Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1226 to 1250 of 3160 results

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Frank H. Seilhamer

... he saw the President standing beside a tree. "What is the trouble?" he asked Mr. Lincoln. "The same trouble that keeps the world stirred up," came the answer. "I have three apples and each one of them wants two!" Always wanting one more than you have leads to all sorts of havoc. Families are split, friends are set at odds, robberies are committed, men are murdered, in the effort to get just one more. And usually what you find when you get it is that the one more isn’t enough. You then are unhappy with two ...

1227. We Are All Welcome In God's House

Luke 2:49

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

... and Joseph, the father and mother of Jesus, thought that Jesus was lost in a big city called Jerusalem. They went back to the city and they hunted everywhere. They looked in the market place, and the motel where they stayed and all of the carpenter shops and all sorts of places, but they couldn’t find him. Finally, one of them had an idea where Jesus might be, and they hurried to find him. Do you know where that was? That’s right, church or temple. Do you know what Jesus said? He said, "Didn’t you ...

1228. Are You a Gold-Painted Rock?

Matthew 7:15

Children's Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

... . Do you know what that lesson was? I learned that not everything is what it looks like on the outside. Some people call themselves Christians, yet they do awful things. Some people say they are Christians, but they lie and they cheat and they do all sorts of things that Christians, people who try to be like Jesus, would never do. They are like my gold-painted rocks. They look like Christians on the outside, but on the inside they’re just the opposite. Jesus had another way of saying it. He said that ...

1229. Behold Your God

Isaiah 40:1-31

Sermon

Michael J. Anton

... hard to imagine how it felt finally to hear the good, great good news that this bleak life was finally coming to an end, that the "war was over," that God was coming to their rescue. But even if you can’t exactly feel this sort of experience, you can still enjoy the fullness of Isaiah’s message. As Ecclesiastes says, "there’s nothing new under the sun." The Israelites were confused, perplexed exiles. And that makes you and me close kin with these prisoners. We live in the bewildered, bewildering 20th ...

1230. So that I Can Tell

Sermon

Michael J. Anton

... me refuse to come close to him? Why is the Easter Gospel of our Lord’s resurrection a real part of my life while it has not made a dent in the living of many? You can play with that question a long time. It can lead you into all sorts of interesting tangents and down fascinating avenues. You can keep your gray matter stimulated as this question channels you to the whole subject of predestination, to the matter of God’s plan for his world, to the point of God’s plan for you, to the item of man’s ...

1231. Free to Be

Acts 4:23-31

Sermon

Michael J. Anton

... I show too much of my convictions. I can be fearful of losing my job if they think I’m a religious kook. In high school and college I had a summer job in the clubhouse of a golf course. It became a terrific opportunity to get to know all sorts of people and a chance to discover what made them tick, especially their religious thoughts. When I came home to share those conversations around our table, my father would issue a stern warning, that I had best stop that kind of talk or I would be without a job. My ...

1232. Three-Dimensional Christianity

James 1:19-27

Sermon

Michael J. Anton

... us have probably either heard it or said it about a fellow Christian: "Boy, he really knows his Bible." Sometimes an extra line is added, "He knows the Bible better than most preachers." I suppose that extra line could make pastors a bit defensive, sort of like "them’s fightin’ words." But on this National Bible Sunday there is something much more important than arguing over who may know the Bible the best. Because there is something more important than simply knowing Bible facts or being able to quote ...

1233. CUPBEARER

Nehemiah 1:11; 1 Kings 10:5

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

... we dare eat, but, in the essentials, we can say that the present day butler, especially one who has been with his employer for a long time, stands in relationship to the cupbearer. He is rather a buffer between his employer and the world, which tries to intrude in all sort of unpleasant ways.

1234. MINER

Job 28:2

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

... . We see picture stories in our newspapers and national magazines about the poverty and despair of those whose land has been destroyed by strip mining. And so we might be tempted to look into the Bible for parallels. Surprisingly enough, we’ll find nothing of this sort of problem. As a matter of fact, there isn’t even a Hebrew word for "mine" or "mining" in a biblical text. This would lead us to believe that mining was not an occupation with which the Hebrews were very familiar. Now it’s true that ...

1235. WIZARD

Deut. 18:11

Illustration

Stephen Stewart

... whole idea of the communication with the dead was a familiar one to the ancient world. For example, in the Gilgamesh Epic, Gilgamesh conjures up the spirit of Enkidu to inquire about the state of the dead in the lower world. Because of this sort of communication, it is obvious that sharp denunciations were pronounced against the practice. Since God is the Lord of both worlds, it is not right that man should enquire too closely into the mysteries of life beyond, and so any type of witchcraft, and necromancy ...

1236. Episode III: Birth of the Church

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

Brett Blair

... by 3:15 that next morning every prostitute in Honolulu was in that place. There was wall-to-wall prostitutes - and me. At 3:30 on the dot the door of the diner swung open and in came Agnes and her friend. I had everybody ready; after all, I was sort of the informal master of ceremonies of this whole affair. It was my idea, so when they came in we all jumped up and screamed and we sang, "Happy birthday, Agnes!" And you know, I've never seen a person so flabbergasted, so stunned, so shaken. Her mouth fell ...

1237. The Might of the Mite

Mark 12:41-44

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... upwards. Each receptacle represented a different item in the Temple budget, some to defray expenses and others to help the poor. Some rich folks came by with lots of those heavy Roman coins. They would look around, hoping to have an audience. Then they would sort of "slam dunk" those coins into those brass receptacles, creating all kinds of racket. People noticed and were impressed. But Jesus was not. But then a poor widow slipped up to one of the receptacles and dropped in two tiny mites. These coins were ...

1238. A Thanksgiving Question

1 Corinthians 4:1-21

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... look of utter disdain that you would just feel ashamed and change chairs. Gris Gato spent his first two years living in the woods behind the home of his current family, utterly wild. He would not let anybody get near him. One day the family noted that he was hurt, sort of dragging his hind quarters. Obviously, the cat had been caught by a dog or hit by a car. The only way they could get near the cat was to trap him, using food as the lure. This they did. It was a chore to get him to the vet ...

1239. God Makes The First Move

John 6:25-59

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... precious in my arms for the first time! I was overcome with joy, but, something was still unsatisfied in my heart. Finally, my wife and I had some long talks about this. She felt the same thing. We concluded that perhaps we have a spiritual part of us inside--sort of like an invisible organ in the body-- which must be nourished or we will never be satisfied. That's when we headed to church. It seemed strange at first, but it wasn't long before we knew that this spiritual part of us was being fed. We found ...

1240. Stand Up Straight

Luke 13:10-17

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... . You could have a genetic predisposition to cancer. You could have a sick spirit. Perhaps you have a spirit of resentment, a pessimistic attitude, a selfish streak, or a manipulative manner with other people. In our natural state, all of us have a bent-over condition of some sort. LOOK AT VERSE 12. "AND WHEN JESUS SAW HER..." Lots of people saw her, but not as Jesus did. They would step aside so as not to bump into her on the street, but because of her condition they didn't even have to speak to her. She ...

1241. Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone?

Luke 9:18-27

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... , “You got cheated. There was a time when Christians could get them for free.” They still can. There is one suited for your shoulder and for mine. Jesus said that unless one is on our shoulder, we should not call ourselves Christian. There are all sorts of crosses we could select to carry. We could visit regularly a friend or relative in a nursing home even though such visits are difficult for us. We could invest a year in helping a new church get started, even though our own personal preferences might ...

1242. How to Fix the Past

1 John 1:5--2:14

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... . The father was heartbroken over his son’s leaving. For several days he searched everywhere for his son, but with no success. Finally, the Father took out an ad in the main newspaper of Madrid. The boy’s name was Paco, a very common Spanish name, sort of like Paul in English. The ad said, “Dear Pace, meet me in front of the newspaper building tomorrow at noon. All is forgiven. I love you.” On the following day at noon, 800 Paco’s showed up, each longing for forgiveness and reconciliation. I’ve ...

1243. Advent I - Children’s Sermon

John 3:16

Children's Sermon

Susan Hedahl

... person says out loud what they thought was said. Usually everyone laughs because the news that started with the first person can become quite mixed up by the time it reaches the last person. God once had some good news to tell the world. And God did all sorts of wonderful things to make sure that everyone heard the special message without any confusion. Do you know what God’s good news was? Yes, that God’s Child named Jesus would be born and that this little baby would grow up to be the person who would ...

1244. God’s Chosen Country

Isaiah 40:1-31

Sermon

Susan Hedahl

... standing in need of receiving the gifts of the Christ Child, who asks us to bear them. For our sense of expectation for the Lord must be fostered in the crucible of our relationships with one another. "Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of person ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God...." (2 Peter 3:11 RSV) There has certainly been a clearer sense among Christians in the past several years about the nature of the ...

1245. Advent II - Children’s Sermon

Matthew 2:1-12

Children's Sermon

Susan Hedahl

... the star rested over the city of Bethlehem and pointed the way for the people seeking Jesus. No one had ever seen a star so large or so lovely before, so of course there was a lot of talking about what it could be. Who saw the star? Probably all sorts of people. The Wise Men saw it. King Herod saw it and wondered if a new king was in town. In fact, he called several people to his palace to see if they knew what that star was all about. The shepherds in the field probably saw it once they ...

1246. Advent IV - Children’s Sermon

Matthew 2:19-23

Children's Sermon

Susan Hedahl

... your family’s name or a sign nearby. Home can mean a lot of things. It can mean the house you live in and it can also mean the town you live in. "Chicago is my home," we say. Or, "My parents came from Minneapolis." (name locale) You do all sorts of things in the place in which you live. You can visit your friends, go to school, go to the shopping mall, go to church. For many people, home sometimes can change. Today people often move around a lot from place to place. Maybe some of your relatives live in ...

1247. Christmas I

Luke 2:22-40

Children's Sermon

Susan Hedahl

... right. It is something another person tells you that you will receive at a later time. They are so important that people use different words for promise. Sometimes they say vow or oath or contract or pledge. We spend our entire lives making promises of all sorts of different kinds to ourselves and to each other. When you were baptized your parents and sponsors promised to help you know God better. Maybe before Christmas you promised to give someone a special gift. Did you do that? Maybe your dad or mom said ...

1248. Restoring Our Sense of Priorities

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Donald Macleod

... kind." Ask the Jews from the Polish ghetto or a survivor of Auschwitz! And more and nearer to home: modern literature reflects the thinking of a generation who faces the possibility of a universe without God or at best a system infused with a sort of pantheism in which God and the world are identical everywhere and in everything. An "itness" and a soullessness pervades the human as well as the material. From such a scheme no good can ever emerge, and hence "so what?" is ultimately popular and acceptable ...

1249. The Vicarious Servant

Isaiah 52:13--53:12

Sermon

Donald Macleod

... disciples. His was sympathy with, and only as we catch his spirit will our indifference be put down. A Roman Catholic cleric agreed to leave an affluent assignment in the South to assume leadership in a popular diocese in the North where social problems of every sort abounded. Someone asked him "Why?" and he replied, "I see Jesus Christ in the face of the poor." 2. This leads us to a second thought: We must become more sensitive to the effects of sin. One day a man went into a small shop that specialized ...

1250. Beginning with Easter - Then What?

Acts 4:32-37

Sermon

Donald Macleod

... : "It’s a commission to go out and work harder for the things in which we believe." Does not all this have something to say about our Easter worship and its integrity? If Sunday worship is considered to be merely something to make us feel better, a sort of limited therapeutic, then it is just a fruitless episode. But if we come to church to witness joyfully to the victories of the past week, the occasions when your Christian faith worked, sustained and held you fast, then we have a mission to go back out ...

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