Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 626 to 650 of 4936 results

626. Ignite: Set On Fire!

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

James Merritt

Without question, perhaps the most famous well-known name outside of politics and entertainment would be Billy Graham. Of all the stories I’ve ever heard about Dr. Graham, probably my favorite is the time when he was going to a certain city to do one of his crusades. There were some critics who didn’t particularly care for either his style or his methods. They didn’t want him to come. They called a press conference and said, “If we let that man come to our city and preach his message he will set the church ...

627. God's Wrath Against Mankind

Romans 1:18-32

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

Paul now launches into the body of the epistle with an indictment against humanity. He will maintain the charge until 3:21, at which point he will return to righteousness by faith which he introduced in 1:16–17. Romans 1:18–3:20 is a sobering exposé of the dark side of human nature. Throughout the attack Paul labors to demonstrate that there is no distinction between Gentile and Jew in the matter of sin and guilt, a point reasserted in 3:10–12, 3:23, and 11:32. Gentile and Jew are equally guilty before God ...

628. The Power of the Wilderness

Luke 4:1-13

Sermon

Lori Wagner

It is not by strength that one prevails. (Hannah’s Prayer) Props: hiking boots or tricycle (you’ll need a child volunteer from the congregation for this) and matches (or one large match) to light a candle; oil Some of you have probably seen the movie Wild, based on the recent best-selling book. The story is about a young woman, Cheryl Strayed, who takes a long trek through the mountain trails of Washington State in order to deal with her “inner demons.” She is mourning the loss of her mother. She is trying ...

629. Peter the Petulant

Mark 14:1-11, Mark 14:12-26, Mark 14:27-31

Sermon

Lori Wagner

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9) Prop: a white linen cloth… or apron For centuries, pastors have been called a “man” or “woman” of the cloth. I always wondered about that phrase. When I looked it up, I saw that in fact, many people used to be called people of the cloth –bakers, kitchen workers, tradesmen, all who worked primarily in service or handworking positions to others. Later, the term remained only for the clergy, who also wore ...

630. The Lord Speaks

Job 38:1--41:34

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

God’s Appearance and Examination of Job Excursus: It should be clear from the outset that the fact God that appears in response to Job’s plea for a meeting immediately puts the lie to any claims to the contrary that Elihu and the other friends have made. God does appear in response to Job. His very appearance, therefore, proves Elihu’s earlier claim false—that God will not respond to Job because he has already spoken his final word of judgment in Job’s suffering. Deciding how to characterize this divine ...

631. Recovering From the Blahs

1 Kings 19:9-18

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

There he came to a cave, and lodged there; and, behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and he said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" He said, "I have been very jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the people of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thy altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away." And he said, "Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord." And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great ...

632. Chapter V

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Frank H. Seilhamer

"Give weight to your father and your mother that you may live long in the land which the Lord your God is giving you." Exodus 20:12 One of the things about the Commandments is that even though there is only a handful of them they speak to nearly every area of life. Though in some instances they are only a few words or phrases long, they touch virtually every basic relationship that a man has with his fellows, as well as with God. The longer that perceptive and sensitive people study and live with them the ...

633. The Gardener

John 20:10-18

Sermon

Lori Wagner

“Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.” (Revelation 2:7) “Now in the place where he was crucified, there was a garden.” (John 10:41) Prop: seeds This is the first Sunday after Easter. It is sometimes called “Low Sunday,” partly because of the low number of people historically attending church this day. It is sometimes celebrated as it was in the past as “Holy ...

634. Uplifted By The Blues

Lamentations 1:1-22

Sermon

Thomas G. Rogers

Raymond looked down at the pages of the open Bible in front of him. What he saw was a rather eerie sight and it sent a slight shudder through his body. All the words on the pages were covered with blue marker. Six months earlier Ryamond himself had carefully highlighted every single word on these pages with a light blue marking pen. At the time that he had marked the pages he had no expectation of ever turning to those pages of his Bible again. Now, to his own amazement, he found that he had once again ...

635. Playboy Or Plowboy -- Let The Party Begin

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

Lee Griess

It's a story that we all know by heart, the story of the father and his two sons. One was a plowboy, who stayed home, behaved himself and enjoyed the good life. The other was a playboy, who sought for himself the good life and ended up in a pigpen. Reduced to abject misery, the playboy swallowed his pride and came home, to be welcomed with a great celebration of joy. The plowboy was angry at his father and jealous of his brother, so he boycotted the party. Coming in late from the fields, he heard music the ...

636. Safe With The Shepherd

John 10:22-42

Sermon

John M. Braaten

Listening to a television talk-show one night I heard the cartoonist Jules Pfeiffer discussing a comic strip he once drew. In it, a little boy was afraid to go to school because he thought his parents might move away while he was gone. He didn't want to go to bed at night becuse he feared that his parents might die while he slept. "Coping with fears is a terrific battle for a child," said Pfeiffer. "It's like being on 24-hour guard duty." He went on to say that he had received many letters about the ...

637. No Retaliation

Matthew 5:38-42

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

What do you do when a competitor puts out a false report about your product to the customers? Do you circulate a negative report about his product? When you are not included on someone's invitation list, what do you do? Cut that person off your invitation list? If someone calls you a racist, what's your reaction? Do you shout, "You're a bigger one!"? Honest answers to these questions reveal whether we are with or against Jesus in one of his most radical stands. He taught us never to retaliate, but instead ...

638. About Miracles

John 2:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

There is a time-honored story about a skeptic who was continually harassing the local pastor. His one delight in life seemed to be making the pastor appear inadequate intellectually. The pastor bore these challenges to his theology and faith with great restraint. One day the skeptic was heckling the pastor about his views on miracles. "Give me one concrete example of a miracle," the skeptic taunted. "One concrete example." Whereupon the pastor hauled off and kicked the skeptic furiously on the shin. The ...

639. How to Love God

Matthew 22:34-46

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

In the rock opera Jesus Christ: Superstar, Mary Magdalene sings, "I don't know how to love him." You see, Christ had saved Mary from prostitution and demonic possession, and now she wanted to live to please Jesus, to offer him her lifelong devotion. But how could she express her love? In her earlier years she had easily known how to please men. But Jesus was different. What did he want from her? How could she serve him? Isn't Mary like most of us? Here we are saved and wanting to be devoted to God, but not ...

640. Jesus' Forty Days, and Ours

Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

James McCormick

Matthew, Mark, and Luke all begin their stories of the adult Jesus at the Jordan River, where he is baptized by his cousin John. In baptism, Jesus identifies with us, and with all people everywhere. And, there, at the baptism, God said, “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.” At the beginning of the story, the gospel writer wants to make it clear who this is he is telling about: this is Jesus, the son of God! What a powerful beginning to the story! Jesus knew, as he must have known for some ...

641. We Are Not The Light

Sermon

Craig MacCreary

By now, most congregations are in the home stretch of their pre-Christmas preparations. There is much at stake for the life of any church. Try and imagine what a bad or indifferent Christmas would do to the morale of your church. We want if not a “Currier and Ives” Christmas for our families at least enough joy and good cheer to override any past enmity. Hopefully tinsel, garlands, and ornaments will chase away any seasonal affective disorder we may be suffering. Most of us are determined that the ...

642. She Looked Great, But...

Mark 7:1-23

Sermon

One of the truisms of life is that you can’t judge a book by its cover. Things are not always what they seem. I read a delightful story, allegedly true, about a zoo in Spain that decided to conduct an emergency drill. The drill simulated how to handle it if a gorilla escaped from its enclosure. To make the drill more realistic, a zookeeper dressed up as a gorilla and took off loping through the zoo. Unfortunately, not everyone on staff was notified about the drill. Upon seeing a “gorilla” fleeing from its ...

643. She Looked Great, But...

Mark 7:1-23

Sermon

King Duncan

644. A Fig Tree Sprouts Leaves

Luke 21:25-36

Sermon

King Duncan

In one of his books, motivational speaker Zig Ziglar tells the story of NFL quarterback Jeff Hostetler, formerly with the New York Giants. At the beginning of his career, Jeff was a back-up quarterback. By the end of his seventh season, he had thrown less than two hundred passes, and none of them had any bearing on the outcome of a game. Then Phil Simms, the starting quarterback of the Giants, went down with an injury, and coach Bill Parcels looked to his back-up quarterback on the bench and said, “Okay, ...

645. “Do Not Drag Me Away with the Wicked”

Psalm 28:1-9

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

Big Idea: The menaces of leadership are myriad, sometimes posed by cordial faces with malicious intentions, and we pray that God will be the real Shepherd. Understanding the Text Gunkel lists Psalm 28 among the individual complaint songs, the genre that, in his view, forms the basic material of the Psalter.[1] Gerstenberger, based on the elements of petition, thanksgiving, and intercession, agrees and considers this psalm a model representative of the individual complaint psalm,[2] commonly referred to as ...

646. While You Wait

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

Charley Reeb

I don’t know anyone who likes to wait. Whether it is waiting in line, waiting on a package to be delivered, or waiting for a prayer to be answered, waiting is not something we usually enjoy. What we sometimes forget is that there is a great deal of wisdom in waiting. This is why Advent is so important. Advent is a good time to learn about waiting because this season is all about waiting well. For the next few weeks we sit on the edge of our seats waiting for God to come to us in Christ and transform our ...

647. Up Close & Personal: Seeing Clearly

Isaiah 6:1-13

Sermon

James Merritt

I am not much of a game show fan, but my all-time favorite is Jeopardy. If I ever became a teacher or a professor, Jeopardy would be the model that I would use to teach students. It makes learning fun. It is educational, challenging and makes you think. So, we are going to play the game, but we are going to skip all the way to final Jeopardy. The category is “Smarter Than A 5th Grader.” Remember – you have to put your answer in the form of a question. The answer is “By consensus the most brilliant person ...

648. Your Faith Has Made You Well

Mark 5:21-43

Sermon

Lori Wagner

“How excellent is your lovingkindness, O Lord! Therefore the children of humankind put their trust under the shadow of your wings.” (Psalm 36:7) Prop: blindfold “Do you trust me?” [Choose a volunteer to come up to the front. Blindfold that person, and then proceed to direct them down the aisle and to a location somewhere in the room or sanctuary. You could also allow someone from the congregation to guide him or her.] How hard was that? Was it a bit scary? But you had to trust in the person guiding you. If ...

649. Matthew

Sermon

Jerry Eckert

Comment: Somewhere in my reading, I came across the notion that "executive diseases" like ulcers and headaches were common in Jesus' time among the bureaucrats. With a lead like that, a dimension was added to a story sermon. Again, the pastor and a lay person speaking from the other side of the sanctuary (at a lectern, perhaps) could conduct the following verbal "correspondence." Or, maybe the pastor could stay out of this completely and turn it over to the laity. Matthew 9:9-13 Jerusalem, March 18, 13th ...

650. Out of the Wilderness Comes New Life

Mark 1:9-13

Sermon

George Bass

Jesus’ life - and his story - might very well have ended before it really began. The Palestinian wilderness might easily have become his tomb, and those who periodically look for the bones of Jesus, yet never find them, just might have been successful. Do you remember how the controversial Episcopal bishop, James Pike, went out into that same wilderness with his wife less than twenty years ago, and perished after their car broke down and they were left to the scorching rays of the sun? That could have ...

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