religious man, Tillis is remembered as the first boxer ever to make Mike Tyson go the distance in the heavyweight division. Tillis had his disappointments as a boxer, but evidently they didn’t rob him of his sense of humor. He still remembers his first day in the Windy City after his arrival from Tulsa. “I got off the bus,” he says, “with two cardboard suitcases under my arms ...

647. Are You a Pillar or a Pillow?

2 Thessalonians 2:13-17

Sermon

King Duncan

There is a corny story about a little girl in a mountain family who laid her head over on her father’s ample midriff in a worship service and went to sleep. Her mother, seeing her daughter cushion her head in this fashion, whispered to her husband in the mountain vernacular, “There, Clyde, now you know what it means to be a pillar of the church.” Her husband was probably more of a pillow of the church rather than a pillar. But that is the question for the day: are you a pillow or a pillar? I would like to ...

648. Now, It's Personal

Matthew 5:21-37

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

Thirty years ago I was serving on the staff of a large church as the minister of Christian Education and Youth Ministry. The Education Commission and the Youth Council were made up, mostly of parents who worked with me on the programs for youth and children — Sunday school, Vacation Bible School, those kinds of things. One year, for Vacation Bible School, we decided to set up a large tent — a really large one under which you could seat 100 or more people — on the parking lot and use it for our opening ...

649. What Making a Difference Looks Like

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

I am told there are at least eight million cats and eleven million dogs in the Big Apple. Since New York is mainly concrete and steel, when you have a pet that dies, you can't just go out in the back yard and bury it. In response, city officials decided that for fifty dollars they would dispose of your pet for you. Now in that grand city was a certain enterprising lady. She thought to herself, “I can render a service.” So she placed an ad in the paper: "When your pet dies, I will take care of the carcass ...

650. The Woods Are Lovely, Dark, and Deep

2 Samuel 18:1-18

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

The first poem I really related to in a personal way in junior high English class was Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." When I read "The woods are lovely, dark, and deep. But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep." I knew exactly what the poet was saying, because I knew the powerful pull of the woods. I also knew that I couldn't go play there to play until I had done homework and chores. To my siblings, friends and me, the woods behind ...

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