Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1101 to 1125 of 4508 results

Children's Sermon

Object: an old Lenten coin folder (or a covered small milk carton with a slot in it) Lesson: And your Father, who sees what you do in private, will reward you. (v. 4b, TEV) Good morning, boys and girls. Today is a special day in the church year called Ash Wednesday. In the Old Testament back in Bible times, when people had done something very wrong and they were very sorry for what they had done...

1102. Don't Blow Your Own Horn

Children's Sermon

Robert B. Lantz

Object: Toy trumpets or trumpet stickers Lesson: When you give, do not announce it with trumpets. Good morning, boys and girls. Do you know what a braggart is? (Response -- Allow some free expression here.) I suppose we have all known someone at some time who spent too much time telling us all about his or her accomplishments, haven't we? Maybe we can even remember a time or two when we bragged ...

1103. For the Glow of It

Sermon

David & Marian Plant

Our Ash Wednesday service is full of rich symbols. With the Imposition of Ashes and the Sacrament of Holy Communion, we are reminded that our faith, our church, and our worship life, has much outward symbolism. The scripture for our time together this Ash Wednesday is one of those passages that seems to go against the very fabric of our tradition as we understand it. We might be tempted at first ...

1104. The Hard Sell

Sermon

Donald Charles Lacy

Our blessed Lord presses the issue. Do you or do you not want to be my disciple? If you do not, then it is with great sadness that your Savior must move on with those who are willing to fully commit themselves. In our lives, each and every one of us receives Christ’s invitation of discipline and abandonment of the world. No longer are we getting acquainted. We are being asked to come into a relat...

1105. The Right Reason

Sermon

David O. Bales

Two mornings a week I drive from Ontario, Oregon, to Caldwell, Idaho, to teach at College of Idaho. When gas prices shot up I got into the habit of driving slowly and increasing my miles per gallon. Driving slowly isn’t a hazard while in the country between the two towns. However, when I draw near Caldwell, the signs reduce speed to 65. There, in order to stay up with the larger flow of traffic, I...

1106. The Truth, The Whole Truth, And Nothing But The Truth

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Several years ago there was a huge literary uproar over A Million Little Pieces (New York: Anchor Books, 2004), the so-called "memoir" by writer James Frey concerning his supposed criminal career and bizarre misadventures. With a push from Oprah Winfrey (who has become an incredibly powerful force in American book publishing with her Oprah's Book Club), the book sold more than three and a half mil...

1107. Dust in the Wind

Sermon

Timothy Cargal

Sometimes a song gets so deep inside your head that it can never be uprooted. Maybe it is the melody or the mood evoked by its musical qualities. Maybe it is the themes and ideas that find expression in its lyrics. If it happens to be both the music and the lyrics perfectly matched to each other, then the effect is particularly strong. Such songs have the ability to become a recurring soundtrack t...

1108. The Call of the Trumpet

Sermon

George Bass

"Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a fast ..." (Joel 2:15) As they do on Easter morning to announce the resurrection of Jesus Christ, a few trumpets blow at the beginning of Lent to call the people of God together for the annual forty-day fast. Lent is that peculiar period of the year when those who are most dedicated to the faith observe the rigors - public and private - associated with this sa...

1109. Heaven's Applause

Sermon

Robert Noblett

Some words fall into the mud puddle, are never cleaned off, and become permanently tarnished by the mud that was never removed. Piety is such a word. Think about the way you have heard it used. Usually it has a pejorative taint to it. Bishop Spong of the Episcopal Church has certainly caught religious people's attention. The bishop was interviewed recently and spoke of how he didn't much like rel...

1110. A Thousand Years Of Ashes

Sermon

King Duncan

When Pastor Derek Rust of Lakeville, Minnesota, preached a sermon series on the Ten Commandments, he decided to provide his congregation with a pro-active way to live out the lessons. For the eighth commandment—“Thou shalt not steal”—Rust placed large bins throughout the church and encouraged parishioners to drop off any items that they had stolen over the years. Rust was inspired by the example o...

1111. Beware: Hypocrites on Premises

Sermon

David T. Ball

Whenever I happen to be in a conversation with someone about why they don't go to church, it seems like the reason that they almost always give is that they can't stand all the hypocrites. I don't take this personally -- they aren't saying that all churchgoers are hypocrites -- just that there are usually too many hypocrites for their liking. I guess their reaction is understandable. Who would wa...

1112. Don’t Be a Hypocrite

Sermon

James Merritt

There are very few people who never, ever get angry about anything. Even if you are the most mild mannered of mild mannered people, you have a hot-button that if someone just knows where it is and knows how to push it, they can really make your blood boil. What one thing makes you the angriest? Maybe, it is when somebody cuts you off on the freeway. Maybe, it is when your brother or sister borrow...

1113. Where a Cross Should Be Worn

Sermon

King Duncan

The Rev. Timothy J. Kennedy tells a wonderful true story that is perfect for Ash Wednesday. It was told to him by a colleague, Pastor Chris Mietlowski. It concerned a baptism that Mietlowski once performed on an infant named Eric. Mietlowski took Eric in his arms and traced the cross of Christ on Eric’s forehead using a special anointing oil. Following worship, Eric’s family celebrated with a big...

1114. For His Eyes Only

Sermon

James Merritt

If you have ever gone for a job interview, one of the questions that you will be asked is something like this: "Tell me what you have done in the past that would qualify you for this job?" Or, they may ask you something like this: "What character qualities do you have that would make me want to hire you?" But if you will think back to any job interview you have ever had you were never asked this ...

1115. Building Our Foundation on God

Sermon

Richard Gribble

"I'd sell my soul to play for the Washington Senators." Joe Hardy, the protagonist in the popular Broadway musical, Damn Yankees, says these words in a fit of frustration. Joe is what we call today an average middle-aged couch potato. He sits in front of his television and watches baseball and most of the time his beloved team, the Senators, are defeated by "those damn New York Yankees." Joe alway...

1116. Clearing Out the Pipes

Sermon

John Smylie

Ash Wednesday, which begins the season of Lent, is a time when we have an opportunity to squarely face our humanness. It begins a season where we have an invitation to be honest with God, with ourselves, and with one another. The season of Lent, which begins this Ash Wednesday, offers us a forty-day time period modeled after our Lord's forty days in the wilderness. Some of us may not feel the need...

1117. Voluntary Blindness

Sermon

Herchel H. Sheets

"Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing." That sounds impossible, doesn’t it? Wholeness was a major emphasis of Jesus’ message, was it not? Is he here asking us to become split personalities? No, with purposeful exaggeration he is simply emphasizing that "theatrical virtue does not count in the Kingdom of God,"1 and that we, therefore, should pay little attention to our good ...

1118. Hypocrites

Sermon

King Duncan

Sometimes I almost feel sorry for hypocrites. Don’t you? Everybody hates a hypocrite. Isn’t that right? We may be able to tolerate diverse groups of people in our society, but one group that does not get compassion is the group made up of people who publicly stand for one thing and do something else. We might be able to stomach a politician who allegedly solicits gay sex, but not when he’s one of...

1119. Let the Journey Begin

Sermon

Dean Lueking

Another Lenten journey begins this Ash Wednesday. A Tradition to Cherish I say, another, because for many the keeping of Lent is a treasured tradition, and these mid-week hours set aside for worship and prayer are a blessing year after year. We journey toward Easter. The purpose of these forty days of spiritual preparation is to hail again the decisive deed of God for the redemption of the worl...

1120. Advertised Goodness

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

Children and adults, listen as I tell you the legend of the proud frog. This frog wanted to visit his cousins in a pond several miles away, but that's a long journey for a slow moving frog. But in the pond where he resided, there were some Canadian geese. The observant frog noted how much they liked corn. This enterprising frog found a flat, strong stick about four feet long. He approached the gee...

1121. Playing to the Right Audience

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

It was an incredible military breakthrough. Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Commander Joe Rochefort broke the Japanese codes. From an intelligence base on Oahu, he predicted an attack on Midway Island for June 3, 1942. Because of Rochefort's skill, the United States surprised the Japanese Navy with its first defeat in 350 years. Four carriers were lost, one cruiser, 2500 men, 322 aircraft, a...

1122. Two-and-a-Half Cheers For Hypocrites

Sermon

Thomas Long

It is difficult to find anyone who has a kind word to say about hypocrites. Nobody likes a hypocrite; no one wants to be around one; the last thing one would want to be called is a hypocrite. Hypocrites are, by definition, deceptive, two-faced and treacherous. If discovered, hypocritical politicians are defeated at the polls, hypocritical friends get dropped and hypocritical preachers lose the tru...

1123. The Ash Account

Sermon

Charles M. Mills

Lent is a season of reflection. It comes from an Old English word meaning "a lengthening." As the days of spring become longer, nature sings a song of renewed life, energy and growth. The emerald tinted leaves, the gentle wafting breezes, the richer blue azure of the sky all harmonize their beauty in spring's eternal symphony of life. During Lent we Christians are called upon to reflect together ...

1124. The Pitfalls Of Practicing Piety

Sermon

John M. Braaten

I have never liked the word "beware." It always seems to be written in intimidating block letters which suggest life-threatening consequences. The word brings to mind an experience I had as a 12-year-old paperboy. Entering a customer's yard I encountered a collie which, without provocation, charged me with fangs bared, knocking off my glasses and hurling me to the ground. I still remember its mois...

1125. Public Piety

Sermon

David E. Leininger

"Beware of practicing your piety before others..." Hmm. Sort of flies in the face of what we do with these ashes here this evening. Come to think of it, is there any other ritual that we use that is so public an expression of our faith? As is my habit, I was watching the opening of the stock market this morning and I noticed traders on the floor of the Exchange with black smudges on their forehead...

Showing 1101 to 1125 of 4508 results