Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 1276 to 1300 of 4933 results

1276. Better Than a Spanking

Luke 3:1-20

Sermon

King Duncan

Bob Beasley belongs to a Baptist Church in Canada, a church that follows the Baptist tradition of baptizing by immersion. Returning home from church one Sunday, his little girl asked, “Daddy, why did the pastor push that guy under the water? Why, daddy?” Bob’s wife tried to answer her question, but the little girl, named Rena, just wouldn’t be satisfied. Later that night Bob and his wife tried to provide an answer from a Baptist perspective that a child’s mind could comprehend. They talked about sin and ...

1277. Joshua People Study

Joshua 1:7-8, Psalm 119:10-18

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

Years ago I heard the story of a Pastor who was preaching and casting the vision for the future of their congregation. He told them, "With God's help we can see the day when this church will go from crawling to walking." And the people responded, "Let the church walk, Pastor, let the church walk." He continued, "And when the church begins to walk, next the church can begin to run." And the people shouted, "Let the church run, Pastor, let the church run!" Fired up, he continued, "And finally the church can ...

1278. Love That Surpasses Knowledge

Ephesians 3:14-21

Sermon

Thomas Lentz

I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:17b-19) Burned into my memory is the image of my father, a few days before his death, clinging to his well-worn King James Bible. It was the source of his inspiration, the place where his favorite scripture passage was ...

1279. Broadband Discipleship

Luke 17:1-10

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Urbanites and suburbanites might have very different definitions of a “neighborhood,” but both daydream about the gladed landscapes and bucolic beauty of a truly rural setting. Who wouldn’t like to “get away from it all” for a while? Who wouldn’t want to experience a refreshing dose of peace and quiet? Who wouldn’t prefer a two lane gravel road instead of an eight lane “freeway” parking lot? Who wouldn’t trade fields of green for acres of asphalt? The only problem with this rural respite is that we really ...

1280. “Truly My Soul Finds Rest in God”

Psalm 62:1-12

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

Big Idea: God is our “all in all,” and that truth prompts us to invite others into our faith. Understanding the Text Psalm 62 is an individual psalm of trust.1 (See sidebar “Psalms of Trust” in the unit on Ps. 16.) The crisis that has called forth this marvelous expression of faith is not clear. However, we can be confident of this much: David has been assaulted by the unscrupulous attacks of his enemies, who flattered him with their words but cursed him in their hearts (62:3–4). Their erroneous assessment ...

1281. The God Who Comforts

Isaiah 40:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

A story came across my desk recently about a man who worked for the Post Office. This man’s job was to process all the mail that had illegible addresses. One day, a letter came to his desk addressed in shaky handwriting to God. He thought he should open it to see what it was about. He opened it and read these words: Dear God, I am a 93-year-old widow, living on a very small pension. Yesterday someone stole my purse. It had $100 in it, which was all the money I had until my next pension check. Next Sunday ...

1282. All for Some Dumb Sheep

John 10:11-18

Sermon

King Duncan

There was a best-selling book in 1995 by Daniel Goleman called Emotional Intelligence. This book provided us with many examples of the effects that our emotions can have on our rational brain. The book begins with the story of Gary and Mary Jean Chauncey, who were in an Amtrak train that crashed into a river after a barge hit and weakened a railroad bridge in Louisiana. Gary and Mary Jean were trapped in their compartment as they tried desperately to save their eleven year-old wheelchair ridden daughter ...

1283. Being Neighborly

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

Robert C. Cochran

As a campus pastor in Kalamazoo, Michigan, I served on a committee that supports the local Lutheran Social Services Ministry foster care program. One Thursday, we heard about a young girl who had run away from home at age fourteen. By the time we heard about her, she was sixteen, and LSSM was trying to get her some help by putting her into an independent care program. She’d lived on her own for two years, so it seemed too late to put her into a foster care family. She would receive money for living ...

1284. It's Hard to Be an Atheist with Neighbors Like That

Matthew 9:35-38

Sermon

King Duncan

Patrick Greene was known by his neighbors in Henderson County, Texas as a professed atheist. He was notorious for threatening to sue Henderson County each year over the courthouse manger scene at Christmas time. The reason? Greene says his experience with Christians through the years was of narrow-minded individuals who treated him unkindly. “My wife and I had never had a Christian do anything nice for us,” Greene said. “Just the opposite.” That changed when the 63-year-old Greene learned he had a detached ...

1285. The Mountain

Matthew 17:1-9

Sermon

John Jamison

Up in the northeast corner of the Sea of Galilee, a mile or so past the village of Bethsaida, there is a mountain. Or, as near what you would call a mountain in that area. If you go there today, there is a parking lot nearby, and from there you walk a steep and rocky trail for about a mile and a half to get to the top of the mountain. Even with the trail, it is a tough trek. As Jesus, Peter, James, and John walked up the mountain that day there was no parking lot and no trail. It was an ideal place to go ...

1286. A Little Foolishness

1 Corinthians 1:18-25

Sermon

John B. Jamison

Hap enjoyed reading his Bible. It wasn’t really reading the Bible that he enjoyed, but it was the list of little bits of information he could find that he could use later to trip-up some poor preacher who didn’t know those little bits. That’s what he enjoyed. And he wasn’t really reading his Bible, but excavating, it looking for those little treasures he could use to pose his questions. When he wasn’t sitting in his chair reading his King James version, he was out running around town looking for preachers ...

1287. Out Of The Whirlwind

Job 38:1--41:34

Sermon

John A. Stroman

God answers Job out of the whirlwind. There is no better word to explain what has taken place in Job's life than a whirlwind. Look at the events that have transpired in his life: all his children are dead; his home and business are lost; he lost his health, and his body is disfigured with open sores. It all happened in rapid-fire succession -- just like a whirlwind. Out of the whirlwind Job asks God, "Why?" He is so despondent that he wishes he was dead. "Let the day perish wherein I was born." Job reveals ...

1288. Shameless Passion

Isaiah 50:1-11

Sermon

Paul W. Kummer

Today is Palm Sunday. Some of you wonder why our text is not highlighting the trek into Jerusalem on a donkey, but rather this coming Friday's story of Jesus' suffering as found prophesied in the Old Testament. Why is this the chosen lesson? Too many people move from Palm Sunday's jubilation to Easter's victory and never take the excruciating walk through the Upper Room, the Garden of Gethsemane, the Trials, and Mount Calvary. But you must go through it all really to know the joy of the Open Tomb! I like ...

1289. Standing Firm

Isaiah 50:1-11

Sermon

E. Carver McGriff

Some years ago, a Methodist Bishop of national reknown was asked to speak at an annual conference of that church. It so happened he had recently taken a strong stand on a very controversial issue and was being criticized rather widely among some of the brethren, not always with a lot of charity. So the Bishop spoke on the text of Jonah and the Great Fish. After acknowledging that others had a right to their own opinions on the issue so long as they were expressed in a Christian way, he then made this ...

1290. I Am The Bread Of Life

John 6:24-35

Sermon

Brett Blair

There is a bit of Jewish humor that goes like this: An old man goes to a diner every day for lunch. He always orders the soup du jour. One day the manager asks him how he liked his meal. The old man replies, "It was good, but you could give a little more bread. Two slices of bread is not enough." So the next day the manager tells the waitress to give him four slices of bread. "How was your meal, sir?" the manager asks. "It was good, but you could give a little more bread," comes the reply. So the next day ...

1291. Humility

Luke 3:1-20, Isaiah 40:1-31

Drama

Martha L. Leach

Characters: Moses John the Baptist Narrator Theme: Humility Narrator: At one point in their career, the disciples asked Jesus, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" We suppose they were hoping Jesus' answer would be, "Why, you, of course. You who gave up everything to follow me." Instead Jesus called to him a child and told the disciples, "Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child, he is the greatest in the ...

1292. Back to the Basics

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Johnny Dean

Every month we receive a newsletter from our home church back in Memphis. In one recent edition of the newsletter, the minister told how his car had been stolen from the parking lot of one of the local hospitals. He went on to state his belief that morality in America today is on the decline, especially in the large cities, and he further stated that the cause for this decline, in his opinion, has been the intentional, systematic removal of all discussion of religion for the educational institutions of ...

1293. If Only We could Be Loyal ...

Hosea 4:1-19, Hosea 6:1--7:16

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

Jackie had been at our worship service on only two occasions, and when she came to me for counseling, I began by saying, "Tell me who you are." We spent over an hour talking about her, for my sole contact with her had been from the pulpit to the pew, an introduction, and a handshake. Jackie felt that her whole life was deteriorating. It began when her father abandoned his family and she watched her mother struggle for years to provide a home for her and her sister. Endowed with a brilliant mind, Jackie did ...

1294. A Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

Acts 9:1-19a

Sermon

George Bass

This week, falling as it does between two minor festivals - the Confession of St. Peter and the Conversion of St. Paul - might best be observed by a pilgrimage to one of the ancient "station" churches common to the liturgical heritage of Rome, the Church of St. Sebastian. It is located south of Rome on the Appian Way, not too far from where the Apostle Paul was supposed to have been beheaded, and it is situated over an ancient catacomb which bears Sebastian’s name. Tradition has it that both Peter and Paul ...

1295. The Lord's Prayer: Please Forgive Us as We Forgive

Matthew 6:5-15

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 been well, so his wife was concerned and went after him to see if he was all right. As Mrs. Stevenson recounted it ...

1296. Busybodies

Luke 13:10-17

Sermon

King Duncan

People who knew legendary jazz musician Cab Calloway as a man of dignity and humor. One night at Birdland, the legendary jazz bar, Cab was introducing a promising young saxophone player. As the sax player finished his set, a self-appointed jazz critic came over to him and said, in front of Cab, "You aren't that good, man. All you can do is play like Charlie Parker." Cab took the young man's sax and handed it over to the critic. "Here," he said, "you play it like Charlie Parker." (1) Isn't it true that ...

1297. On Picking Your Battles

Matthew 18:15-20

Sermon

King Duncan

There was a church where the pastor and the minister of music were not getting along. As time went by, this began to spill over into the worship service. The first week the pastor preached on commitment and how we all should dedicate ourselves to the service of God. The music director led the song, "I Shall Not Be Moved." The second week the pastor preached on tithing and how we all should gladly give to the work of the Lord. The director led the song, "Jesus Paid it All." The third week the pastor ...

1298. In the Hot Seat

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

Cathy A. Ammlung

Everybody who thinks you could have done better than James or John, raise your hands. "If I worked up the nerve to ask Jesus to do anything I ask him to," most of us probably think, "I'd have done a lot better than their lame-brained request. Sitting next to Jesus when he comes into his glory -- what nerve! I'd have asked for something much more worthy -- an end to war, or a cure for cancer, or at least for wisdom. Good grief, what was Jesus thinking when he recruited those two?" Maybe we should call it ...

1299. The House Of Our Dreams

Luke 2:21-40

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

There is an old Rabbinic story about a poor man who left the village of his birth, and set out to find the city of his dreams, where all was bright and perfect. After a day's walk he lay down to rest the night in a forest. Before going to sleep he removed his shoes and placed them carefully in the path, pointing them in the direction of his journey toward the magical city. While he slept, a practical joker came along and turned his shoes around so that they pointed in the direction of the village he had ...

1300. The Holidaze Craze

1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

The holiday harangues are here. The Holidaze Craze has begun. Catalogs filled with more stuff than sense have been overloading the postal service for months already. At your house I suspect it would be a full time job simply to look through all the slick advertisements that arrive on a daily basis. Retailers put out their Christmas decorations the day after Halloween. The frantic Friday-after-Thanksgiving sale day has become a late shoppers event. Midnight madness now refers, not to burning the midnight ...

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