Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 726 to 750 of 4972 results

726. THE OLD MAN IS WASTING

Drama

Jerome W. Nilssen

... . I never lived with him. He left home before I was born. JAREL Then he’s no more your problem than he is mine. Let’s leave it at that. SETH Just stick a finger down the throat, and that’s all there is to it - is it as simple as that? JAREL ... fault; the doctor said it wasn’t mine. Naturally Cain called the doctor a liar. SETH So you left him. JAREL What was there to leave? We were two violent people who couldn’t do any more harm. Or be any help. No futures - that was the trouble. SETH Let’s ...

727. He Will Come Again!

John 16:22

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

... made you unhappy or made you cry for a moment. Oh, I’m not going to give you a shot, because I’m not a doctor, but I want to tell you about a time long ago when Jesus had to leave his disciples and they didn’t want him to leave. He told them that they had to let him leave because he was going where God needed him and that someday soon they would be glad because they would be back together again. Sometimes it happens like that now. It’s like when we have to have a shot, it hurts ...

728. Wearing the Ashes

Jonah 3:1-10

Sermon

Michael J. Anton

... us in our place. Lent is realism at its best. Lent cracks the lenses in our rose-colored glasses and makes fine powder out of our personal pedestals and literally knocks us off our smug perches to tell us precisely who we are. Whether we burn palm leaves and make ashen crosses on our foreheads is not terribly important. Whether we rip apart our clothes or put on sackcloth is not overly significant. What is extremely important is that on our lips and in our hearts and through our living we wear the ashes of ...

729. A Prophet in a Panic

1 Kings 19:9-18

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... had: HE WAS ALONE. He had no friend in whom to confide. Loners are vulnerable. Dr. Robert Wright in his Time article points out that American suburbs and apartments are lonely places. Thanks to garage-door openers you don't even encounter your neighbor when leaving or arriving. Then the average American watches TV 28 hours per week plus time on the Internet. Today 1/4th of American households consist of a single person. In our congregation, it's 1/3rd. Therefore, many of us are spending an enormous part of ...

730. The Greatest Story Ever Told

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... how miserable it is to be hungry and lonely in a far country without a single friend, yet too proud to go home? But the bigger price was paid back home by the father. Surely life can hardly hurt anyone more than for a child to reject his parent and leave home for points unknown. How does a parent close his eyes in sleep night after night, not knowing where his child is, not knowing if he is sick or destitute or in danger? What an agony! An awful price had been paid long before the prodigal came home. God ...

731. To Our Heart’s Content

Isaiah 61:1-11

Sermon

Susan Hedahl

... the child’s cradle? There are some here who will not see another Christmas. There are others yet to enjoy their first Christmas. And all of us bear in our hearts the desire for lives made meaningful by the Bethlehem Child. We leave with the gifts, accompanied by this Child, for adventures whose conclusions we know nothing of. What places will we journey to and through? Where will we choose to stay and what will we avoid? The holy places of which we have heard and sung, pondered and prayed about over the ...

732. I Believe In Judgment

Matthew 25:31-46

Sermon

Robert Allen

... have asserted this belief in the Apostles’ Creed when we say: "He shall come to judge the quick and the dead...." Anne of Austria once said, "... God does not pay at the end of every week, but at the end He pays." We can go on with our lives and leaving God out, disobeying his laws, and failing to be the people he calls us to be. But, we need to remember that judgment is a reality. The most definite evidence of its reality is Jesus’ parable on the last judgment. At the end of the parable, the sheep are ...

733. Facing Life’s Central Tests

Mark 14:32-42

Sermon

Robert Allen

... on us, there is nothing more reassuring than being with people who love us. When I was in seminary, one of my professors was experiencing the sorrow of losing his wife to a terminal illness. Dr. Brown said, "Even though I had told Dorothy Ruth that I would never leave her, my heart trembled at the prospect of being there when she died. On the night of November 7, with death so near, I gently stroked her hair. She opened her eyes and looked at me and said, ‘Remember that I love you and I have always loved ...

734. The Flight From Light

Isaiah 60:1-22, Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

Erskine White

... faced with the prospect of actually getting it. One thing we want is companionship, an end to our loneliness. In some ways, we have it with friends and loved ones, but in other ways we are all too aware of our solitude. We come into this world alone and leave it alone, and in between those two events we are searching for connection. To whom can we really talk, and who is there to really listen? Who can hear our deepest secrets and not think badly of us for telling them? Who is there to know us through and ...

735. Send Me!

Isaiah 6:1-13

Sermon

Frederick C. Edwards

... family. His parents didn’t know how to respond to this young man. Because he had changed, they had to change, too. The whole family structure began to fall apart. And the son, realizing that he was the focus of their pain, could not stay. He had to leave. How we want people to stay the same. We don’t reason that out, of course, but somehow we assume it. Children grow up and become independent. They do not want to be directed by their parents as they were when they were younger. The child must eventually ...

736. And Now For Something Completely Different

Isaiah 43:14-28

Sermon

Frederick C. Edwards

... in earnest and with a purpose people who overhear tend to become a bit uneasy. The technique is to talk out what we want to leave behind, and if this means talking to the people who are no longer with us - declaring your love, asking forgiveness, giving it - then do that ... of a tape recorder. You don’t want to save this stuff, so don’t record it. You want to get it behind you, and to leave it in the past. "Behold I am doing a new thing; do you see it?" Can you understand it? Can you accept it? Yes, even ...

737. A Man With a Scalpel and a Pen

Acts 16:6-10

Sermon

R. Blaine Detrick

... included them. If we had only three records of the Gospel - according to Matthew, Mark, and John - much that we simply take for granted would be missing. For example, only Luke tells about the trip of Jesus to the temple when he was twelve years of age. Only Luke leaves us the message: "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?" (Luke 2:49). Only Luke tells us that as a child, Jesus grew and "increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man" (Luke 2:52). Only Luke tells us some ...

738. A Tempting and Lonely Place

Mark 1:35-39

Sermon

Thomas Long

... evening from a parishioner in his church. He said that his daughter Anne had just decided to drop out of pharmacy school. Anne had been home for the weekend. In fact she had worshiped with her mother and father that morning, and the news of her leaving school had caught them totally by surprise. Willimon asked why Anne was doing such a thing, but the father was uncertain. What he mainly wanted was for Willimon to call his daughter and "talk some sense into her." Willimon called Anne and reminded her of the ...

739. Discipleship - Path to Fulfillment

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

James W. Robinson

... that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. That I was a drum major for righteousness. And all the other shallow things will not matter. I won’t have any money to leave behind. I won’t have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind.3 The Roman Catholic was honored with a place at the head table at a dinner with other clergy, prior to an ecumenical service. He was high in the hierarchy of his church, a colorful ...

740. Inevitabilities and the Last Days

Mark 13:1-31

Sermon

James W. Robinson

... North Korea. Every move he made was being watched. Awe then fled to a town where there were some factories that had not yet been taken over by the state. Awe tried to conceal himself in the slum section of that town. One Sunday, he dared to leave the slums to attend a service of worship at a Presbyterian church in a more affluent neighborhood. Then and there, the preaching of the Gospel proved its power. "As I was coming up the steps I heard the swell of voices raised in singing ‘Onward Christian Soldiers ...

741. It’s as Simple as That

2 Kings 2:1-18

Sermon

Thomas D. Peterson

... Jericho where another band of prophets meets them and hurl the same sarcastic remarks at Elisha. The same reply comes back, "Yes, I know it; hold your peace." A third time Elijah tells Elisha to remain behind for the Lord has sent him to the Jordan. Elisha will not leave his master as long as he or the Lord are alive. This time fifty sons of the prophets follow and stand at a distance in silence as the two come to the bank of the Jordan. Elijah takes his mantle, rolls it up, and strikes the water. The river ...

742. Pentecost

Ezekiel 37:1-14, Acts 2:1-13, Acts 2:14-41, John 15:18--16:4, John 16:5-16

Bulletin Aid

Paul A. Laughlin

... ascended Christ we pray. Amen Prayer of Confession Inspiring God, it pains us to confess to you how resistant and closed we are to the movement of your Spirit, as though we dare you to kindle our souls. Forgive us, we pray. Set us afire; blow us away; leave us utterly speechless with the irresistible power of your life-giving spirit; then drive us into the world with your message and ministry of compassion and hope. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen Gospel: John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15 Theme: The promise of the Son ...

743. Facing the Glory Road

Matthew 20:17-19

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

... in it. We’re probably the most successful in the world - and the most bored. Why are we bored? Such is the nature of the human heart that it must LOVE something. Our strong feelings must have something to lay hold of, to wrap ourselves around, or, lacking it, leave a hunger, as painful a hunger to the soul as it is to the body when it has been denied solid food. Here is the torment of our boredom: an emptiness in the soul; a basic human need unanswered; an unfed craving of the heart for some devotion ...

744. A WALL OF ROCK AND THE EVERYBODY GAP

Drama

William McKee Aber

... touch! Christian: The wall is big enough by now so that he won’t see Sue’s hand reaching toward him. Jack: Ooops - there’s that ride now - I hear the horn - I wish Harry would quit smoking; see you tonight, honey, I’ve got to run. (with that Jack leaves, stage right; Sue pauses, then she leaves also.) Wormwood: The wall remains; I rest my case. Christian: But there is hope - wait till this evening. Judge: This court stands recessed until this evening. (the court ...

745. Christmas Now!

John 1:1-18

Sermon

Theodore L. Yewey

... t we? But they really seem out of place and out of character with those who shared in the first Christmas. Or for that matter, those who have truly shared in any Christmas. Could it be that there is another attitude that we should have as we leave this current celebration of Christmas and pack away the Christmas trimmings for another year? I believe there is. And that different attitude can be ours if we simply hear and receive the truth of Christmas now. The announcement of the birth of our Lord was really ...

746. By Thunder

Mark 1:14-20

Drama

Robert F. Crowley

... 't they? The Lord sees to that. What's important is that my sons have been chosen to learn from the Messiah. My sons! MIRIAMNE: Yes, but what if he is not the Messiah? ZEBEDEE: What do you mean? Of course he's the Messiah. Who else could make men leave their life's work and follow him? MIRIAMNE: What are you saying? ZEBEDEE: Fishing for fish? I can train anyone to do that job. But fishing for men -- only the Messiah could train men for that job. Fishers of men. If I was younger I could do that job. I ...

747. The Man Who Asked For Dinner

Luke 24:36-49

Sermon

George Bass

... ." "I’m dying," the soldier moans, and this causes the surgeon’s unarticulated questions to surface: "Can you see anything? Can you feel anything? I have to know." But the dying soldier doesn’t answer. Instead, he says, "I smell bread" - and then he dies, leaving Winchester’s questions still unanswered. But that was enough to make the major realize that he can’t learn enough about death to bring back the dead from the grave. All he can do is minister to the living and, as Father Mulcahy might put ...

748. Francis of Assisi

1 Corinthians 1:18--2:5

Drama

Michael L. Sherer

... inheritance. A hint of what was coming might have been detected, some observers say, in the fact that in the Apulian conflict, young Francis actually gave away his coat of mail to a poor soldier and then returned home after only one night of battle, leaving the victory to be won by his fellow townsmen. In the battle with his own father, Francis dramatized the point that he was casting off easy wealth when he presented himself to the city square outside the bishop’s residence. In full view of townspeople ...

749. Bonhoeffer of Berlin

Acts 5:17-42

Drama

Michael L. Sherer

... get you to give up on Christ and simply do what seems more popular. Remember, if you’re forced to make a choice, it’s more important to obey God than to obey men. I was sorry to hear that your father has decided to divorce your mother and leave you with hardly any money on which to live. I can understand that you’re embarrassed having your mother working as a waitress just to pay the bills. But just remember: sometimes we must do things we had never planned to, just to keep our lives in place. Please ...

750. Job - A Probe Into the Shadow World of Despair

Job 6:1-7:21

Sermon

... effective instruments of Christian mission in the corporate, educational, and medical worlds that you will soon serve when you leave Wittenberg. You must not only be able to confront intellectually and emotionally the questions asked by Job about a ... on scales, they would weigh more than the sands of the sea ..." (Job 6:1-3a), said Job, "I give up; I am tired of living. Leave me alone. My life makes no sense ..." (Job 7:16). "When an innocent man suddenly dies, God laughs. God gave the world to the wicked. He ...

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