Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 826 to 850 of 1967 results

826. Coping with Fear, Worry, and Anxiety

Matthew 6:25-34

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

If you do not worry, if you have never worried, if you do not plan to worry, do not read this chapter; it will be a waste of time. But if a dark cloud of worry overshadows your life, read this chapter carefully; the shadow can be dispelled. We live in an age of anxiety. The image is the image of fear - not the image of faith. We respond to the old Scotch litany: "From ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggety beasties. And things that go bump in the night, Good Lord, deliver us!" It seems that we expect the ...

827. In Praise Of Goofing Off

Mark 6:30-44

Sermon

King Duncan

Have you ever noticed that different people have different attitudes about work? I heard about a congregation who had the same pastor for many years. He resigned and they hired a new young pastor with new ideas about church leadership. The first suggestion he made to the church's ruling body was that they hire a part-time person to look after the church lawn. "I'll have you know, parson," said one of the members indignantly, that our former pastor always took care of the church's lawn himself." "I'm aware ...

828. Are You Going Down?

Luke 2:1-14

Sermon

King Duncan

Many years ago there was a serious coal mining accident in the Allegheny mountains. Many miners escaped, but three men were trapped somewhere deep in the earth. No one knew if they were alive or dead. As the hours passed, intense heat and noxious gases built up within the mine itself. Two days passed before a search expedition was allowed to enter the mine. The camera teams from the local news station interviewed the three-man rescue team as they prepared to enter what could be their grave. A reporter ...

829. Once In A Lifetime

Isaiah 6:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

One Wednesday night at Chicago Stadium, during a fan promotion at a Chicago Bulls-Miami Heat basketball game, a 23-year-old fan by the name of Don Calhoun from Bloomington, Illinois, had a once in a lifetime experience. He was pulled from the bleachers to see if he could shoot a 79-foot shot (a shot that was launched from the opposite free throw line, three-quarters of the length of the basketball court). And Calhoun, who was picked from the crowd because he was wearing bright, yellow shoes, hit "nothing ...

830. Hissing in the Garden

Genesis 3:1-24

Sermon

Eric Ritz

Today, I want to pick up and continue the series of sermons I have been sharing from the Book of James. I have preached on the Tongue from James 3:1-12, on Troubles as a part of our faith journey from James 1:3-11, and now I want to share another sermon that begins with the letter "T"--Temptation. One of my colleagues tells the story about a church in Kentucky that demonstrates the ancient but ever present power of evil and temptation. It seems a certain contractor had done some much needed repair work for ...

831. Whose Servant Are You? (Part II)

Philippians 1:1-11

Sermon

Eric Ritz

Did you hear the story, from a month or so ago, about former President George Bush and the question of identity? According to one of the writers for the San Francisco Chronicle, President Bush, in his visit last month to Florida to survey the hurricane damage, evidently decided to get in a little campaigning, too. He visited a local nursing home and approached a little old lady sitting in a corner and asked, "Do you know who I am?" The woman said,"No, but if you go over to the desk, they''re usually able ...

832. Whether You'll Weather the Weather

Luke 6:46-49

Sermon

David J. Kalas

Every so often, toward the end of a hot, still, muggy day here in the Midwest, we'll have a television show interrupted by an alarming beep and a printed message scrolling across the bottom of the screen. It's tornado season, and so the message usually features one of two words from the National Weather Service. It's either a "watch" or it's a "warning." A tornado watch means that the atmospheric conditions are ripe for the development of a funnel cloud. A tornado warning, on the other hand, means that a ...

833. Generic Christianity Is Not Enough

Romans 12:1-8

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

Preaching to you only once a year is not an easy task -- so I spend a great deal of time simply seeking to discern what message God desires to speak through me. In that discernment process -- involving a lot of prayer and reflection -- my memory served me well. The Holy Spirit brought to my mind an experience I had here in Memphis. Since it was an experience worth remembering and since it happened here, I have an idea I shared it with this congregation when it happened. Didn’t I always share the important ...

834. Life in the Living Stone Age

1 Peter 2:4-12

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Canaan Valley, West Virginia is a high mountain valley. It is, in fact, the largest high mountain valley east of the Rockies. The valley nestles in the bottom of a bowl, surrounded by barren, windblown tundra on the tops of the mountains. As you walk across the strangely spongy surface of the mosses and lichens that cling to the earth high up on the mountain ridge, suddenly there rears up a row of teeth in front of you, stone stalagmites pushing up from the earth. Chiseled and chipped by decades of wind ...

835. Honor To Whom Honor Is Due

Exodus 20:12

Sermon

James Merritt

Out of all of the Ten Commandments, only one contains no negative word whatsoever. The fifth commandment is a totally positive commandment. All of the other nine commandments tell us not to do something. This is the only commandment without one negative word. It is also the only commandment that comes with a promise. The first four commandments dealt with our relationship to God. The second six commandments deal with our relationship to others. It is not coincidental that God begins with our relationship ...

836. When the Pressure Is On

John 6:1-14

Sermon

James Merritt

Is there anybody here under pressure? Do you ever feel like you live in a pressure cooker? Did you know that it takes longer to cook food at high altitudes, because at high altitudes the air pressure is much lower than in the lower plains? Because of that the boiling point of water is lower, and therefore it takes much longer to cook food. But in a pressure cooker high pressures are built up within the vessel, which raises the boiling point of water, and food can be cooked within minutes. In fact, the ...

837. What Are You Looking At?

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

One of the most obvious things about the night sky is the moon, especially the full moon. The full moon transforms not only the sky, but the earth, creating a dimmer, second kind of day, casting long shadows, and providing some guidance to those who find themselves outdoors. Certainly, it is one of the things that children first notice about the sky. They can point to the moon, ask what it is, stare at it in wonder. And then, a few days later, the child can wonder - where did it go? The sun, after all, ...

838. When the Service was Interrupted

Mark 1:21-28

Sermon

King Duncan

“I don’t know why I remember the episode so vividly,” writes author King Duncan. “I remember so few instances from my childhood. But this one stands out. I couldn’t have been more than five. We were members of a tiny rural church. Our hymns came from a small paperback hymnal of Gospel songs [the Upper Room hymnal]. “Worship was a bit emotional; the preacher a little loud. There was no formal liturgy. The pews were hard. There was no air conditioning. The windows were open. It was a hot summer morning. A ...

839. Keeping the Main Thing the Main Thing

Luke 9:51-62

Sermon

Arley K. Fadness

They were 5,000 feet in the air in a two-seat Cessna when suddenly the pilot slumped over. It happened not so long ago near Mount Hope, Indiana, to an 81-year-old passenger who was flying to Indianapolis for lunch. When his 52-year-old friend and pilot unexpectedly died, the elder passenger realized he knew nothing about flying and a lot less about landing! In the next twenty minutes you can bet he gave his total attention to the voices on the radio and the instructions given to him. Another pilot nearby ...

840. Supernatural: Running On Empty

John 2:1-11

Sermon

James Merritt

Most of you know I am a huge sports fan and one of my favorite sports is Major League Baseball. There are so many fascinating stories that come out of baseball and I just came across one that I thought was particularly interesting. Probably the greatest knuckle-ball pitcher who ever played the game was Hoyt Wilhelm. He was the first knuckleball pitcher ever elected to the Hall of Fame. What fascinates me about him is how he made his Major League debut as a hitter. On April 23, 1952 in his second game with ...

841. A Reminder to God...and to Us

Genesis 9:1-17

Sermon

King Duncan

Last April a 9-year-old African-American lad named Willie was kidnapped from his driveway in Atlanta, Georgia. After the man grabbed him, Willie explained later, and threw him in the back of his car, Willie just kept “praising God” with a song he learned in Sunday school. It was a song by Hezekiah Walker titled “Every Praise.” While he was singing, Willie said, his kidnapper yelled expletives at him. “He told me, shut up you [blankety-blank] boy,” said Willie. Willie, however, kept singing until his ...

842. Family in the New Kingdom Community

Mark 10:13-16, Mark 10:1-12

Teach the Text

Grant R. Osborne

Big Idea: The emphasis here is on family life in the new kingdom community. Jesus states that the easy-divorce policy advocated by many rabbis was not God’s will, and that divorce was allowed only because of their stubborn sin. He further teaches that children are models for kingdom living; to enter life with God, all must have a childlike faith. Understanding the Text There is both geographical and thematic movement in this section. Geographically, Jesus continues south, moving through Galilee and across ...

843. The Grace Question: “Are You a Teacher…and Yet Do Not Understand These Things?”

John 3:1-21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

There are two actors in this scene of John’s gospel: Jesus and Nicodemus. Nicodemus is not a popular figure in the gospels. He appears only a couple of other times in John’s record. The last picture of him is in John 19. He and Joseph of Arimathea asked for the body of Jesus after He was crucified in order that He might have a decent burial. One of Rembrandt’s most famous etchings portrays that scene. The limp, dead body of Jesus was slowly taken down from the cross. Joseph of Arimathea, dressed as the ...

844. Hallelujah! Come On, Get Happy

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

David G. Rogne

At the entrance to Disneyland is a sign that reads: "Disneyland — the happiest place on earth." Millions of people have come from all over the world to visit and partake of the happiness it was designed to create. Happiness is something that humans seek naturally. We are all on a pleasure hunt. We Americans even wrote the pursuit of happiness into our constitutional rights. Yet the more earnestly we pursue happiness, the more elusive it becomes. June Callwood, in her article "One Sure Way to Happiness" ( ...

845. Jesus Is Coming

Revelation 22:7-21

Understanding Series

Robert W. Wall

The concluding section of early Christian letters often contains the author’s benediction, typically expressed as a prayer or doxology, but often accompanied by many other pastoral conventions as well. In his letters, for example, Paul sometimes closes his correspondence by greeting various acquaintances in a particular congregation (cf. Rom. 16), perhaps to encourage them in their faith (cf. 1 Cor. 16:19–20) or to give them instructions (cf. Col. 4:15–16). In several of his letters, he includes a list of ...

846. Re-Gifted but not Returned

Matthew 3:13-17

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

A few years ago the New York Times city room editor, James Barron, asked readers to recall the worst Christmas gifts they had ever received. I thought I’d share a couple with you. I’d tell you the worst Christmas gift I ever got, but I don’t, to this day, know what it was. It was a secret Santa gift from someone at a company I do consulting work for. I can’t describe it. It was something like a plastic, brown mushroom/toadstool thing, with things glued on it, in a box with clear plastic over it.... I ...

847. The Sign of Jonah

Sermon

Lori Wagner

Story Lectionary: Hebrew Scriptures for Post Resurrection Week Two: The Book of Jonah (you will find a complete image exegesis of the Story of Jonah in Giving Blood by Leonard Sweet. Reading this exegesis first will help in your image exegesis of the post resurrection text for this week regarding Peter known as Simon bar Jonah) The Song of Jonah Psalm 51 Psalm 139 Acts Chapter 10: The Story of Peter’s Conversion of the Gentiles The Gospel of John: Jesus’ Seaside Appearance and the Call of Peter Jesus ...

848. Therefore Go

Matthew 28:16-20

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

If you’ve ever worked as a team, then you know there are certain behaviors and attitudes that increase productivity, and just as many behaviors and attitudes that decrease it too. Good managers, good coaches, good leaders know how to correct unproductive behaviors and improve the performance of their whole team. But what if your aim is to make your team less productive? Some of you might be muttering to yourself, “I’ve worked with folks like that before.” During World War II, the U.S. Office of Strategic ...

849. Being A Good Doubter

John 20:24-31

Sermon

Glenn E. Ludwig

He was a man, like any man, woman or child, who had many sides to him. There really are few, if any, one-dimensional people around. All of us are conglomerates of anger and love, of joy and sadness, of hope and despair, of faith and doubt. And as a member of the human race, he was just like that: a person of many qualities, capable of many feelings, thoughts and expressions. One time, Jesus of Nazareth proposed to go to Bethany in Judea because his long-time friend, Lazarus, had died. A lot of his friends ...

850. Times Of Refreshing

Acts 3:11-26

Sermon

E. Carver McGriff

Our text is part of a sermon preached by Peter following the healing of a crippled man. The witnesses assumed Peter himself had accomplished the healing. Peter, though, was quick to attribute it to Jesus whom God had raised from death. There are a number of ways to explain the ill man's recovery but what's important here is Peter's commentary to the gathered crowd. He first reprimanded them for taking part in the death of Jesus, but hurriedly, he acknowledged that they probably didn't realize the gravity ...

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