Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 751 to 775 of 2157 results

Bulletin Aid

Robert G. McCreight

... and congregational music, as well as the particular uniqueness of your worship facility, may suggest or require certain modifications. You should feel free to adapt the service to best fit your circumstances. Scripture passages are taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. You may prefer to use another translation, and may substitute the wording as you prefer. The script is designed to be read by two or more persons. It alternates between passages of scripture and original commentary. People ...

752. Quantum Leap

Acts 13:13-52

Sermon

Carl Jech

... such a way that we come across as holier-than-thou know-it ails. Or we can witness to Christ in an open spirit of dialogue. Think of the times you have been confronted by "witnesses" who are obviously hoping to manipulate you into buying their particular version of religion. Do you then feel as though you are truly being treated as a person? Or, instead, as an object to be "collected"? The time has come to realize that "hard-sell" evangelism is both bad theology and bad method. It is bad theology because it ...

753. Some Illusions (Symbols) Are Better Than Others

Acts 14:8-20

Sermon

Carl Jech

... and in theology. One of the greatest false symbols or idols of our culture today, is success. Much television evangelism, falls into the trap of equating faith in God with all kinds of success. The Bible and its advice becomes something like a religious version of How To Win Friends and Influence People. A major college football coach (who will remain unnamed) has been known to give "spiritual pep-talks" on the lecture circuit. The gospel according to this "preacher" is: Do what is right. Do your best ...

754. Love Over Logic

Luke 13:1-9

Sermon

Carl Jech

... is the opposite of a sense of urgency, but we must learn to combine these opposites in our attitude toward life. If we are too serious and self-absorbed in our efforts to produce goodness, we tend to produce evil. (Stalin was very serious about creating his version of a better world.) If we are too lighthearted we will simply laugh off our problems and never really grapple with or solve any of them. We will begin habitually to use the phrase "I'm only human" as a cynical excuse. When a usually very serious ...

755. Will the Real Jesus Christ Arise?

John 20:1-18

Sermon

Carl Jech

... grace enough for thousands of new worlds as great as this; there is room for fresh creations In that upper home of bliss." In his famous theological system, Paul Tillich described Jesus as "the New Being." The real Jesus arises when we stop trying to make Jesus into a recycled version of our pet notions about him and allow God to make Jesus, us, and all things, new!

756. Divine Liturgy, Divine Play, Divine Comedy

John 13:31-38

Sermon

Carl Jech

... ourselves from refreshing and often enlightening new perspectives. Marlette sparked renewed appreciation for familiar biblical texts - and it reminds us that translation is as much an art as it is a science, when he gives us gems like this souped-up version of the Beatitudes: "Blessed are the bummed out, for they shall be mellowed ... Blessed are the wimpy, for they shall inherit the whole nine yards ... Blessed are they who are really into righteousness, for they shall pig out ... Blessed are the squeaky ...

757. Jesus Meets Buddha and Confucius

Luke 24:36-49

Sermon

Carl Jech

... with the book called "The Lost Years of Jesus"? The popularity of this book - which has also inspired a movie - indicates that many people have become fascinated with the idea that Jesus went off to India before his ministry began in Palestine. One version of the story has it that Jesus appeared in the form of a great Indian guru. Another approach suggests that Jesus and Buddha were actually the same divine being appearing in different forms. In 1977, Harvey Cox, a professor at Harvard Divinity School ...

758. Praise God For Adversity

Isaiah 43:14-28

Sermon

Carl Hoefler

... Originally it meant that we were to have both the dedication of faith and the determination to fight. However, with a slight alteration, this familiar phrase could be used to express the reason why we are able to praise God in the midst of adversity. The reworded version would be "Praise the Lord and he will provide the ammunition." When we hand over our adversities to God, and when we praise him at the same time, he will give to us the ammunition that will enable us to face our troubles and to fight them ...

759. Abner: The Clumsy Ox Who Is Our Friend

Luke 14:5

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

... helping people who needed to be helped. Well, one day Jesus was stopped by some of these people and told that he could not heal a sick man on the Sabbath day and Jesus in his own way told them why he should. Let me tell you a much longer version of the story than the one that Jesus told the men that day, so that you will understand what He meant. Once upon a time there was an ox named Abner. Now Abner was a pretty good ox for he knew how to work hard, complained very little and was ...

760. Is Christianity Practical?

Jeremiah 17:19-27

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

... importance to Christianity. The human mind and its talents and its creativity are not despised, they are dedicated. The gospel is real. The Word was made flesh, dwelling among us. Christ speaks with the authority of realism. You say the Sermon on the Mount, Luke's version of which is in our Gospel for the day, for instance, is idealistic? This is what someone said to me recently - that the Sermon on the Mount was such a high ideal that no one could anticipate or expect reaching it. It was nice. We could ...

761. If I Should Die Before I Wake

Lk 11:1-13; 12:22-34; Mt 6:5-15

Illustration

Brett Blair

You're are familiar with the childhood prayer "Now I lay me down to sleep, " but I was little surprised to learn that it is a shortened version of an Old English prayer, which goes like this: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, bless the bed that I lie on. Before I lay me down to sleep, I give my soul to Christ to keep. Four corners to my bed, four angels there aspread, two to foot, and two ...

762. Saving A Church

Hebrews 12:1-13

Sermon

... went over to her house and told her: You’re wrong. She said: I am not wrong. I gave here a little church history. I said: what you said of our church this morning is called one of the seven deadly sins—Acedia. It is translated in the King James Version as sloth, but that doesn’t capture its real meaning. Acedia means simply——not caring. It is possible for a person to walk by the old man feeding the birds in the park and say: well, he’s not my father. It is possible to see a hungry child and ...

763. Saving A Church

Hebrews 12:1-13

Sermon

764. Lean Your Whole Weight on Jesus

Hebrews 11:1-40, 12:1-13; Psalm 118:8-9

Illustration

Robert R. Kopp

He, Jesus, is the friend on whom we can rely in all things. Ralph Earle, the great biblical scholar who taught at Kansas City's Nazarene Theological Seminary and helped edit The New International Version of the Bible, often told the story of John G. Paton who was a pioneer missionary to the New Hebrides. Dr. Paton soon discovered that while the natives had words for house, tree, stone, and the like, they had no words for love, joy, and peace. Worst of all, they ...

765. An Everyday Theology

Luke 11:1-13

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... need for this learned style of theology - one that takes into account all the facets of human wisdom - has not diminished in our time. Its need may be heightened in light of current trends. It is no secret that simplistic and sometimes thoughtless versions of the faith are in the ascendancy today. Major denominational publishing houses play down the findings of a century of biblical criticism so that their materials do not offend the prevailing mood. The ordination of a bishop in the Church of England is ...

766. The Freedom To Be Wrong

Luke 18:9-14

Sermon

... . Hung up on the need to be right. Paul had been a Pharisee. He used some crude language to describe how useless his former way of life had been - when he’d tried so hard to be blameless. One place he tells about this is in 1 Corinthians 15. Our versions show how he makes the translators blush. When he said he’d also seen the risen Christ, the translators have him say: Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. (1 Corinthians 15:8) Since he wrote this to be read in a public assembly ...

767. No Little Bit

Luke 19:11-27

Sermon

... personhood, how insignificant we’re made to feel. Just holes in a card. This is like the feeling that must have overwhelmed a certain character in one of Jesus’ parables. This fellow was one who’d been given a pound by his master. In Today’s English Version, instead of a pound it says the nobleman gave each of his servants a gold coin to invest while he himself would be away. Apparently this man must have said to himself something like this: "Now what on earth can I do with just one gold coin? It ...

768. Faith Bridges the Gap

Luke 7:1-10

Sermon

... Heavenly Return on Investment," "has not been blessed."2 Rhoads said, "I lost my job, I lost my business, I lost my family, I lost my children, I lost my house, I lost my car. I lost everything but my life." Rhoads appeared to be a modern version of Job on the basis of what he was going through but didn’t deserve. Three years ago, he had begun contributing to Oral Roberts’ fund-raising drives on television and, says Davies, "Rhoads felt he was guaranteed a blessed life ..." He claimed he had given $7 ...

769. The Sermon on the Level

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

... to you that are full now, for you shall hunger." "Blessed are you that weep now, for you shall laugh," and "Woe to you that laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep." Three strikes and you’re out, on curve balls low and on the outside corner. In the version of this sermon that Saint Matthew gives us, it is called The Sermon on the Mount, for when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up onto the mountain, and when he sat down his disciples came to him, and he began his teaching. But in the sermon as Saint Luke ...

770. Our Splintered World

Luke 12:49-53

Sermon

Carveth Mitchell

... a crude cartoon of a jackass on a cross, and under it are the words "Alexamenes worships his God." Today Christian churches, once open to every passer-by, are being kept locked because they are being vandalized and looted with a vicious contempt - a modern version of the division over Jesus, an updating of the ancient contempt "Alexamenes worships his God." Jesus said, "I came to bring division." The important question for us is this: Where are we in this division? How does this Gospel apply to us? At least ...

771. The Man Who Came to Dinner

Luke 14:1-14

Sermon

Carveth Mitchell

... or conceit over what he had accomplished. His own strength had left him desolate and dissolute. He knew what the redemptive grace of Jesus had done. For most of us it is not that drastic or dramatic, but fortunate are those who have some form or version of the goldplated safety pin to keep them humble in success. True humility is not weakness - it is strength. True humility is not cowardice - it is courage. It is strength and courage to be grateful, not supercilious, for what we are, what we can do, what ...

772. Counsel for Discouraged Disciples

Habakkuk 1:1-4

Sermon

... -bearing. He warned them against the unworthiness of putting their hands to the plow and then turning back. And one of his greatest admonitions to them came at the conclusion of his passionate remarks following the last supper in the upper room. In the King James Version his words were, "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." I prefer the translation, however, that has him saying, "Courage! I have conquered the world." He knew that faith and love must have in them a backbone of courage if they are to ...

773. Jumping to Conclusions

1 Corinthians 4:5

Children's Sermon

Object: Any optical illusion. such as two lines drawn like this (lines are drawn here in the book version only) Notice that the lines are the same length, but arrows on the ends make the bottom line look longer. Good morning, boys and girls. I wonder why I always say "good morning?" Maybe some Sunday I should say BAD SUNDAY, boys and girls. No, regardless of the weather or ...

774. Proper 9

Exodus 1:1-22

Sermon

... additional persons to the slave labor market - an act which was natural to the Pharaohs. In this story we read about one of the first anti-semitic movements. This is graphically illustrated by the text, but, it appears, the translation in the Revised Standard Version, "and the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel," is a little too gentle to be totally accurate. The Egyptians could easily have exterminated the Hebrews or, at the least, forced them to leave the country. Unger's commentary on the ...

775. The Sunday of the Passion

Matthew 26:14--27:66

Sermon

Kendall McCabe

... 's complaint. Some changes are for the better!) Passion. Now that's a strange word. Not one you expect to hear in church. In fact, passion is the last thing many of us expect to find in church. I suppose because it represents a linguistic version of Gresham's law: bad definitions drive out good. In our culture, passion brings to mind the afternoon soap operas and the lead stories in the National Enquirer. We have quite totally forgotten its root meaning is from a Latin word which means "to suffer." Passion ...

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