Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 51 to 75 of 438 results

51. Introduction and “Hello”

1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Teach the Text

Preben Vang

Big Idea: Paul introduces himself as a fellow Christ follower and reminds his Corinthian friends that calling Christ Lord should generate life patterns that reflect such a relationship to Christ. Understanding the Text If anything strikes someone who begins reading 1 Corinthians, it is how Paul packs content into every word from the outset. When we realize how well he knows the Corinthian congregation even on a personal level and recognize that this is at least his second letter to the church (5:9), it is ...

52. “Your Love, Lord, Reaches to the Heavens, Your Faithfulness to the Skies”

Psalm 36:1-12

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

Big Idea: The absence of the fear of the Lord that characterizes the wicked is outmatched by the covenant love of the Lord, which encompasses the world, humans and animals alike, and reaches the heavens. Understanding the Text The literary genre of Psalm 36 is a bit elusive. Dahood says it has elements of wisdom in 36:1–4, becomes a hymn in 36:5–10, and then is a lament in 36:11–12. This, of course, is not the only instance when the form-critical method of analyzing the Psalms fails. In Dahood’s words: “ ...

53. The Priority of Love

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Teach the Text

Preben Vang

Big Idea: Unless Christ’s loving character becomes evident in the use and application of any and all of the Spirit’s gifts, their practice becomes worthless for God’s kingdom and mere demonstration of Christian immaturity. Understanding the Text Although God grants his gifts as an act of grace and not on the basis of merit, there is a dynamic relationship between the effectiveness of the gift and the life of the Christian.1Paul treats this connection between spiritual gifts and the quality of the believer’ ...

54. Abraham Justified by Faith

Romans 4:1-25

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

Abraham as the Model of Faith Chapter 4 is a test case of righteousness by faith. In 3:21–31 Paul presented a position statement on salvation through faith in Christ’s sacrifice of atonement. In chapter 4 he sends the class to the laboratory, as it were, to test that thesis. Here we find the compressed and nuclear thesis of 3:21–31 developed in the discursive style of Jewish midrash. Midrash was the name given to a form of rabbinic exposition in ancient Palestine which sought to penetrate the meaning of ...

55. Whose Inheritance Is It?

Ephesians 1:11-23

Sermon

Donna Schaper

The Holy Spirit gives us our inheritance. It does not come from our parents or grandparents, our nation or our race. Our inheritance is a gift from God. We have it as a dominion and domination. Domination — when we get first things absolutely first — is not a bad thing! Once we know the source of our inheritance, no other gods can rule us. Saints are the people who know this. Saints know who gave them what they have — and they don't imagine that they are like the used car dealer who, having inherited the ...

56. Apostles of Christ

1 Corinthians 4:1-21

Understanding Series

Marion L. Soards

God as the Only Real Judge The thought and logic of this passage are clear, although in Greek much of Paul’s language is awkward. Any translation struggles to render Paul’s statements in a sensible and reliable way. These verses begin by informing the Corinthians how they are to regard Paul, Apollos, Cephas, and all other early Christian workers. They are merely servants and stewards who are called to serve Christ as agents of the proclamation of the mysteries of God’s grace. A single quality must ...

57. Worn Out? Tired? Weary?

Matthew 11:25-30

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

In both his Letter to the Galatians and his Letter to the Thessalonians, Saint Paul, without equivocation, admonishes us all NOT to be weary. And then, paradoxically almost, in 2 Corinthians, we find that he is after all, human himself, and he admits that he himself has often been weary. Perhaps it’s the most used expression in our conversation: "I’m tired! I’m beat! I’m dead! I’m weary! I’m worn out! I’ve had it!" Christian people are supposed to feel beneath them the everlasting arms. Instead, they feel ...

58. No-fault Religion

2 Corinthians 5:6-10 (11-13), 14-17

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

It happened in a church parking lot, and my friend saw it happen. A lady, backing out of her parking space, rammed my friend's car, causing considerable damage. My friend was able to talk to the woman before she drove away. She was distraught and he was distraught. But, after exchanging the appropriate information, they departed to leave it in the hands of the insurance people. When it got into the hands of the insurance people, the no-fault insurance clause went into effect. Yes, the woman's insurance ...

59. “In the Lord I Take Refuge”

Psalm 11:1-7

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

Big Idea: When our theological foundations are threatened, our fears are disabled by remembering God’s just and majestic character. Understanding the Text Psalm 11 is an individual lament. The lament is quite brief (11:1b) and obviously grows out of the immediate threat of danger that David faced (11:2), which itself grows out of the nature of the wicked “who love violence” (11:5). It is that bigger problem that shakes the foundations of faith and life (11:3), until Yahweh’s vision from his heavenly throne ...

60. Jesus Sends Out the Twelve

Matthew 10:1-42

Understanding Series

Robert H. Mounce

10:1–4 Jesus called together his twelve disciples and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness. The distinction between exorcism and healing suggests that they are two different functions. This is the first mention of the twelve disciples in Matthew. He assumes they are known to the reader. That there are twelve disciples follows from the fact that they represent the new Israel: the twelve tribes of Israel find their counterpart in the twelve disciples. ...

61. A Call for a Change in Lifestyle

Matthew 3:1-12

Sermon

At the mention of the name, John the Baptizer, I immediately think of two churches that are thousands of miles apart. One is only eighty-five miles from my home, the Benedictine abbey church of St. John the Baptist on the campus of St. John’s University, Collegeville, Minnesota. The other church is thousands of miles away, just outside of Florence, Italy, at the confluence of two superhighways. Each features visual images of John the Baptizer. The church in Italy pictures the life and death of John on ...

62. Be Holy

1 Peter 1:13-2:3

Understanding Series

Norman Hillyer

The Believers’ Response in Conduct 1:13 Do the readers now appreciate the magnificence of God’s far-reaching salvation plan in which they have been caught up? Then their response has to be a wholehearted commitment to their new life in Christ. They are to prepare their minds for action, that is, they must put away any distractions which would hinder their growth in grace and their being available to carry forward God’s work of salvation in whatever way he may indicate. The Greek is literally “gird up the ...

63. Proper 25

Psalm 65:1-13, Luke 18:9-14, Joel 2:28-32, 2 Timothy 4:9-18, 2 Timothy 3:10--4:8

Sermon Aid

William E. Keeney

TWO MEN PRAYING The parable about two men praying would have shocked the people to whom Jesus told it. He drew upon two well-known and widely accepted stereotypes. First is the Pharisee, who was generally regarded as the epitome of the religious person. Most Jewish families would have been proud to have their son grow up to be a Pharisee. The second was a publican. He was the epitome of the sinner. He was regarded as a traitor because he worked for the Roman occupying government. Most tax collectors were ...

64. Gifts: Rejected And Exchanged, Accepted And Shared

1 Samuel 2:12-26

Sermon

Tony Everett

So, what have you been doing since Christmas Day? If you are like most people in the community, you have been spending countless hours in shopping malls, looking for bargains and exchanging gifts. Retailers tell us that their busiest times are the days immediately after Thanksgiving and the days directly following Christmas. After Thanksgiving we begin gift buying in earnest. After Christmas, we begin the exchanging and bargain hunting frenzy. What happened with the gifts you chose to give? How were they ...

65. Ready or Not - Here I Come

Mark 13:32-37

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

When you were a child, did you play the game, Hide and Seek? If you did, you will remember that the person who was "it" closed his eyes while the rest went to hide. To give them time to hide, the child started counting: 5, 10, 15, 20 and up to 100. Then he would say, "Ready or not, here I come!" The point of the game was to hide oneself so well that the leader could not find you, for if he found you, and beat you back to the goal, you had to be "it" the next go-around. The secret of the game was preparing ...

66. The Sign of the Servant

Matthew 11:25-30

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Props: on screen images of the pictographs for shepherd’s staff, ox, and yoke (both together) What do you get when you cross a shepherd’s staff and an ox? A yoke, of course! At least, that’s what you get in Paleo-Hebrew, the pictographic forerunner of the Hebrew language and image-rich metaphorical roots of the Hebrew scriptures. [Put the symbols on screen if you can. Show people the symbols for staff and ox….together they mean "yoke."] So, a Yoke is something that "guides" and "harnesses" the ox –two oxen ...

67. Wherever The Messiah Is

Matthew 16:13-23

Sermon

William G. Carter

When you were a little kid, did you have a favorite super hero? The kind of super hero that you could read about in the comic books? Batman was pretty cool, sticking to the shadows of night but full of ingenuity and agility. He had all those nifty gadgets in his utility belt! Or there was The Flash, who could run faster than the speed of light. Or the Incredible Hulk with his radioactive strength. Of course, the favorite for a lot of us was Superman. Faster than a speeding locomotive, he could leap tall ...

68. Achieving An All-In Victory - 1952

1 John 5:1-12

Sermon

Kent Moorehead

We have talked so much about winning an "all-out" victory during the years of World War II that our attention has been focused and our interest centered upon mass behavior. We speak of the world as having gone mad. But madness is a malady of the human mind. The world outside cannot go mad; only the world inside is capable of sanity and insanity. We talk of the Government’s having full responsibility for making all the decisions. But the Government is not an abstraction. It is composed of individuals. And ...

69. Service And Reward

Matthew 20:1-16

Sermon Aid

William E. Keeney

Social status may be determined by many factors. Some of these may be given by birth, genetics, or for reasons other than the achievement of the person. These include such things as color of skin and eyes, kind of hair, height, body build, gender, national origin, family's social position, inherited wealth, and age. Other factors may be determined by achievements through a person's efforts. These include such factors as level of education, employment, development of skills, hard work, wise investment, or ...

70. Smart, Wise, and Foolish

1 Corinthians 1:18--2:5

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

The current President of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors is DONALD C. HOUTS. Formerly a local pastor, a chaplain-supervisor, and professor of pastoral care and counseling at St. Paul School of Theology, Kansas City, Missouri, he is presently Director of Pastoral Care and Counseling for the Illinois Area of the United Methodist Church. His sermons offered here were directed to the congregation of Wesley United Methodist Church in Champaign, Illinois, where he sometimes is asked to preach for ...

71. My Stress Is Killing Me! -- Is It?

Isaiah 40:1-31

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

If you have memorized much scripture, our text is probably in your repertoire: "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint." This is one of those favorite texts that I've quoted a lot, referred to often, but never preached a sermon on it. So, as I close this series of sermons on the random texts that I have been tucking aside, I come to this favorite one. Newell Dwight Hillis, one of the ...

72. Prime Time Waiting

2 Peter 3:1-18

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

After five years of bad attitude and an ear-splitting squawk, our Senegal parrot named Aquinas hasn't yet learned any words or cute whistles. In fact, he has managed to mimic only one distinct sound: he can beep just like the microwave. Sadly, this may say more about the frequency of microwaved meals coming out of the Sweet kitchen than it does about his ability to learn the precise frequency of the microwave beeper. But at least Aquinas did listen and learn something. The big thing today in seminary is ...

73. Luke 14:1, 7-14

Luke 14:1-14

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

Fast has now replaced vast. We live in a fast food, fast-lane, fast-buck culture. Consider how we eat. Our dinners are more likely to come from the drive-thru than the kitchen. Even if we do manage to eat at home, chances are that instead of dining around the table each family member, like big cats, drags their food off to their own private lair to eat their meal. We eat not by candlelight but by the blue glare of the tv screen or computer terminal. When I was growing up, the word “dinner” was reserved for ...

74. Finding Your Place

Romans 12:1-12

Sermon

Will Willimon

“Some days the world is a tuxedo and you are a pair of brown shoes.” Do you know the feeling? You are the extra wide tie when everyone else has gone narrow, the three piece suit when everyone else heard that it was to be casual, the only one who didn't weep during E.T. Is it too much to simply find a place, to be like others, to, chameleon-like, blend with the landscape? So Ernest Becker sees humanity caught between the tension to, on the one hand, make something out of ourselves, to “stick out,” be ...

75. Jesus Radical Prescription

Matthew 5:21-26

Sermon

Mike Ripski

We’re still sitting on the hillside with those whose lives Jesus’ has changed with the miracle of God’s love. He’s teaching us about God’s new world, where God’s love reigns. Jesus has just told us that he came to fulfill the law, not to abolish it. For example, “The law says, ‘Do not murder.’ But I say that not killing someone doesn’t go far enough. God is concerned about how you feel toward others, how you perceive them, how you relate to them. Therefore, beware of your anger toward others. Beware of ...

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