Sermon and Worship Resources

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Showing 1326 to 1350 of 1679 results

1326. Lord, I Want To See

Mark 10:46-52

Sermon

Brett Blair

Helen Keller, so brave and inspiring to us in her deafness and blindness, once wrote a magazine article entitled: "Three days to see." In that article she outlined what things she would like to see if she were granted just three days of sight. It was a powerful, thought provoking article. On the first day she said she wanted to see friends. Day two she would spend seeing nature. The third day she would spend in her home city of New York watching the busy city and the work day of the present. She concluded ...

1327. True or False?

Isaiah 1:1-31

Sermon

John W. Wurster

“Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom. Listen to the teaching of our God, you people of Gomorrah” (1:10; cf. Genesis 19). Sodom. Gomorrah. Remember? Places of wickedness, of violence, of perversity. Do you know any place like that? Places where sexuality is twisted and relationships are corrupted and social order is breaking down? Places where people seek to gratify personal desires at the expense of others, where individual pursuits take precedence over common well-being, where anything goes as ...

1328. When God Does A New Thing

Isaiah 43:14-28

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

The woman whose heart is broken because her husband cheated on her cannot get past that experience and has vowed never to love again. Two brothers have not spoken to each other in years because a business they built together failed due to the skimming of profits by the older brother. The young man who has not visited or spoken to his mother and father in ten years because of an abusive childhood cannot bring himself to forget the past, forgive his parents, and move on with his life. These are just a few ...

1329. Kingdoms in Conflict

John 18:28-40

Sermon

Brett Blair

Perhaps you have heard this story. It's a great story: Many years ago, when Hitler's forces occupied Denmark, the order came that all Jews in Denmark were to identify themselves by wearing armbands with yellow stars of David. The Danes had seen the extermination of Jews in other countries and guessed that this was the first step in that process in their countries. The King did not defy the orders. He had every Jew wear the star and he himself wore the Star of David. He told his people that he expected ...

1330. Peace Please

Drama

Dave Marsh

Director's Notes: It is very difficult in today's world to have peace, right? Actually, it's only difficult if we try to have peace on our own power. We need to continue to pray and trust and rely on the Holy Spirit who gives peace - peace beyond understanding. By the way, I know there are 5 actors here. Don't panic. The drama is still relatively short and easy to memorize :) Cast: Dave: A Dad who just got laid off Melinda: Dave's wife Amanda: Dave's teenage daughter Adam: Amanda's boyfriend Kaitlin: Dave' ...

1331. A Man, A Woman, and the Test of Doom (A Drama about Marriage)

Drama

Dave Marsh

Director's Notes: Pastor Ray asked me to write a light-hearted drama for this weekend centering around marriage. As I thought about what I would write, I asked myself how the world tells you if you have a healthy marriage or not. I quickly scanned the Internet until I found what I was looking for - a marriage cyber-test. I pulled some questions from it and added my own for the drama. Amazing... if we would only go to God's word, we could find out exactly what He has to say about a healthy marriage... Note ...

1332. The Healing of Blind Bartimaeus

Mark 10:46-52

Sermon

James W. Moore

In the Gospel of Mark, the story of Jesus’ dramatic encounter with Blind Bartimaeus in Jerich takes up only seven verses of scripture, and yet within these seven verses, we see the crux of the Christian gospel in a swiftly drawn portrait of Christian love. As Jesus encounters Bartimaeus here, He portrays for us the ways in which we as Christians are called to love other people. Now, love is difficult to define (as we all know) but it can be demonstrated, and that is precisely what Jesus does here. He ...

1333. Year-Round Christmas

1 Kings 17:1-24

Sermon

David E. Leininger

"When elephants fight, the grass suffers." So goes an old African proverb.(1) The elephants in question here, Yahweh and Baal - gods competing for a nation's allegiance with the original weapons of mass destruction: drought and disaster; the grass, this widow and her son, caught in this cosmic struggle between fertility and famine. We meet one of faith's greatest heroes as this story begins. Elijah - no question whose side he is on; his name means YAHWEH IS MY GOD. He gets no introduction other than the ...

1334. The Lord's Prayer: The Kingdom, The Power, and The Glory

Matthew 6:5-15

Sermon

David E. Leininger

And so we come to the conclusion of our series on the Lord's Prayer: "For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever, Amen." That is the doxology, the hymn of praise, the roll of drums, the clash of cymbals with which the church closes. Words which commit us, not to a great faith in God, but rather to faith in a great God. The kingdom, the power, the glory belong to God and God alone. Easter PROVES it! You may be surprised to learn (or you may already know) that this phrase is not a part of ...

1335. The Power to Change the Past

Matthew 18:21-35

Sermon

David E. Leininger

You are no doubt familiar with the name Simon Wiesenthal, the famous Nazi hunter. Wiesenthal was a prisoner in a concentration camp in Poland. One day he was assigned to clean out rubbish from a barn the Germans had improvised into a hospital for wounded soldiers. Toward evening a nurse took Wiesenthal by the hand and led him to a young SS trooper, his face bandaged with filthy rags, eyes tucked behind the gauze. He was perhaps 21 years old. He grabbed Wiesenthal's hand and held on for dear life. He said ...

1336. I Am Sombody!!!

Mark 1:9-13, Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

David E. Leininger

I suspect that, having made it to mid-January, you would say that you have successfully survived the holidays. True? The celebration of our Savior's birth - Christmas; then the New Year; finally the Feast of the Three Kings on January 6th - Epiphany (which for many has become the Feast of Taking Down the Decorations!). This morning I want to suggest that there is one more holiday we should be observing - THIS day, the one the liturgical calendar designates to remember the Baptism of the Lord. If the ...

1337. No Holding Back

Mark 12:28-34

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Familiar words. "Heart...soul...mind...strength...your neighbor as yourself." We learned them as the GREAT COMMANDMENT. All others pale in their light. We agree, of course. "Love the Lord your God with all your HEART." Not the blood-pumping heart, the "heart" that, from ancient times has been considered the seat of our emotions. Two weeks ago I had the privilege of preaching for our neighbors at the Church of God of Prophecy - it was an exciting service of worship because those Pentecostals really do get ...

1338. Mary's Complaint

Luke 1:26-38, Luke 1:39-45, Luke 1:46-56

Sermon

David E. Leininger

I suppose you have had the chance to watch at least a little television during these busy days before Christmas. Have you noticed that the news programs are carrying more stories about unfortunate people these days...people who have lost their homes, people who are facing debilitating disease, people who seem to have had their whole world fall in on them? Have you noticed that? I understand why: somehow the plight of desperate folks seems all the MORE desperate in the midst of what should be a season of ...

1339. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob

Luke 13:22-30

Sermon

David E. Leininger

A little girl came home from school and asked her mother if she knew Christopher Columbus was Italian. "Yes," said Mom. And the girl continued, "Did you know that Queen Isabella furnished the money to buy his ships?" "Yes, dear, I had heard that." The little girl thought for a moment and then said reflectively, "Well, really, Mother, if you already know the things I come home and tell you, I don't see any use in going to school." By the time we get done here this morning, you may feel the same about coming ...

1340. Pentecostal Power

Acts 2:1-21

Sermon

King Duncan

Eugene Barron, Littleton, Colorado tells of driving down a two-lane highway where someone had thrown garbage onto the road. Most of it had been scattered off the road except one plastic cup. This cup was positioned right in the middle of road. In fact, it was in the center of the two yellow lines. The road was straight enough that Barron noticed the cup long before he got to it. Every time a car passed by the cup, it would simply roll to the opposite side without moving from the center. When another car ...

1341. What We Have Is A Communication Problem

Luke 9:28-36

Sermon

King Duncan

A woman dialed the number of what she thought was the local record shop. A man answered. She asked, "Do you have 10 little fingers and 10 little toes in Alabama?" The man had no idea she was talking about a song. He said, "No, but I do have a wife and 15 kids in Louisiana." She asked, "Is that a record?" He said, "I don't know if it is a record or not, but it sure is above average." (1) One of the favorite devices of comedians is that of garbled communication. An Italian gentleman was trying to learn ...

1342. Overcoming "Work-avoidance Syndrome"

2 Thessalonians 3:1-5

Sermon

King Duncan

Have you ever noticed how some people are lazy? Oops ” how many people have work-avoidance syndrome? I heard about two men who were talking about going to Australia. One of them said, "Did you hear? The news says there's a diamond mine in the Outback where diamonds lay all over the ground. All you have to do is bend down and pick them up." The other guy looked offended and said, "You have to BEND DOWN?" There was a PEANUTS cartoon several years ago. Linus is addressing Snoopy who is asleep on the roof of ...

1343. Yearning For Rejection; Thriving On Insults

2 Corinthians 12:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

A young single man checked into a Hilton Hotel. A card left on his pillow said, "Turn down service available, 7-10 p.m." The message meant that a housekeeper was available to turn down the covers on the bed during those hours. This young man saw a different message. "Why would you ever want a service like that?" he asked. "A turn down service ” unless you have incredibly low self-esteem." He added, "Usually my turn downs come long before 7 p.m.." Have you ever been turned down? Rejected? Insulted? A group ...

1344. Driven To Serve

Mark 9:33-37

Sermon

King Duncan

I want to turn to the world of business for some of our inspiration today. Someone has described their company like this: It is a beautiful summer day in corporate America. The sales people aren't back from lunch yet. The programmers are playing computer games. The executives are on the golf links. The secretaries are scheduling their weekends. And the Human Resources people are in another all day meeting, asking each other, "What is our Mission?" (1) Obviously such a description does not apply to most ...

1345. A Better Than Perfect Christmas

Philippians 4:4

Sermon

King Duncan

Rev. M. L. Lindvall received a letter in a Christmas card. It was a personal letter ”not one of those which relates every event of the past year. The letter writer told how his church had held a Christmas pageant for 47 years with the same director. Perfection was her goal ”nothing less. For years the church’s pageant ran like clockwork. Perfect lines, perfect pacing, perfect everything. Then one year, something even better happened. You see, the director’s commitment to perfection was greater than her ...

1346. What Gets Into People?

Mark 1:21-28

Sermon

King Duncan

There is one similarity between mice and men. None of us wants to die. Self preservation is one of the strongest instincts in living creatures. And yet high in the Scandinavian mountains lives a small mouselike creature that every few years commits mass suicide. The creatures are called lemmings. They have given us the phrase, "like lemmings headed for the sea," for that is what they do. Every few years when their population has grown too large and the food supply has become too scarce they leave their ...

1347. True Love

John 3:1-21

Sermon

King Duncan

When Richard Nixon ran for President in 1968, the Vietnam War was at its height. One of Nixon's TV commercials showed a photo of an American soldier in Vietnam with the word "Love" written on his helmet. The image bothered Harry Treleavan, one of Nixon's media men. "It reminds [people] of hippies," he said. "They don't think it's the sort of thing soldiers should be writing on their helmets." About a week later, however, a letter arrived from the mother of the soldier. She said how thrilled she was to see ...

1348. The Secret Of His Success

Galatians 2:11-21

Sermon

King Duncan

We Americans are suckers for the underdog. We ought to appreciate the story of Samuel Logan Brengle. Brengle gave up an opportunity to pastor one of the largest churches in Mid-America in order to join the ranks of the Salvation Army when that organization was just getting established in the United States. One of his early assignments was in Danbury, Connecticut, where Brengle’s entire congregation often numbered less than a dozen people. Determined to reach Danbury with the Gospel, each evening Brengle ...

1349. Once In A Lifetime

Isaiah 6:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

One Wednesday night at Chicago Stadium, during a fan promotion at a Chicago Bulls-Miami Heat basketball game, a 23-year-old fan by the name of Don Calhoun from Bloomington, Illinois, had a once in a lifetime experience. He was pulled from the bleachers to see if he could shoot a 79-foot shot (a shot that was launched from the opposite free throw line, three-quarters of the length of the basketball court). And Calhoun, who was picked from the crowd because he was wearing bright, yellow shoes, hit "nothing ...

1350. When More Is Never Enough

Mark 10:17-31

Sermon

King Duncan

Linus is philosophizing with Lucy. "Life is peculiar," he says. "Wouldn't you like to have your life to live over if you knew what you know now?" Lucy stares off blankly, then asks, "What do I know now?" E. Stanley Jones once told of being on a cruise ship. There was a rather corpulent couple on that cruise who seemed to live from one meal to the next. They were retired and obviously had plenty of money, but they seemed miserable. They were always angry with the table stewards for not giving them super- ...

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