Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: Levi, disciple, evangelist, tax collector, the 12, the twelve, apostle, sermon on the mount, jewish audience, beatitudes, lord's prayer, great commission, parables, olivet discourse, mount of olives, olivet, synoptic

Showing 51 to 75 of 339 results

51. Is The Gospel Only For Women?

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

... - many of us will acknowledge the influence for good our womenfolk have had upon us. Even Archie Bunker used to admit once in a while that he was lucky to have as his wife Edith who was the soul of everything our Lord mentions in the Beatitudes: meek, merciful, pure in heart, and peacemaking. There’s no one so lovely as a Christian woman, and if the Gospel nurtures women like Mary, mother of Jesus, and another Mary, sister of Martha - and the Roman Catholic Sisters, who run Our Lady of Good Counsel ...

52. All Saints' Day

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon Aid

... because they don't want to work at their lives, as for example, people who take diet pills to make it "easy" to lose weight. Jesus gave us some good suggestions about how to bring joy to our lives and other people's lives, in the Beatitudes. Review one or two of them by putting them into the children's language. Proclamation of the Word Consider these ideas: "Happiness Doesn't Come In Pills." Introduce the theme by defining sainthood, and contrasting it with the church's understanding of sainthood in the ...

53. Rejoicing in Reality

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Susan R. Andrews

... of God's face. O the blessedness of suffering and struggle, for joy is the fruit of adversity. Rejoice and be glad in the reality of our living, for it is in that reality that God is building a kingdom of love. One preacher has summarized the beatitudes very simply. "You are loved. Go, therefore, and act like it!"2 May it be so - for you and for me. Amen. 1. From a sermon preached by Dr. Thomas Long at the 1989 Westminster Worship and Music Conference. 2. Barbara Brown Taylor, The Preaching Life (Cambridge ...

54. Those Who Most Need a Blessing

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

... , or those who mourn, or those who take the risk to make peace. Jesus' blessings here are in the future tense. Those who mourn will be comforted. The pure in heart will see God. Those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled. Jesus begins the beatitudes by saying that the poor in spirit are blessed because theirs is the dominion of heaven. The dominion of heaven is the second marshmallow. We in the church wait now for the dominion of heave to come in its fullness. Every now and then, we get to ...

55. Risk Takers

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

Cynthia Cowen

... . When people heard Jesus was in the area, they flocked to see him. So it was in our gospel story that an enormous crowd turned out to hear him. What Jesus laid out for them that day were the traits he looked for in his followers. The Beatitudes, as they are called, explain how to be "blessed." They may sound like contradictions, but God's way of life contradicts the world's. Indeed, we will not be blessed by following the world's standards, but by living according to kingdom's standards. "I'm so blessed ...

56. Holy Happiness

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

Susan R. Andrews

... are what is called a “performative word.” These predictions about blessedness are not going to happen — they are already happening. This is not about what might be. This is about what is. This is God’s agenda, God’s vision, God’s kingdom. The reality described by the Beatitudes will happen, is happening, whether we choose to be part of it or not. Only a few of us are called to be the poor. A few more of us are called to work with the poor. But all of us are called to be for the poor — because ...

57. How To Be Truly Happy

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

King Duncan

... solved, one more handicap overcome. “If only I had that,” they often say, “I would be happy.” Too late they learn that happiness does not come from the outside but from within. That is the first thing that is evident as we view the Beatitudes. Happiness is not synonymous with the pursuit of pleasure. Neither is happiness found in the avoidance of pain. This is a more subtle truth, but it is equally as important. Many people live with the philosophy, “No pain . . . no gain. Others live with the ...

58. The First Songs of Christmas

Luke 1:39-45, Luke 1:46-56

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... the Prophecy Fulfilled in Jesus (Acts 3) Stephen’s Interpretation of the Fulfillment of the Prophecy in Jesus (Acts 7) Image Exegesis: Repentant Grace –the Greatest Gift in Song / Heart Song The songs in Luke’s scriptures may be prayers, or blessings, or beatitudes, but for us, they are the “song” of our lives. And each one, like the songs of Hannah, and Miriam, and Isaiah before them, contains an important ingredient that sometimes we tend to leave out –repentance. These songs remind us of what ...

59. Those Who Mourn

Sermon

John A. Terry

... in their approach. I met with the teenagers for some time, discussing their loss not out of a psychological understanding, but out of a faith understanding because mourning that is given to God gets back in God's time God's promised comfort. Like all the other beatitudes, this is a future-looking promise. A Catholic priest by the name of Henri Nouwen wrote a little book titled A Letter of Consolation. It was written from a son to a father six months after the death of the son's -- Henry -- mother. At one ...

60. The Meek

Sermon

John A. Terry

... , the reward for meekness. If this is true, then it is a matter of serious concern for us. If you knew you were going to inherit an enormous estate if you had only one particular character trait, you would be very concerned about that. Like the other beatitudes, the key to understanding this is to put it in God's time, and know it will be achieved in God's way. This is not a blessing to be received by a David Koresh through armed conflict with federal authorities. This is a difficult blessing because our ...

61. Those Who Mourn

Isaiah 40:1-31

Sermon

John A. Terry

62. The Meek

Psalm 37:1-40

Sermon

John A. Terry

63. How Does One Follow Jesus During The Threat Of War?

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

George Johnson

... sword." We can call Jesus a crazy liberal, a lunatic, or a wimp. We can choose to follow the empire instead of Jesus. But don't change the teachings of Jesus who came to teach us that love is more powerful than revenge, than the sword. Perhaps the beatitudes give us the best clue as to how we follow Jesus, not only during the threat of war, but anytime. "Blessed are the poor in spirit." Those who are able to keep their sanity and make good decisions are those who recognize their limitations as well as their ...

64. How’s Your Appetite?

Matthew 5:6 · Luke 14:1-14

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... rascal worked at and for the things he valued! If you would just work at your faith with that same intensity, enthusiasm, and dedication, why, you would experience real success. If you hunger and thirst after righteousness, you will be satisfied and filled." You know, this fourth Beatitude is the most demanding, in fact, the most frightening of the eight. It asks us point-blank: How much do we want the faith? Do we want it as much as a starving man wants food? Do we want it as much as a thirsty man wants ...

65. What Is Your Mercy Quotient?

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... like to live as captives in Egypt. They will tell us that it is really difficult to put themselves in the skins and souls of their forefathers, but tradition bids them try to preserve their reverent attitude toward this experience. I think this is what the fifth Beatitude requires of us. It requires us to try to see, think and feel as the other persons might. If we can, our attitudes will lead us to understanding, cooperation, and peace. It is a sad fact that most of us, most of the time, lead such terribly ...

66. Do We Want to See?

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... in this world depends on what we want to see. Jesus says the pure in heart see God. The meaning we usually give to purity of heart is that of thinking no dirty thoughts, no dirty books, no dirty stories, watching no dirty movies. If this is what the Beatitude means, we could find it relatively easy to obey. But the meaning goes much deeper, so deep in fact, that we wonder if any of us wants to see God. The word "heart" in the Bible means the whole personality, the mind, will, and emotions. Those whose minds ...

67. Why Are We So Split Apart?

Matthew 5:9

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... for total disarmament, if we could do something about Rhodesia and the Middle East, would this merit us the title of peacemaker? Would it designate us as children of God? Time does change the meaning of words, and because it does, the meaning of this seventh Beatitude of Jesus has been narrowed. For us today, peace is largely a negative word. It describes mainly the absence or the end of war and trouble. Peace in Rhodesia, to us, would mean stopping the battles that go on between the security forces and the ...

68. Roll Call

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

King Duncan

... FIRM IN FAITH. Jesus knew as he addressed his disciples on the mountain top that the day would come when they would be persecuted for believing in him. Jesus knew that living the kind of life that he outlined would be difficult. In his final beatitude Jesus tried to warn the disciples that the Christian life is sometimes very difficult. "Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account," Jesus told his disciples. When those things happen ...

69. The Way Up Is the Way Down

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

... prophecy, and religion, all in one.”6 Jesus was that visionary, that seer, the one who painted before ordinary men and women a picture of God’s future and their place in it. In the Sermon on the Mount, and particularly in the opening two panels of Beatitudes, we see not some grand ideal or massive program for social renewal. We are, instead, invited to see the world through the eyes of the one person who best understands both it and us. To enter these three chapters, Matthew 5 through 7, is to enroll in ...

70. Something Different

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

James L. Killen

... they really give us a rather surprising description of a very different way of life. They talk about people finding blessedness, which is another word for happiness, in the very places where most people would be least likely to look for it. Let's go through the Beatitudes now and reflect on them and try to see if we can understand what Jesus was trying to show us. The first verse says "Blessed are the poor in spirit" (Matthew 5:3). There is an attitude many people want more than anything else that might be ...

71. Topsy-turvy Christianity

Luke 6:17-26, Luke 6:27-36

Sermon

J. Will Ormond

... today. Their sharpness has been dulled by familiarity or by a kind of casual attitude toward scripture. "Oh, that's in the Bible, and was spoken a long time ago in a culture different from ours. It is far too impractical for our time." The Lucan beatitudes and woes are certainly at variance with the accepted criteria of our time concerning what it takes to make one healthy, wealthy, and wise. They also do not fit a theology which presents the gospel as a sure road to success, peace of mind, and easy ...

72. The Keys To Happiness -- Purity Of Heart

John 1:1-18

Sermon

Alex Gondola

... what it appeared to be, shortcomings, imperfections, and all. The pure in heart are not people who are perfect but people who are sincere. People who long to know God and sincerely try to do what's right. J. B. Phillips does well when he translates this Beatitude, "Happy are the utterly sincere, for they shall see God." King David, who tradition says was the author of the Psalm 51, was pure in heart. David was an adulterer. David was a murderer. But at least he knew how to blush! Psalm 51 shows us David ...

73. Be About It

Matthew 5:1-12

Drama

Robert F. Crowley

... finding one) Here we are. GEORGINA: I don't see what this has to do with my complaint about the church. MERLE: Just wait a minute. GEORGINA: I've already waited five minutes. MERLE: Here it is in Matthew's Gospel. The heading says it's called the Beatitudes. GEORGINA: What's that mean? MERLE: I don't know but you copied it down wrong. It says here the word "blessed" in front of all the rules. GEORGINA: What does that mean? MERLE: Well, I suppose "blessed" means blessed! In other words what you thought were ...

74. Epiphany 6

Jeremiah 17:5-10, Luke 6:17-26, 1 Corinthians 15:12-34

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... raised, our faith in Christ would be in vain, we would still be in our sins, and the dead in Christ perished. But the truth is that in fact Jesus was raised from the dead. Gospel: Luke 6:17-26 In the sermon on the plain Jesus gives the beatitudes and woes. The Gospel Lesson for today and the next two Sundays will be taken from Jesus' sermon on the plain. The setting for the sermon is given in verses 17-19. The sermon opens with four blessings and a corresponding number of woes. The parallel list gives one ...

75. The Merciful

Sermon

John A. Terry

... the victim of his own actions. Locked in the prison where he had locked others, subjected to treatment that he had taught his secret police, tried in the sort of trial he had helped to engineer, he was mocked by his own cruelty. We know the blessing of this beatitude, but we need also to consider the warning of the parable. In March of 1976, Carlo Gambino, boss of all bosses of the Mafia, died in New York. He was the model for the role of Don Vito Corleone, the part played by Marlon Brando in the movie The ...

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