Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 801 to 825 of 4490 results

801. Celebrating with Jesus

Luke 5:33-39

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

Someone told me recently about a Methodist man who lived in a traditional Catholic neighborhood. Every Friday the Catholics were driven to distraction because, while they were sadly eating fish, the Methodist was outside grilling steaks. That wonderful aroma from the grill was bothersome to the Catholics. They worked on the Methodist, attempting to convert him. Finally they succeeded. They took the Methodist to the priest who sprinkled Holy Water on the man while saying, "Born a Methodist, raised a ...

802. The Ten Commandments #7: No Adultery

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

David E. Leininger

I remember the first time I ever preached on this text. I was more than a little reluctant...not because I was concerned about the sensitivity of the subject, but rather its relevance. You see, I was serving a congregation at that time that was OLD. I mean REALLY OLD - twenty percent of them were over 80! Did they NEED to hear, "You shall not commit adultery?" But I was in the midst of a series on the Ten Commandments, so I could not comfortably skip this one. I mentioned my concern, and the word that came ...

803. Tragedy and Triumph

Matthew 7:24-29

Sermon

David E. Leininger

I am sure you have been hearing the reports coming from western India these past few days. Horrible earthquake, the worst in that nation in 50 years - 7.9 on the Richter scale, strong enough to be felt 1,200 miles away in Calcutta and Bangladesh, both well acquainted with tragedy themselves. Funeral pyres lit the night sky Saturday and officials said the rapidly rising death toll could reach 15,000.(1) Who knows how many more injured. It is terrible. In the midst of those reports you may have also heard a ...

804. Rise Above It

Hebrews 4:14-5:10

Sermon

King Duncan

Nothing perplexes the sensitive heart more than the problem of human suffering. Studdert-Kennedy used to say that anyone who was undisturbed by the problem of pain was suffering from one of two things: either from a hardening of the heart, or a softening of the brain. He's absolutely right. Is there any purpose to pain? Any advantage to adversity? Any solace in suffering? "Don't be discouraged, Charlie Brown," Schroeder tells him. "These early defeats help to build character for later on in life." "For ...

805. Maximum Marriage

Mark 10:1-12

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

A fifth grade teacher asked the children in her art class to draw pictures of what they want to be when they grow up. Sally drew an astronaut, Sue a doctor, Bruce a missionary. But Karen turned in a blank sheet of paper. "Isn't there something you want to be?" the teacher inquired. The child replied, "I want to be married, but I didn't know how to draw it." Sad, but isn't that true of our society today? Over 95 percent of us will marry at some point in our life. Yet nearly forty percent of us will divorce ...

806. When Jesus Comes

Luke 8:22-25

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

"Jesus walks in church today, Jesus speaks while people pray Touch and hear one bowed in grief Strengthening a weak belief, Healing habits too long King, Showing judgments reckoning, Granting one a new life's start. His garment's hem just brushed my heart. (Quoted by Leonard H. Budd, Jesus Christ My Healer, Church of the Savior, Cleveland, Ohio). Did that take you by surprise? Plunging right in, quoting a poem, every word of which you need to get to get the picture. You who are regular attenders and hear ...

807. Proper 13

Psalm 17:1-15, Romans 9:1-29, Matthew 14:13-21, Genesis 32:22-32

Sermon Aid

Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe

OLD TESTAMENT TEXTS Genesis 32:22-31 is the account of Jacob's fight with God at the Jabbok River, while Psalm 17:1-9, 15 is a psalm of lament that ends with words of confidence. Genesis 32:22-31 - "A Story of Transformation" Setting. An interpretation of Jacob's struggle with God at the Jabbok River requires that we look briefly at the larger context of the Jacob cycle and return to a topic that was introduced in the opening lesson on the Jacob cycle—namely, the power of names in the shaping of the ...

808. Anyone Feeling Tired?

Matthew 11:25-30

Sermon

King Duncan

Our lesson for today contains a verse that many of us need to take to heart. Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Jesus is describing many of us. He knows our situation. Tired. Stressed out. Battling fatigue. Our nerves on edge. We’re like an old Peanuts comic strip. It shows Linus holding on to his familiar blanket. The caption reads, “Only one yard of flannel stands between me and a nervous breakdown.” Some of you know what Linus is talking about. A ...

809. Eight Days until Eternity

Mark 11:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

A little girl came home from worship. It was Palm Sunday. Her father asked what she had learned that day. She told him she learned all about the crowd waving their palm branches and singing a song to Jesus. The father was pleased that she had learned so much. He asked, “What was the song they were singing to Jesus?” The little girl paused, then said, “I think it was ‘O Susanna’.” Palm Sunday is the celebration of that momentous day when crowds of people welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem and the crowds sang, “O ...

810. All Is New in Christ

John 11:4-6, Philippians 3:4-11

Sermon

Richard Gribble

Running as fast as his feet would carry him, Androclus raced into the forest. He hoped he could survive there, finding roots and berries to eat and avoiding all wild animals. He had few other choices; people were always looking for runaway slaves. He wondered, however, how it would be to live in terror of being discovered. Every pine cone that fell onto the mossy surface of the forest made him jump and look around to see if soldiers were in pursuit. He needed shelter. Rain was in the air and it would soon ...

811. Two for the Price of One

Mark 5:21-43

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

No one would accuse me of being a baseball fan. I am a World Series fan. My time investment in the game is compressed into about eight or ten days when the national championship is determined by seven games. I’m always happy when it’s played out to the most dramatic possible end - one team winning four, the other, three. But there are other baseball times when my attention is caught by the drama of some record in the making. Such was my interest in Willie Mays, that phenomenal hitter who caused all America ...

812. Having Or Doing?

Matthew 6:19-24

Children's Sermon

Marti Kramer Suddarth

Object: Card stock printed with scripture reference and verses, with the words, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” underlined Have you ever asked someone who is the age of your grandparents or great-grandparents what life was like when he or she was a child? If you have, then maybe you noticed that the person talked more about the things he did or the people he spent time with than about the things that he had. Many people remember what they do better than what they have (or had), ...

813. The Parable of the Soil

Matthew 13:1-23

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Almost all denominations, or what I call “tribes,” used to be able to boast an extensive farm system for growing the next generation of leaders. The past two decades have seen a gradual dismantling of that farm system. But you can still see features of it. Starting with the cradle roll and ending with the theological seminary, the church built for its future just like sports teams built for their future in a farm system. One of the most important vestiges in the church’s farm system is summer camp. How ...

814. A Table Like No Others

1 Corinthians 11:17-34

Sermon

King Duncan

The earliest recounting of the event we commemorate this evening comes from the Apostle Paul. In 1 Corinthians 11, he writes, “For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, ‘This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.’ In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of ...

815. Supernatural: Taken By Storm

Mark 4:35-41

Sermon

James Merritt

One of the most life changing things you can ever do as a believer is to go on a mission trip. Not only do you get to share Jesus with people who are hungry for the gospel, see lives transformed by the power of Christ, you also get to see and experience a lot of things you wouldn’t otherwise. But, there is only one country in the world that I encourage everyone to visit whose very geographical landscape can change your life and that is the land of Israel. To know that you are walking where Jesus walked, to ...

816. “In Your Heart You Devise Injustice”

Psalm 58:1-11

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

Big Idea: As one thinks in one’s heart, so one does, and that explains many of the tragedies of history. Understanding the Text Psalm 58 is usually identified as a community lament, although Gerstenberger is probably more accurate when he says it is “neither complaint nor thanksgiving nor hymn” but closer to the prophetic invective against the ruling classes.1 Except for the historical note in the title of Psalm 57, the terms of the title of Psalm 58 are the same. Further, the two psalms share the metaphor ...

817. Being Good

Matthew 5:17-20

Sermon

Will Willimon

Let's say that we're all here today because we want to be better people. We are here to be good, to become more righteous. After all, surely this is one of the main functions of religion, the Christian or any other, to make us better than we would have been if we had not gotten up on a cold February morning and gone to Chapel And let's agree that, even if we have not arrived, we are at least on our way toward goodness because we did get up and go to the Chapel, which in no way is meant to detract from ...

818. Divine Divestment

Mark 10:17-27

Sermon

Will Willimon

The Danish philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard, came home after church one Sunday and wrote of his disgust at what happened there. ''In the magnificent cathedral the Honourable and Right Reverend Gehei111e-General Ober-Hof Pradikant, the elect favourite of the fashionable world, appears before an elect company and preaches with emotion upon the text he himself elected: 'God hath elected the base things of the world, and the things that are despised' and nobody laughs."(1) Today I am to preach on Mark 10:17-27. ...

819. You've Got Spirit

Luke 3:15-22 · Acts 8:14-17 · Psalm 29 · Isaiah 61:1-4

Sermon

Will Willimon

"Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit." Let us pray: "O Lord, how can we know Thee: Where can we find Thee? Thou art as close to us as breathing and yet art farther than the furthermost star. Thou art as mysterious as the vast solitudes of the night and yet art as familiar to us as the light of the sun. To the seer of old Thou didst say: Thou canst not see my face, but I will make all My Goodness pass before Thee. Even so does Thy goodness pass before us in the realm of ...

820. The Resurrection

John 20:10-18, John 20:1-9

Drama

Jerry Eckert

This was the first Easter I served as pastor at Emmaus Church in Milwaukee. There were no signs that my dramatized story sermons would work. While there were many wonderful people, there seemed little interest in doing creative things on Sunday mornings. My preaching routine was mostly thematic, occasionally going to the lectionary. My style is conversational but the pulpit was high and to one side in the front. It looked like a battlement hanging out over the slanting floor. There were seldom enough to ...

821. Journey To The Heart Of Christmas

Luke 2:1-7

Drama

Lois Anne DeLong

Characters (in order of appearance) Narrator Miriam Hamid David Aaron Joy Harmony Gloria Mary Joseph Mark Jordana Ruth Faith Props Name tags Lectern Chairs Logs, piled up to simulate a fire Large, fancy bottle Tied-up bundle filled with clothes and a blanket Small notebook Pen/pencil Three pairs of dark sunglasses Dish cloth Apron Blanket Soup pot and two bowls Loaf of bread Telescope Notes “Journey To The Heart Of Christmas” speculates on stories of the youngest witnesses to Christ’s birth. It offers a ...

822. Praying for Endurance and Healing

James 4:13-17, James 5:1-6, James 5:7-12, James 5:13-20

Understanding Series

Peter H. Davids

Throughout the book James has been dealing with the root causes of disharmony within the community. In the previous section, he has dealt with their complaining, their criticizing, and their roots in worldliness (3:1–4:12). Now he turns to another theme, the test of wealth. The poor person is totally dependent and knows it. Although such a person may well be consumed with envy and ambition, Christians are more likely to turn to prayer and humble dependence upon God. The wealthier person, however, may be ...

823. Praying for Endurance and Healing

James 5:1-6, James 4:13-17, James 5:7-12, James 5:13-20

Understanding Series

Peter H. Davids

824. Praying for Endurance and Healing

James 5:7-12, James 4:13-17, James 5:1-6, James 5:13-20

Understanding Series

Peter H. Davids

825. Praying for Endurance and Healing

James 5:13-20, James 4:13-17, James 5:1-6, James 5:7-12

Understanding Series

Peter H. Davids