Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 1126 to 1150 of 2561 results

1126. Christ Our High Priest

John 18:28-40, Isaiah 52:13--53:12

Sermon

Good Friday is a day of conversion. It is a day that focuses on the stark symbol of the cross, upon which our Lord sealed the New Covenant in the shedding of his blood. Just what was accomplished on the cross? The answer to that question is summarized in one word: Atonement. Atonement means a reconciliation of two parties. You can remember this by breaking down the word by syllables: atone-ment. The sacrifice of Jesus on the cross achieves an at-one-ment of humankind with God. How did this happen? Down ...

1127. This God’s For Real!

Matthew 16:13-20

Sermon

Is there a God? Can you be sure of it? Couldn’t we just put the whole idea of God into mothballs? Haven’t most people by now? If there is God, he hasn’t shown his face enough to keep us thinking of him, has he? Wouldn’t - shouldn’t - he keep a high profile if he wanted us to know he is for real? In spite of the fact that secularity seems to be taking over in America the way it did some years ago in Europe, surveys still turn up the same conclusions: People by an overwhelming number, even in the high- ...

1128. Does God Give A Damn?

Exodus 5:22--6:12

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

"Moreover I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold in bondage and I have remembered my covenant. Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment, and I will take you for my people, and I will be your God.’ " When someone does not care, bitterly we say in the vernacular, "He does not ...

1129. The Forgiven and the Forgiving

Matthew 18:21-35

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

The miracle of Christ is that strange power that enables me to know that I have been forgiven and, therefore, by grace to possess in my own life the strange and wonderful capability of forgiving others. We want justice. No, we don’t! We want mercy. I have done things in my life that I cannot now straighten out. I need mercy. I need forgiveness. I am caught. There is no hope. I have done so much that I cannot un-do. Woe is me. I’ve had it! I can love, and care, and maybe God will love and care for me, so ...

1130. A LITURGICAL DRAMA FOR LENT

Drama

Tom Eberle

Lent In its historical development, Lent was an outgrowth of the fasting prior to the annual observance of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. In addition, those who were to be baptized into the Christian faith on Easter Sunday underwent a period of disciplined training before their baptism. With the ascendancy of the Christian Church in major areas of the Roman Empire during the fourth century, a new problem was encountered. Discipline was no longer imposed upon the church from the outside in the ...

1131. Shoestrings and God

Matthew 5:21-26

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

Object: A broken shoestring. Good morning, boys and girls. Have you ever had to be somewhere in such a hurry that when you were tying your shoestring it broke? I have seen children and grownups break their shoestrings and become very angry when they had to take the time to fix them. Some children I know just try to forget that they have broken the shoestring and go off running or walking with the broken shoestring. The first thing that you know they have a sore foot where their shoes have rubbed them in ...

1132. Moving Fences

2 Corinthians 5:16-19

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

During World War II a Protestant chaplain with the American troops in Italy became a friend of a local Roman Catholic priest. In time, the chaplain moved on with his unit and was killed in combat. The priest heard of his death, and knowing that the chaplain had no close family back in the States, he asked the military authorities if the chaplain could be buried in the cemetery behind his church. Permission was granted. But the priest ran into a problem with his own church authorities. They were sympathetic ...

1133. Christ Shall Return

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

One of you told me recently about a pastor who one day visited a dear elderly member of the church. He decided to check on her salvation. He said, "Aunt Susie, do you believe in the hereafter?" She replied, "All the time, preacher, all the time. I go to the kitchen and think to myself, 'Now, what am I here after?" That little story reminds us all that we have to specify what kind of hereafter we're talking about. This morning I'm talking about the long-term future of our world. I'm not referring to where ...

1134. Samson, the Bully

Judges 16:1-22

Sermon

Don Yocom

"And he knew not the Lord had left him." The Old Testament story of Samson is a profile of a man who was a prankster, an arsonist and a bully, a strong man who did not know his strength, all rolled into one human being. He was emotionally immature and morally unsound. Yet his life indicates something to us worth noting. His name is legion today, if we count the multitudes who have never grown up spiritually, and who have little contact with God but may not even be aware of it. In addition to what we have ...

1135. Behold Your God

Isaiah 40:1-31

Sermon

Michael J. Anton

People without a country. Fathers and mothers trying to hold their frustrated families together by telling and re-telling the ancient stories of the good old days in far-off Jerusalem, now lying in ruins, the smoke of her ashes still twisting to the sky. People trying to eke out the best existence possible under the thumb of their Babylonian overlords. Those are the people to whom these glorious and triumphant words of Isaiah were first shouted. If you were ever a prisoner of war, or if you were ever ...

1136. Running a Marathon

Hebrews 12:1-13

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

Almost 20,000 runners competed in the 1986 New York Marathon. I don't know who won, but I do know who finished last. His name is Bob Wieland. While the winner completed the race in just over 2 hours, Bob Wieland finished in four days, two hours, forty-eight minutes, and seventeen seconds. Why is that remarkable? Because Bob ran with his arms. Seventeen years earlier while serving in Vietnam, Bob's legs were blown off in battle. So, when Bob competes, he sits on a 15 pound saddle, covers his fists with pads ...

1137. Reviving Our Moral Responsibility

2 Chronicles 36:15-23

Sermon

Donald Macleod

Some years ago I spent several weeks during the summer indexing and classifying the Scripture texts in all the volumes of published sermons on my study shelves. Many interesting trends and preferences emerged from this tabulation; for example, among some 4,000 printed sermons only two preachers had ever done a sermon from the Book of Chronicles. And little wonder, someone might very well say. Here is an Old Testament book which in 65 chapters attempts an accounting of a confused and confusing mishmash of ...

1138. The Scandal Of Redeeming Love

Hosea 2:2-23

Sermon

Frederick C. Edwards

It seems that we have developed a tabloid mentality. That is to say, we seem to have developed an overzealous fascination for information about the private lives of public people. The real or supposed exploits of actors and actresses, politicians, entertainers, athletes or business moguls appear in lurid headlines on papers and magazines that are more interested in sensation than news. Photographers stalk the rich or famous to catch an image of an unguarded moment. Fact blended with fiction becomes the ...

1139. Goodness Is Not Good Enough

Mark 10:17-31

Sermon

James W. Robinson

There is something rather appealing in the way the rich young man intercepted Jesus as he journeyed to Jerusalem. He greeted the Master with the enthusiasm of a child throwing himself into the outstretched arms of a father returning home after a long day at work. And, like a child, the words came tumbling out of his mouth. "Good Teacher," he exclaimed, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" In his sincerity, the young man knelt when he asked the question. Jesus was greatly impressed by the young man’s ...

1140. Blessed With Peace

John 14:15-31

Sermon

O. Garfield Beckstrand, II

This week two thoughts were foremost in my mind. One thought was quite normal for a preacher as well as a basic necessity. What shall I emphasize Sunday morning when I am using for my text the words of Jesus which he spoke on his last night upon earth to his disciples? "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you ..." The other thought was quite different. I remembered that 31 years ago last Wednesday I was ordained into the ministry at the fiftieth anniversary of Trinity Church. After my father gave ...

1141. The Man Who Asked For Dinner

Luke 24:36-49

Sermon

George Bass

If they had been conducting a seance, they might have been ready for Jesus’ appearance in that secret and secured room. If they had been sitting around a table, hands joined together as one of them (perhaps Peter) mouthed incantations: "Speak to us, Lord! Come to us as you promised that you would," they wouldn’t have been scared out of their wits. But all of a sudden, there he was, standing right among them. No wonder they thought he was a ghost. That was just about the only way that he could come back to ...

1142. On the Night when He Was Betrayed

1 Corinthians 11:17-34

Sermon

T. A. Kantonen

There is a unique beauty and tenderness about the hour of sunset. The sun impresses its memory upon a darkening world by tinting the western sky with its most original and harmonious colors. The last hour of the day is its most beautiful and memorable. So it is in human relations. The tender beauty of sunset glows from the hour of farewell. We say goodbye to those who are not so intimate but reserve the last precious moments to those nearest our hearts. And after all else is forgotten we remember the ...

1143. Letting Go

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

RICHARD A. GOODLING is an ordained United Church of Christ minister whose Ph.D. is in clinical psychology. In addition to being Professor of Pastoral Psychology at the Divinity School at Duke University, he is the Director and a Staff Counselor with the Pastoral Care and Counseling Institute of Durham-Chapel Hill, Inc. His sermon Letting Go was preached at a chapel service in the divinity school. In it he speaks pastorally and artistically of the necessity of surrendering our cherished and familiar ways of ...

1144. Bringing the Gospel to Marriage

Genesis 1:1-2:3

Sermon

Gregory J. Johanson

MARCUS D. BRYANT is an ordained minister who served in a number of Christian Church congregations and on the faculty of Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, before accepting his present position at Texas Christian University. There he is Professor of Pastoral Psychology and Pastoral Care at Brite Divinity School and a supervisor and consultant both at the Pastoral Care Center at Brite and the Azie Pastoral Counseling Center. His sermon published here was delivered at a seminary chapel service. In Bringing ...

1145. There Is Hope (A Christmas Communion Meditation)

Luke 1:67-80

Sermon

Brett Blair

The birth of John the Baptist puts a different spin on the birth of Jesus. We get to see the birth and life of Jesus through the eyes of relatives who were going through the same odd happenings that had surrounded Mary and Joseph. Zechariah and Elizabeth are the proud parent's of John, who would later be called The Baptist, new parents who are allowed to see into the future and understand that there was hope, a great hope coming to the world. Zechariah’s song reminds us that the backdrop of all this hope ...

1146. The Irresistible Influence Of The Holy Spirit

Acts 2:1-41

Illustration

James W. Moore

The Holy Spirit warms us and melts our cold, cold hearts. The following parable makes the point: Once upon a time there was a piece of iron, which was very strong and very hard. Many attempts had been made to break it, but all had failed. “I’ll master it,” said the axe… and his blows fell heavily upon the piece of iron, but every blow only made the axe’s edge more blunt, until it finally ceased to strike and gave up in frustration. “Leave it to me,” said the saw… and it worked back and forth on the iron’s ...

1147. The Grief Grinch

John 11:17-37

Sermon

David E. Leininger

We are approaching an exciting time of the year - Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's. Times of celebration. Times for friends and family. Times of joy. And for some, times of incredible sadness. The holidays will be hard because someone with whom previous special days were shared is gone. To paraphrase Tennyson's In Memoriam, "Never Christmas wore to New Year's but some heart did break." If you have never experienced that, I would be tempted to offer congratulations, but I will not. They would probably ...

1148. God Cares About Justice!

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

David E. Leininger

The Gallup organization regularly conducts polls to determine the religious beliefs and practices of modern Americans. Despite new attitudes about morality, fluctuations in church membership, higher levels of education, and so on, there have been remarkably few changes in responses in recent years. The polls generally show that about 95% of us believe in a God of some sort. People may call God by different names, if indeed they believe that God is callable at all, but they do believe that a God exists. In ...

1149. The Ten Commandments #6: No Murder

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

David E. Leininger

["This is the word of the Lord..."] And the word of the sheriff...and the police chief...and the governor...and the president...and MOTHER. EVERYBODY! "You shall not murder," (and, by the way, "murder" IS a more accurate translation of the commandment from the Hebrew than simply "kill" - the word means "violent, unauthorized" killing). No problem with that. And that is why there is such national revulsion at the horrible death of Matthew Shepherd in Wyoming. No matter what anyone thinks of his sexual ...

1150. What Is Truly Important

Matthew 6:25-34, Matthew 6:19-24

Sermon

David E. Leininger

What is truly important? That is a question we all have to deal with at some point or points in our lives. Over these past several weeks, more than a few folks in this part of the country have confronted it. In the face of the oncoming fury of one hurricane after another, evacuations from coastal communities, decisions come. On TV the other night, there was an interview with a husband and wife who moved to their new retirement home on one of the Carolina barrier islands just six weeks ago - in that six ...

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