Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1101 to 1125 of 1533 results

1 Corinthians 7:1-40

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

ALAN RODDA, currently president of Ridgewood Holding Company in San Jose, California, is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist who at the time of delivering No Fifth Wheels in God’s Economy was Senior Pastor of the First Church of the Nazarene in Portland, Oregon. His particular tradition is quite explicit in affirming the Bible as the revelation of the divine word and affords the pastor great authority and responsibility as the interpreter of that word. Rodda speaks within this context to his normal Sunday ...

1102. Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand

John 6:1-15

Sermon

Brett Blair

Lance Armstrong. Going for his eighth Tour de France. His heart is nearly one-third larger than that of the average man. At resting, it beats an average of 32 times per minute, during peak performance, 200. He burns up about 6,500 calories every day for three weeks while in the race. One of the stages of the race is 120 miles long-that day he will burn 10,000 calories. You and I burn 3,500 and that’s on a good day. His lungs can take in twice the oxygen. His body fat level is 4 percent. Yours is 16. He has ...

1103. Respect

1 Corinthians 12:12-31

Sermon

Harold Warlick

Roland and Elizabeth were unusual guests at the complimentary “high tea” being held late in the afternoon in the four-star, luxury inn on Hilton Head Island. For one thing, Roland and Elizabeth were not guests of the hotel. They lived about twenty minutes away from the inn. Their home was in the wealthiest neighborhood on that island of very wealthy residents. In fact, Michael Jordan, the basketball legend, had lived next door to them. But Michael had stopped visiting the home after his father died. Roland ...

1104. Oh, How The Mighty Have Fallen

Luke 1:39-45, Luke 1:46-56

Sermon

Brett Blair

I am holding in my hands a copy of one of the world’s most revolutionary documents. In it are found these immortal words: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. . .” Of course, that document, the Declaration of Independence, is the charter of the American Revolution. Though we have not yet lived up to it, it has been the vision that inspires us. The only document I know that is more revolutionary is in our Bible. It is called the Magnificat and is found in Luke, chapter 1 ...

1105. If You Build It

Haggai 1:1-15

Drama

Dave Marsh

Director's Notes: I was recently asked by a good brother in Montana to write a drama that took a concept from the book of Haggai that our own lives and bodies are God's house and what are we doing to build it? After a couple of emails, we decided that I should take a drama that I had already written (If you build it...) and alter it to fit his needs. This is a good example of things that you can do with the dramas on this site. Look for similar themes and change around the situation a bit to suit your ...

1106. The Apostles' Creed: Maker of Heaven and Earth

Genesis 1:1-2:3

Sermon

David E. Leininger

"I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth..." No surprise. Most church folks would have little difficulty acknowledging God as creator of all that is. There may be some disagreement on HOW creation took place - some want to say it happened in six 24-hour days, others want to say the "days" of which we read in the Genesis account should be understood as meaning thousands or even millions of years, still others say it was the "Big Bang." More about that in due course, but, for the ...

1107. God's Not Done With Us Yet!

Genesis 17:1-27

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Abraham. Everybody knows old Abe. I doubt that any individual in history is more widely recognized and revered. Abraham is patriarch to history's three great monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In the Bible, of all the incredible people of faith we find there, the only one called the "friend of God" is Abraham. You learned great stories about Abraham from your earliest days in Sunday School. You met him as ABRAM - the name would be changed to Abraham later. You heard about God calling ...

1108. The Prod of the Past

Exodus 12:1-30

Sermon

David E. Leininger

"You shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance." or as the King James has it, "You shall observe it as an ordinance forever." The establishment of the Passover, one of the most important of all Jewish festivals. And they HAVE observed it forever. Every year since, and down to our own day, Jewish families have gathered at the traditional Seder meal. The patriarch of the household asks the children, "What makes this night different than all other nights?" The youngsters respond with the Exodus story of God's ...

1109. Good Medicine

Proverbs 10:1-32

Sermon

David E. Leininger

"A cheerful heart is a good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones." Amen? Amen! A really stupid old joke. Three fellows have just died and are at the pearly gates. St. Peter tells them that they can enter if they can answer one simple question: "What is Easter?" The first man replies, "Oh, that's easy, it's the holiday in November when everyone gets together, eats turkey, and is thankful..." "WRONG," replies St. Peter, and proceeds to ask the second man the same question, "What is Easter?" The ...

1110. Hang in There!

Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon

David E. Leininger

What do you think of that story? Not much, I suspect. For those of us who are followers of Jesus Christ, this might make us wonder what we have done. After all, at first blush, this lesson makes the Lord sound like something of a jerk. My first reaction is to want to "rescue" Jesus, find some way of explaining away this conversation that will put him in a bit more flattering light. The commentators are all over the lot on this one. Some have said that Jesus was just having a bad day - he and the twelve had ...

1111. "A Friend Indeed"

Mark 10:17-31

Sermon

David E. Leininger

"A friend in need is a friend indeed." Familiar old aphorism. Do you believe it? Do you UNDERSTAND IT? For a long time, I did not - it is not the clearest. I wondered why in the world someone who is in need should be considered a genuine friend. Instead I rather agreed with whichever wag adjusted the saying to "A friend in need is a PEST!" Finally I realized that the original version meant that a friend to YOU when YOU are in need is a friend indeed. AHA! THAT I believe. Of course, the gospel expects ...

1112. Sonny Moneybags

Luke 15:11-32

Sermon

David E. Leininger

As most of you know, I am a golfer. I use the term loosely because I do not play very well and I do not get to play very often any more, but I still consider myself a golfer. There is an old expression in the game that says, "Every shot makes somebody happy," which means if you hit a good one, you are happy. If you hit a lousy one, your opponent is happy. Whoever came up with that line was not quite as charitable to the gentle folk who play the game as he or she might have been, but the point is well taken ...

1113. Pentecostal Power

Acts 2:1-21

Sermon

King Duncan

Eugene Barron, Littleton, Colorado tells of driving down a two-lane highway where someone had thrown garbage onto the road. Most of it had been scattered off the road except one plastic cup. This cup was positioned right in the middle of road. In fact, it was in the center of the two yellow lines. The road was straight enough that Barron noticed the cup long before he got to it. Every time a car passed by the cup, it would simply roll to the opposite side without moving from the center. When another car ...

1114. Merry XMas

John 1:1-18

Sermon

David E. Leininger

This is a glorious time of year. I am looking forward to the cantata next week, the candlelight communion service on Christmas Eve, and of course, the Joy Gift Pageant tonight. One never knows what to expect at Christmas pageants. I read recently(1) of a heated discussion between some pleading grown-ups and a particularly adamant five-year-old. She would wear her new dress or she would not appear in the pageant. First, the Director begged her, "Please put on the costume. The people want to see you as MARY ...

1115. Sons And Daughters Of God

Galatians 3:23-29

Sermon

King Duncan

James W. Moore in his book, SOME THINGS ARE TOO GOOD NOT TO BE TRUE, tells the story of Rapunzel from Grimm's fairy tales. Do you recall that ancient story? I'll bet some of our children do. A beautiful girl named Rapunzel lives with a wicked witch in a drab and dingy tower. The old witch is holding Rapunzel captive, and to keep the girl "in her place," the wicked witch does two things. First, she removes all the mirrors from the tower, so Rapunzel cannot see what she looks like. And then the old witch ...

1116. When You Are Anxious About Many Things

Luke 10:38-42

Sermon

King Duncan

Have you ever noticed how people differ? Some people can focus on only one thing at a time. Others are not happy unless they have several projects going at the same time. Then there are some people who are so focused it's scary. I chuckled when I read Lawrence A. Keating's description of something that happened during the 1946 Oklahoma-Army football game. Oklahoma coach Jim Tatum paced the sidelines frantically as the Army team took a 21-7 lead over his Sooners. Nearby sat punter Charlie Sarratt, his ...

1117. Hope For Those Whom Life Has Cheated

Luke 18:1-8

Sermon

King Duncan

According to Victor Borge, the composer Bizet was the original hard-luck man. He stayed up nights to finish an opera by the deadline, only to find out afterwards that the production had been postponed for a year. He wrote a symphony and misplaced the manuscript before anybody could play it. He entered a composing contest with only one other entrant, and ended up with second prize. Once he went to visit his girl friend and tapped on her window at the precise moment her mother was emptying a chamberpot from ...

1118. Are You Successful Or Do You Just Have Money?

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

Bill was a writer, a really good writer. As a matter of fact, the whole country knew his name ” although they did not know him as "Bill." Editors competed to get Bill's stories. He was not one of those struggling young writers who couldn't get a break. In fact, editors paid top dollar competing for Bill's work. Bill seemed to have it made. He had money, he had fame, and he was superb at what he did. One more thing. Bill's stories usually had a bit of mystery about them. He was famous for the little twist ...

1119. We Know Where You Came From

John 6:41-51

Sermon

King Duncan

Have you ever noticed that it is very difficult to escape your reputation? Once people have an image of you in their minds, it is very difficult to change their perception. Back in the 1940s, a highly popular advertising jingle for Chiquita Bananas ended with the line: "Bananas like the climate of the very, very tropical equator, so you should never put bananas in the refrigerator. No. No. No. No." We're told that the only reason the word REFRIGERATOR was mentioned in the jingle was that it rhymed with ...

1120. Light For Our Lives

John 1:1-18

Sermon

King Duncan

Dr. Maxwell Maltz has gained quite notable fame through his popular self-help book entitled "Psycho-Cybernetics." The theory of psycho-cybernetics is based on Dr. Maltz's work as a plastic surgeon. Listen as he describes how he became interested in the human personality: "One day many years ago a woman in her mid-twenties came to my offices. She had a deep indented scar on her left cheek, a constant reminder of an automobile accident she'd been in. She looked unhappy, with herself and her life." "'Who ...

1121. The God Of Peace

Philippians 4:2-9

Sermon

King Duncan

The NEW YORK TIMES one Christmas carried a picture of a priest walking through a metal detector manned by Israeli troops on the occupied West Bank. As soldiers looked on, the elderly priest, cane in hand, walked solemnly through the security device. As paradoxical as this picture is, one is inclined to say that some things never change. The imagination would say that this is perhaps something like it was on the first Christmas morn. The caption for the TIMES picture read like this: "In Bethlehem, Christmas ...

1122. Walk Wisely

Ephesians 4:17--5:21

Sermon

King Duncan

It was a beautiful summer day and Clarence was enjoying a row in the boat with his lovely girlfriend, anticipating the picnic they would have when they got to the island in the center of the lake. These were days when young men and young ladies wore more than shorts and tshirts when out in public. Clarence had donned a spiffy suit with a high collar, and his female companion had on a long dress with billowing petticoats underneath. Clarence masculinely pulled on the wooden oars as his date sat cooly under ...

1123. Lighting The World

John 1:1-18

Sermon

King Duncan

Nancy Hill, in her book, Actual Factuals, tells an interesting story about a man who profited greatly because of a Christmas card. Clinton Odell heard of a chemist who had become ill and moved to Arizona for his health. The year was 1924. It was Christmastime, so Clinton sent the chemist $25 and an encouraging note. A year later, the chemist, Carl Noren, appeared at the Odell house saying, "I'm here and I'm well, and what can I do for you?" Clinton had an idea he wanted Carl to work on. He felt there was a ...

1124. What In The World Are We Doing Here?

Micah 6:1-8

Sermon

King Duncan

The story is told about a concert held in Philadelphia, PA. One of the pieces played by the orchestra featured a flute solo. This solo was to be played offstage so that it would sound as if coming from a great distance. The conductor had instructed the flutist to count the measures precisely in order to come in at the exact time. After all, with the flutist offstage, there could be no visual contact between the two of them. On the night of the performance, when the time came for the flute solo, the flutist ...

1125. Belonging To The Right Family

1 Peter 2:4-12

Sermon

King Duncan

No one deserves a special day all to herself more than today's Mom. A cartoon showed a psychologist talking to his patient: "Let's see," he said, "You spend 50 percent of your energy on your job, 50 percent on your husband and 50 percent on your children. I think I see your problem." Some of you can identify with that. I like the story about the fouryearold and the sixyearold who presented their Mom with a house plant. They had used their own money and she was thrilled. The older of them said with a sad ...

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