Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 826 to 850 of 1230 results

826. Buy Low, Sell High

Humor Illustration

A skilled computer programmer applied his training to the problem of investing. He worked for many months writing a program that would analyze stock prices and work out an ideal investment strategy. After a great deal of effort, he got the program de-bugged and running. He fed in the daily prices on the New York Stock Exchange for a full years'' trading. Then he pressed the start button and waited. For a long time the computer sat silently, searching ...

827. A Good Idea

Illustration

Staff

Mahatma Gandhi was asked what he thought about Western civilization. "I think," he replied, "that it would be a very good idea." It is an ideal; isn't it? Something we aspire to and may never attain. And depending on your version, maybe it's something we shouldn't try to attain.

828. Love Each Other (Mother's Day)

John 15:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... . “Well, then I guess we’ll never see each other again,” Dad joked. Nathan quickly answered. “Then I’m riding with Mom.” (2) Smart young fellow. Actually, the situation can be summed up in the words of one mom when she said, “I’d like to be the ideal mother, but I’m too busy raising my kids.” Touché! Our lesson for the day from John’s Gospel is perfect for Mother’s Day because it is about love: “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep ...

829. I Want My Dollar Back!

2 Corinthians 8:1-15

Sermon

King Duncan

... by that rule. The second he calls The Silver rule—“Do to others as they do to you.” In other words, if someone does something good for you, do something for them in return. Some people live by this rule. It is a good rule, but it’s not the ideal. The third we know as The Golden rule which Jesus gave us—“Do to others as you would have them do to you.” This is a major step up from the Iron rule and the Silver rule. In other words, treat other people like you would like to be treated ...

830. God's Picture

John 1:10-18

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... other world religions is that, at its heart, it is not a religion of values and principles and do's-and-don'ts. It is a religion of happenings, of events, of plain historical occurrences. The heart of the gospel is not rules and regulations or even high ideals, but that God came to us in human flesh on a certain day, at a certain place, and in a certain hour; God lived and died among us, and afterward rose again from the dead. It is history. Christianity carries certain facts at its heart, and the greatest ...

831. Mark 7:24-37

Mark 7:24-30

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... pagan, Syrophoenicean female mentioned in the Bible is the infamous Jezebel (1 Kings 16:31-32). With such a dreadful identity is it any wonder that this woman has a child who houses an “unclean spirit.” The woman and her family are ideal poster children for the term “defiled.” As shocking as is this woman’s genealogy and boldness to first century Jewish sensibilities, twenty-first century Christian readers are also shocked by the seemingly callus and insulting response Jesus first makes to her ...

832. You're a Treasure!

Mark 7:24-30

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

833. Don’t Compromise Your Beliefs

Galatians 1:1-10

Sermon

Richard Gribble

... this time by William Howard Taft. Later, in the administration of Woodrow Wilson, he served as Secretary of State. But when the United States entered World War I, Bryan, believing America's participation to be unjust, resigned his post rather than compromise his ideals. Bryan was the champion of many popular causes. He led the fight for the popular election of United States senators, where before it had been conducted by the various state legislatures, was at the forefront of the women's suffrage issue that ...

834. Rally or Rail?

John 18:28-40

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... twenty-first century. Those of us who worship a “king” who never reigned, who was never powerful, who never brought opposing powers to their knees, and who died a dreadful death, crucified on a cross as a common criminal, necessarily have to embrace a different ideal of “kingship.” The idea of “who is on first” is transformed by the redefinition of who is ultimately in charge of your actions, your life, your soul. At some point we all have to make a decision about who or what is in the driver ...

835. All Roads Lead To Bethlehem

Luke 21:5-38

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... home and heart a place for Christ to be born. Will Christ be born in you and yours this season? If you go down the Advent road to Bethlehem, you will find a variety of travelers. Not all of them will be “happy campers.” Not all of them will be ideal companions, or people with whom you would like to share a mile or meal. But they are people who are willing to get on the road and travel the distance from where they are to Bethlehem. That’s why we reach out to them as companions on the journey. But ...

836. A Resume of Righteousness

Genesis 15:1-18

Sermon

David J. Kalas

... the men and women they depict. We have seen so many of our biblical heroes portrayed in art: in glorious stained glass, in noble statues, and in sweet portraits on Sunday school room walls. Those depictions have so often been glorified and idealized. Long before contemporary magazine covers were offering us airbrushed images of celebrities, Michelangelo carved for us a perfect David and a magnificent Moses. The portraits painted by scripture, however, are not so touched-up. While men like Moses and David ...

837. In the Potter's Hands

Jeremiah 18:1-11

Sermon

Chrysanne Timm

... the will of his Father as he takes clay into his hands and places it on the eyes of the blind man, restoring his sight. In everything he does, he reflects God's values of life, wholeness, justice, and compassion. But this broken creation cannot see God's ideal in Jesus — they see only judgment and threat to their way of being. So they kill him, nailing his hands and feet to the tree of a cross. However, God's hands are not tied by humanity's rejection of his Son. Though they believe themselves to be in ...

838. Making Something Out Of Nothing

Haggai 1:15b—2:9

Sermon

R. Kevin Mohr

... dead (Romans 4:10). When the descendants of Abraham and Sarah were in danger of being eliminated by the ancient Egyptians, God led the slaves out of bondage to freedom and nationhood. Later, an insignificant shepherd boy would be anointed king and become the ideal for all the future rulers of God's chosen people. Making something out of nothing — that's how God works. Haggai was certain of it and proclaimed in his message to the people that God was going to do it again. It bears repeating, that shouldn ...

839. Can You Hear the Music?

Luke 18:9-14

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... soon as we identify some people as “others,” the game is over. We have drawn up “us” vs. “them” battle-lines. In this week’s gospel parable the good-living, well-meaning Pharisee and the ne’r-do-well tax collector are set up as ideal types of the “acceptable” vs. the “other.” The contrast could not be sharper. The Pharisee examines himself, and finds no fault with himself. The tax collector lets God examine him, and throws himself on the bar of God's justice (receiving mercy as God ...

840. A Miracle Story

Acts 10:23b-48

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... to God. I have known much about God since childhood; I’ve spent a major part of my life studying living, working at following Jesus. But often, what I was doing was seeing only those parts of Christ’s life and teaching that matched the ideals and values I had chosen or accepted without thought from my family, church, and community. Or as Rousseau put it more epigrammatically, "God created man in his own image. And man, being a gentleman, returned the favor." Whom will you be willing to embrace because ...

841. The Christian's Royal Jelly

1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... their disapproval. No discouraging word meant freedom from a culture of complaint and criticism, and people with a nonjudgmental spirit. No discouraging word meant the opportunity to live day to day doing the best one could without being measured against others and found wanting. Ideally it is in the midst of family where we should most seldom hear a “discouraging word.” But as members of a family, we all know each other’s foibles and flaws all too well. As a family we know exactly where to nit, where ...

842. Will this Be on the Test?

Genesis 2:4-25

Sermon

Tony Everett

... challenges at work and school, in our family and neighborhood, in our nation and world, and even in our congregation. Hopefully, we have learned how to prepare for and to take tests… not in order to simply survive but to really thrive in the process. Ideally, we have learned that passing one test prepares us to pass the next. However, sadly enough, we often repeat the same preparation mistakes. We wind up barely hanging on, scarcely surviving in an “almost but-not-quite” life. The season of Lent is a ...

843. Honk If Something Falls Off

Matthew 5:43-48

Sermon

King Duncan

... followed, I would have no hesitation in placing Jesus first in this book. “But the truth is,” Hart continues, “they are not widely followed. In fact, they are not even generally accepted. Most Christians consider the injunction to ‘Love your enemy’ as at most an ideal which might be realized in some perfect world, but one which is not a reasonable guide to conduct in the actual world we live in. We do not normally practice it, do not expect others to practice it, and do not teach our children to ...

844. Sometimes You Have to Do Something

Matthew 14:22-36

Sermon

King Duncan

... her as a young woman sits at the main entrance of the hospital in honor of her career. As you might expect, Mrs. Van was also a driving force in the life of her church. When he came to know her, Jack Baca was a college student and full of idealism about what the church should be. One day, when he was sharing his ideas about the church with the senior pastor’s wife, the pastor’s wife suggested that he talk with Mrs. Van. So he found Mrs. Van and complained a while to her about all the problems in ...

845. Seventy-Seven

Matthew 18:21-35

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... never easy, never simple. It forces us to look at our own weaknesses while accepting the weaknesses of others. To offer forgiveness instead of lashing out in vengeance takes a new focus of faith that sees Christ’s sacrificial gift of love, not some tribal ideal of dignity, as the reason for our actions and attitudes. Jesus’ teaching in this week’s gospel text delivers us from being forever weary and wary. From being forever weary in keeping an eye out for those who seek to “settle some score” with ...

846. An Announcement from a Stable

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

King Duncan

An elementary teacher and her class were studying Christmas customs from around the world. It was an ideal opportunity, she explains, to share the Christmas story. She shared with her class how Mary and Joseph had gone to Bethlehem to pay taxes. It was time for the baby Jesus to be born and they needed somewhere to spend the night. She told her students that when Mary and ...

847. Come Home

Matthew 25:14-30

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... the sandhill cranes “come home” every year, for example, they show their joy by dancing and singing and celebrating. They truly “enter the joy” of coming home. We all need to come “home,” not to a “Hallmark” home that never existed but to a Jesus ideal of home as anyplace where the Father is, anyplace and anywhere we are serving God with the talents we have been given, investing them in God’s mission in the world. In other words, “home” may be a place of discomfort as well as comfort ...

848. Full Immersion

Acts 19:1-22

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... in Jesus’ name but yet were not true disciples. There were converts who still did magic and flirted with pagan rituals. There were Christian followers of the Greek goddess Artemis, who participated in erotica even though claiming to subscribe to Christian ideals and doctrines. Paul recognizes the problem, and immediately asks the key question: “Did you receive the Holy Spirit?” When they reply, incredibly from our end, incredulously from their end, “No, we have not even heard of the Holy Spirit ...

849. Peacemaker

Luke 2:8-20

Sermon

James Merritt

... Object.” Maybe it was an actual blanket or a stuffed animal, but we held on to something that made us feel safe and secure. Psychologists tell us that comfort objects like this are important because they bring children peace of mind even if their home environment is not ideal. It gives them a sense of peace that they are safe, all is well, and that things are going to be okay. As I look at all of the uncertainty and unrest in our world I think most of all us could use one big security blanket. Everywhere ...

850. Poem: In Memoriam

Eulogy

Alfred Lord Tennyson

... are only words, and moved Upon the topmost froth of thought. ‘Yet blame not thou thy plaintive song,’ The Spirit of true love replied; `Thou canst not move me from thy side, Nor human frailty do me wrong. ‘What keeps a spirit wholly true To that ideal which he bears? What record? not the sinless years That breathed beneath the Syrian blue: ‘So fret not, like an idle girl, That life is dash’d with flecks of sin. Abide: thy wealth is gather’d in, When Time hath sunder’d shell from pearl.’ LIII ...

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