Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 751 to 775 of 4508 results

Children's Sermon

B. Kathleen Fannin

Object: A stuffed toy cat and a catnip mouse. Lesson: Mercy; grace. Before I have even said, "Good morning," to the gathered children, one of the younger ones (who is anything but shy) asks, "Know what?" Wondering where it will lead, I answer, leaning on my faith that God is in charge of this process, and this time IS for the children. "What?" I respond. "I'm MAD at my grandmother," the little ...

752. The Constitution of Our Faith

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

Object: A constitution (United States, state or local government). Slips of paper for each child with Matthew 5:1-12 written on them. Good morning, boys and girls. Today we are going to talk about something that you may have heard about a lot of times but perhaps you have never seen. How many of you have heard the word "constitution"? (Let them answer.) That's good. How many of you know what a co...

753. I Can See God

Children's Sermon

Object: a pair of binoculars. Boys and girls, I brought a pair of binoculars to church with me today. How many of you have ever looked through binoculars before? (Let them answer.) What can binoculars do for us? (Talk about it.) That's right. Binoculars make little things look like big things. Sometimes when you look through binoculars you can see things you could not see without them. Sometimes...

754. Happy Marriage...It's All About Choices

Sermon

James W. Moore

The power mower broke down and wouldn’t run… and the grass in the front yard was getting totally out of hand. The wife was embarrassed about the way the lawn looked… so she began hinting to her husband that it was time to get the power mower fixed. But, somehow her hints didn’t work. The message never sank in. Finally, she thought of a clever way to make her point: When her husband arrived home o...

755. When We Mourn

Sermon

Jerry L. Schmalemberger

Did you ever wish you could have been in on the heart to heart talks that Jesus had with that little band of twelve? In our Gospel for this All Saints’ Sunday, we have what are called "Beatitudes" from the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew has a habit of collecting together all the sayings of Jesus on a particular subject and putting them together in his Gospel. Most scholars agree that this sermon on ...

756. A Tale of Two Cemeteries

Sermon

George Bass

Two of my favorite cemeteries are thousands of miles apart. One is in rural Minnesota, about thirty miles from my home. To me, it is a symbol of the church triumphant and the church militant, because it completely surrounds a church building. No one can enter any of the doors to the church without walking through the cemetery, past the graves of relatives, friends, neighbors, and acquaintances. It...

757. When the Poor Become Rich

Sermon

"Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Bumper sticker philosophy would have us believe that there are many sources of happiness. Some say, "Happiness is surfing," or "Happiness is a glass of cold milk," or even, "Money can’t buy happiness, but happiness can’t pay the bills." Unfortunately, bumper stickers seldom capture the whole truth. Nobody can say for certain ...

758. The Heart Of The Matter

Sermon

Eric Ritz

There was a man who did not feel well for an extended period of time. His pastor suggested he go to a certain internist who was good at making accurate diagnoses. The doctor examined this man and ordered a variety of tests. The doctor was concerned about the man's heart, and how the health of his entire body was affected by his heart. The man's arteries were clogged. The man had been overweight fo...

759. Breaking The Negative Cycle

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

One of the most destructive foibles of human nature is the tendency to lock ourselves into rigid patterns of thinking, ruts of responding, and unalterable avenues of acting. It was this way of thinking that caused Jesus to condemn the Pharisees, admonishing them about straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel. The most common pattern into which we humans tend to move is what I call a negative c...

760. The Way Up Is the Way Down

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

Potato chips, cheese curls, and candy may be some of your favorites, but for twenty-four mule deer in the Grand Canyon National Park, these indulgences proved deadly. Park rangers were forced to shoot more than two dozen mule deer who became hooked on junk food left by visitors. It was death by Cheetos and suicide by Snicker bar! Why eat twigs or chew bark if a Twinkie is nearby? Once deer taste t...

761. The Comfort of God

Sermon

Edward Inabinet

Listen now to a great promise of Jesus: "Blessed are those who mourn: for they shall be comforted." The comfort of God--how desperately we need it. Our loss is stark and painful and the future looks uncertain, and this blessing Jesus gives becomes a reality in our mourning as we trust in Him. COMFORT COMES FROM KNOWING AN ETERNAL MERCY AND LOVE THROUGH JESUS. If we come to know his mercy and love...

762. What Making a Difference Looks Like

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

I am told there are at least eight million cats and eleven million dogs in the Big Apple. Since New York is mainly concrete and steel, when you have a pet that dies, you can't just go out in the back yard and bury it. In response, city officials decided that for fifty dollars they would dispose of your pet for you. Now in that grand city was a certain enterprising lady. She thought to herself, “I ...

763. Rejoicing in Reality

Sermon

Susan R. Andrews

Our text says that Jesus "went up to the mountain" and, oh, what a beautiful mountain it is! The Mount of the Beatitudes is not all that high, but in Galilee it is the equivalent of Mount Everest. Stretched out below is the most fertile agricultural land in Israel, intricately laid out next to the jeweled sea, that breathtaking, blue prism reflecting the hot beauty of the Middle Eastern sun. A few...

764. Faith's Curious Dynamic

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

You know that old saying, "Be careful what you wish for, because it might come true"? We see examples of that again and again in life. During the war in Iraq, Hampton Sides, a journalist who had been slated to be "embedded" with one of our frontline Marine battalions, gave an interview on NRP (National Public Radio). At almost the last possible moment, Sides decided not to go with the Marines, but...

765. Let’s Climb a Mountain

Sermon

James W. Robinson

How would you like to climb a mountain? Right now. Too tired? Completely exhausted after a week of commuting to the office or working around the house? What if you could take the hike without leaving your seat? Don’t scoff! It can be done. No leg work is required. All you need do is exercise your imagination. So, off we go, up the Sermon on the Mount, crossing the ridge to a lookout that offers u...

766. Those Who Most Need a Blessing

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

Can a child pass up a tasty marshmallow? A researcher who wanted to know set up an experiment. He left a succession of four-year-olds alone in a room, seated at a table. On the table was a single marshmallow. The researcher told the children that they could eat the marshmallow when he left the room, or they could wait until he returned. If they waited, they would receive a second marshmallow. The ...

767. Called to Be Saints

Sermon

Warren Thomas Smith

"Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you." (v. 12) Who is a saint? The historic definition is one whose life is worthy of imitation by all of Christendom. Some add that a sense of humor is a prerequisite, along with having performed miracles. "She is a saint," we say. What do we mean? We usually have in mind a person whose go...

768. Double Image

Sermon

William G. Carter

"You know why I want to join the church?" The speaker was a father in his thirties, holding an infant on his shoulder. A red Land's End diaper bag was slung over his other shoulder. His wife stood next to him in the church narthex, holding the hand of a cranky two-year-old with a runny nose. The father said, "We began to worry about raising our children. There are too many opinions about what's ri...

769. The Poor In Spirit

Sermon

John A. Terry

When Jesus spoke these words, he had sat down with his disciples. These are not generic "words to live by" that get published in the Sunday magazine section. These are words Jesus spoke particularly to the disciples. That is why they went up the mountain to be alone. The word translated as "blessed" is commonly translated today as "happy." Robert Schuller wrote a book titled The Be Happy Attitudes...

770. Blessed Are Those Who Mourn

Sermon

William B. Kincaid, III

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted." In her novel Come and Go, Molly Snow, Mary Ann Taylor-Hall gives an account of Carrie attempting to come to grips with the loss of her eight-year-old daughter, Molly Snow. Carrie is a fiddler, but in the wake of this tragic loss she says, "The music doesn't rise up in me right now."1 In the months that followed, Carrie listens to homespun...

771. Something Different

Sermon

James L. Killen

Jesus came preaching "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near" (Matthew 4:17). Then Jesus went up a hillside and gathered around him the people who were interested in what he was saying and tried to explain to them what he meant. That was the Sermon on the Mount, and our scripture reading for today is the first part of it. The kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God are the same thing. T...

772. All Who Share This Hope

Sermon

Chris Ewing

There's nothing like a week with two funerals, a wedding, Halloween celebrations, a community farewell party, a church tea, and several pastoral crises to make a body realize that none of us is an island. Mind you, just now, I'd kind of like to be an island for about three days! But only for three days. For the truth is, we are profoundly connected with and dependent upon each other ... and on the...

773. The True Nature of Happiness

Sermon

Brett Blair

Some years ago the Raleigh, North Carolina News & Observer published an article entitled: “How Do You Measure Up As A Man? The article stated that some extensive research had been conducted on the 20th century standards for measuring a man. The criteria were quite interesting and I thought that I might list them for the men here this morning just to see how they measure up. 1. His ability to make...

774. Saints Alive!

Sermon

Theodore F. Schneider

This is the day when our vision of the church sweeps the horizons of history and of heaven, all at the same time. We embrace with gratitude uncountable yesterdays. They have been the arenas of faithfulness for God and for his people. In these days God has worked our salvation faithfully and with mercy. In these days generation upon generation of the saints have lived and faithfully served, preserv...

775. Blessed

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

We hear it all the time. We hear it in church, in interviews with sports and movie stars, and we hear it a whole lot around the Fourth of July. “I’ve been blessed.” “We’ve been so blessed.” But what does it mean? What does it mean to be blessed? Usually we associate it with plentitude. It means that we have a lot of something: money, property, talent. Certainly, in that sense things haven’t chan...

Showing 751 to 775 of 4508 results