Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1151 to 1175 of 4508 results

Sermon Aid

Liturgical Color: White Gospel: Matthew 6:7-15 Theme: Living lives of thanksgiving. Pastoral Invitation to the Thanksgiving Celebration Suggestion: Invite the people to remember and recall their vows of church membership. Print the vows in the order of worship. Ask them to spend some time thinking about them as their response in gratitude to God's call to them, as persons, and as a congregation...

1152. It's Called Forgiveness

Drama

Karren Boehr

Theme: Forgiving Is A Command Based on Matthew 6:14-15: In the family of God, forgiveness is a command, not a choice. In order to be forgiven, one must forgive. There are no options. (This play is designed for easy production and special lighting is not needed. The occupation in the story may be changed to fit the church congregation best.) Scene: Kitchen of a farm house Props Table and two ch...

1153. Forgiveness

Children's Sermon

B. Kathleen Fannin

Object: Several large rubber bands. Lesson: Forgiveness. As I greet the children this morning, I pull several rubber bands out of my pocket. The children's eyes light up with interest as they consider the possibilities of what I might be going to do with something so potentially fun. "I see some of you have noticed the rubber bands I've brought with me. I need someone to take hold of one of the...

1154. Estranged Hands

Children's Sermon

Object: two children (best to prepare them before hand) I am going to have [John and Mary] help me act out a little scene. Pretend I am the teacher at school. I have found John and Mary fighting. Teacher: John! Mary! Stop your fighting this instant! Mary: But he pulled my hair. John: And she slapped me in the face. Teacher: Neither complaint is cause for fighting. We should want to be friends...

1155. Hello, God?

Children's Sermon

CSS

Object: A cell phone What do you do with this? Maybe I can phone God. Pretend to have a conversation with god about some of your pastoral concerns. Start with "Hello, God? I don't want to sound like a complainer but I was on hold for a long time." Pace around the altar as you speak. Come up with some funny things like not enough parking spaces. At the end tap the phone and say...are you there? G...

1156. The Lord's Prayer: Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done

Sermon

Eric Ritz

Father Henri Nouwen shares, "In ten years, we will celebrate the second millennium of the Christian Era." However, he raises a good question, "Will there be anything left to celebrate?" He continues by saying, "Many voices in our land wonder if humanity can survive its own destructive powers." I agree! As we look out over the landscape of the world, we see great warring conflicts among all the peo...

1157. The Lord's Pryaer: Our Daily Bread

Sermon

Eric Ritz

Dr. Fred B. Craddock tells of going to hear a well-known speaker talk about world hunger. He was not disappointed in her presentation. Her speech was well-organized and persuasive. However, five years later, he had for all practical purposes forgotten what this speaker had said. However, Dr. Craddock said that the most memorable and life-changing remark came from a little white-haired lady who ha...

1158. The Lord's Prayer: Forgive Us Our Trespasses

Sermon

Eric Ritz

Have you ever noticed that the great documents like this perfect pattern prayer, the Apostles'' Creed, the Nicene Creed, doctrinal statements of various church traditions, all affirm our need for forgiveness and God providing the means and methods by which we are forgiven? As we continue in our series on The Lord''s Prayer, I want to share with you why I believe this is the hardest petition for a...

1159. The Lord's Prayer: Deliver us from Evil

Sermon

Eric Ritz

Dr. Tony Campolo is a Professor of Sociology at Eastern College and a Baptist Minister whose prophetic speaking and writing ministry is a great source of encouragement to this pastor and many others. Dr. Campolo also has a well-known mission project that works in the inner cities of Philadelphia and Camden. Last year 250 college students worked without pay to help bring the Good News to a place wh...

1160. The Lord's Prayer: Hallowed be Thy Name

Sermon

Eric Ritz

As we continue our study of The Lord''s Prayer, we now look at the words "Who Art in Heaven, hallowed be thy Name." We observe that though Jesus taught us about the privilege of having intimacy with God, there is a qualifying statement. I hope you noticed a paradox and great tension in these words of Jesus. While we have intimacy with God, Jesus reminds us that God is incomprehensible. The Kerygma...

1161. The Lord's Prayer: A Surplus of Meaning

Sermon

Eric Ritz

Some years ago a group of 25 Biblical scholars formed a group called, "The Jesus Seminar." About five years ago, they used a color code to vote on what words of The Lord''s Prayer they actually believed came directly from the lips of our Lord, Jesus Christ and not the editorial revisions of the Gospel writers, Matthew and Luke, and those who came after them. The color code was as follows: RED - ...

1162. Forgiveness: Human and Divine

Sermon

Edward Inabinet

Today we are concerned about the matter of forgiveness, God''s forgiveness of us and our forgiveness of others. According to the Bible, the two go together and can never really be separated. James Knight is a Professor of Psychiatry, an Associate Dean of the Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans. Lately, he has been speaking and writing about some of the horrendous and overwhelming ...

1163. The Lord's Prayer: Our Father

Sermon

Eric Ritz

When Jesus prayed, "Our Father," which is pronounced in the Aramaic language as "Abba." It started a revolution in our understanding of God and, more importantly, the way in which we viewed our relationship to God. According to Kittel''s Dictionary of the Bible, "The Word Father, 'Abba,'' tells us that God is not a distant ruler in transcendence, but ONE who is intimately close." (Volume 5, page ...

1164. The Lord's Prayer: Thine Is the Kingdom

Sermon

Eric Ritz

We have learned how the Lord''s Prayer truly encompasses and speaks to the totality of the human experience. We have discovered that no believer can ever really exhaust the meaning of this prayer, but only experience anew its purpose and power. It truly leads us into the "Presence of the Almighty." This prayer has a three-fold purpose for the pilgrim in that it helps us to center our lives, provid...

1165. And When You Pray

Sermon

Brett Blair

Jesus taught his disciples, saying: And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that others may see them. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. (Mat...

1166. Practical Tips For Powerful Prayer

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

The most under-utilized power on earth is not ethanol or solar power or even nuclear power. The most under-utilized power on earth is the power of God channeled through prayer. Surveys have revealed that 71 percent of Americans believe that God definitely answers prayer and another 15 percent believe that God probably does. That means that 86 percent of Americans believe that prayer is effective. ...

1167. Stop Fuming, Start Forgiving!

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

The late Bishop Lance Webb used to tell a story about a little five-year-old boy who misbehaved. His mother decided to give him some quiet time. She had a large closet. So, she pushed back the hangers in the closet so there would be room for his chair. She turned on the light and told him he would have to stay in the closet for 30 minutes. She heard strange sounds inside the closet and then everyt...

1168. On the Mountainside

Sermon

John E. Harnish

Words...words...words. Recently I read that last year, 100 new words were added to the Merriam-Webster's Dictionary-words like bikini wax, brain freeze, chick flick, hazmat and Wi-Fi. Whether the world will be a better place because of it is yet to be seen, but we are overwhelmed with words. Words...words...words. The constant stream of rapid-fire raging rhetoric on talk radio; the unending stream...

1169. Getting Your Politics Right

Sermon

Phil Thrailkill

I grew up with the myth, universally absorbed but rarely argued for except by extremists with bad manners, that whites were superior. Exceptions were acknowledged, but only as exceptions that did not change the rule. Racism was one of the unspoken beliefs of my childhood culture before the Civil Rights movement rose up to challenge the great lie with the potent rhetoric of our founding documents, ...

1170. Hotline to Heaven

Sermon

James Merritt

There was a minister in a certain church who would call the children down to the front of the church every Sunday and tell them a story. One time he brought a telephone to illustrate the idea of prayer. He said, "Now kids, you know how you talk to people on the telephone and you don't see them on the end of the other line, but you know they are there?" The children nodded their head yes. He said, ...

1171. The Lord's Prayer: Lead Us Not Into Temptation

Sermon

Eric Ritz

Today I want to begin by sharing a story that I once told at the annual Thanksgiving meal that we lovingly shared with the homeless persons in the greater Easton area with the help of our brothers and sisters in Christ at the Salvation Army headquarters. Perhaps one or two of you who were there will remember it. There was a very wealthy Texas oilman who had a gorgeous daughter, and he wanted to f...

1172. The Lord's Prayer: Please Forgive Us as We Forgive

Sermon

David E. Leininger

In the book written by the widow of Robert Louis Stevenson called Prayers Written at Vailima, there is an unusual incident recalled. As you may know, Stevenson was an exceptionally religious man who insisted on family worship every evening... Scripture, hymns, prayers - all were included. But this one particular evening, Stevenson suddenly left the group before the worship was over. He had not bee...

1173. The Lord's Prayer: "Lead Us Not Into Temptation"

Sermon

David E. Leininger

I recently read of the Rev. Martin Perelra of the Roman Catholic Our Lady of the Airways parish in Moulton, Ontario. It seems he was downtown bringing Communion to a sick member but was unable to find a place to park. So he DOUBLE-parked and left a note on the windshield. It said, "This is a priest. I circled the area for 20 minutes but couldn't find a spot. Will be back in five minutes. `Forgive ...

1174. The Lord's Prayer: "Our Daily Bread"

Sermon

David E. Leininger

"Give us this day our daily bread." Is that really a concern of yours? Are you truly worried about whether or not there will be food for you to eat today...or tomorrow or the next day? Probably not. We who live in America know very well that there is MORE than sufficient food for all OUR citizens - TOO much for many of us. Granted, we have a problem in getting the food properly distributed (as in ...

1175. The Lord's Prayer: "Thy Will Be Done"

Sermon

David E. Leininger

"THY WILL BE DONE." GOD'S will. What is God's will? Do YOU know what God's will is? Lots of folks think they do, but I wonder. I hear that Pat Robertson is about to spend $1.4-million because he is convinced that President Clinton's Health Plan is NOT God's will. Randy Shilts died last week. Randy was a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle who wrote the best-seller, And the Band Played On,(1)...

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