Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: Levi, disciple, evangelist, tax collector, the 12, the twelve, apostle, sermon on the mount, jewish audience, beatitudes, lord's prayer, great commission, parables, olivet discourse, mount of olives, olivet, synoptic

Showing 1376 to 1400 of 2273 results

1376. My Love Requires A Symbol

Malachi 3:6-18

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

The other clergy on our staff and I perform lots of weddings. We enjoy it immensely. There are several reasons that we have so many weddings. We are a large congregation with an unusually large percentage of young adults. Furthermore, Cupid seems to run wild in our singles ministry. In fact, because of all those weddings, I have unintentionally memorized the wedding service. But I still keep the printed service in from on me, lest I call this Saturday’s bride by last Saturday’s name. Nothing so unnerves an ...

1377. The Mission of Christ Church

Nehemiah 6:1-14

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

I am so proud of the way you have mastered our mission statement. If I met you on the street and asked you about the mission of Christ Church, I believe almost all of you could tell me that we are here to make, mature, and mobilize disciples. Most successful organizations have a concise and clear mission statement. The next time you're in a McDonald's Restaurant, ask an employee what the mission of his restaurant is. If he is on the ball, he will be able to tell you that the purpose of McDonalds ...

1378. The Healing Power of Touch

Matthew 9:18-26

Sermon

Brett Blair

As Matthew’s story begins this morning, Jesus, the great physician, is on his way to make an emergency house call. There was a little girl who was in a grave state and her father implored Jesus to come. We are told that a large crowd of the curious followed Jesus. Some were hoping he would succeed, others that he would fail; most probably got caught up in the excitement of the parade. In this throng was one woman who was there for quite a different reason. We are told that for twelve years she had been ...

1379. A Time to Dance

Psalm 30:1-12

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

My maternal grandfather was a railroad engineer and a Presbyterian elder. During the 1930s he had three teenaged children. It was his custom on many Saturday nights to invite all the local teenagers into his large living room for a dance. He would hire a little three-piece band and roll back the rugs. Grandfather was thrilled that the teenaged girls would invite him to dance and then would break in on each other. Some of the other elders at the church did not share Grandfather's enthusiasm for those dances ...

1380. All You Need To Know About Heaven

John 14:5-14, John 14:1-4

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

I'm thinking of another Easter morning approximately ten years ago. Four neighborhood churches in Columbia, South Carolina were sponsoring a sunrise service. Some 300 folks gathered in the front yard of a Baptist church, with coats buttoned snugly against the early morning chill. Sometime in the midst of the service, I noticed Jimmy, sitting in his car as close to the crowd as possible, with the window rolled down. I thanked God for the P.A. system that enabled him to hear. His wife had driven him to the ...

1381. What Is Heaven Like?

Matthew 13:44-46, Matthew 13:31-35

Sermon

Brett Blair

I believe we human beings have a perception problem. We often think we have the proper perspective on an issue when in fact we are way off. There's a charming story that Thomas Wheeler, one time CEO of the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (a.k.a. MassMutual), tells on himself: He and his wife were driving along an interstate highway when he noticed that their car was low on gas. Wheeler got off the highway at the next exit and soon found a rundown gas station with just one gas pump. He asked the ...

1382. Preparing for the Wrong Thing

Luke 12:13-21

Illustration

Larry Powell

According to Jewish religious laws the eldest son of a family was entitled to inherit twice the share as the younger brother (Deuteronomy 21:15-17). In all probability the person who approached Jesus in our text was a younger brother who wanted more than his legal share of an inheritance. Jesus replied to the subject at hand by citing the parable of the "Rich Young Fool." The bottom line of the parable is that the rich fool had prepared for the wrong thing. He had taken his goods into account, but had made ...

1383. Faith and Power

Mark 4:35-41

Illustration

Larry Powell

Mark 4:37-41 is one of the many passages in the Bible which has been set to music. "Master, the tempest is raging! The billows are tossing high! The sky is o’er shadowed with blackness ..." You recognize it. From childhood, we have sung the words to "Peace Be Still" and have loved to lift the refrain which concludes, "they all shall sweetly obey thy will ..." Two primary elements are underscored in both the scripture and the hymn: the power of Christ and faith in Christ. The Gospel according to Mark ...

1384. Creatures of Worth

Genesis 1:1-2:3

Illustration

Larry Powell

God not only created persons, but persons of "worth." Regrettably, the Genesis account of humanity’s beginning has frequently been sensationalized, either by recurring debates as to the nature of the literature or gnat-straining arguments over sequences, that the matter of "worth" has escaped the hearing of a people who desperately need to hear it. Whatever else the high occurence of suicide in this country suggests to us, the matters of low self-esteem and a consciousness of worthlessness must certainly ...

1385. Facing Life’s Central Tests

Mark 14:32-42

Sermon

Robert Allen

It was a beautiful spring afternoon in Eastern Oklahoma when my secretary told me that Oleatha was on the phone. Oleatha was 67 years old and she had been having problems. She often became confused. She had a tendency to forget. Once, she had gotten lost going from church out to her home on a bluff that overlooked the lake. At the insistence of her family, she had gone through a battery of medical tests. The reports were in and Oleatha wanted me to come by and visit her. When I drove into her driveway, I ...

1386. When Is The Baby Coming?

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

Erskine White

Luke 2:1-7: "While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child." (v. 6) "When is the baby coming?" Every expectant parent who ever lived has asked that question, but the answer is always the same. Babies come when they feel like coming! Sometimes they come early, as if they can’t wait to get out on their own. Sometimes they come late, as if they had heard the evening news too many times while lying in their mother’s womb and decided they are better off where they are. Modern medicine ...

1387. The Covenant Of Amazing Grace

Genesis 9:1-17

Sermon

Durwood L. Buchheim

"The earth is degenerating these days. Bribery and corruption abound. Children no longer mind their parents. Everyone wants to write a book, and it is evident the end of the world is fast approaching."1 Sounds like the evening news or tomorrow’s headlines, doesn’t it? The truth is that this description of society was found inscribed on an Assyrian tablet dated 2000 B.C. Jurgen Moltmann, professor of theology at the University of Tubingen, West Germany, shares this modern observation concerning our anxious ...

1388. Christian Courage

Acts 4:1-22

Sermon

Durwood L. Buchheim

"You will go to prison for six months," said the Judge. So John Bunyan went to prison for nothing worse than preaching in the little Bedford Baptist Church. "Baptist" preaching was against the law. But Bunyan persisted in breaking the law. He told Justice Keeling, "If I was out of prison today, I would preach again tomorrow, by the help of God." So it was back to prison. This time for twelve years. And again for six months. John Bunyan, who gave us the great classic, Pilgrim’s Progress, spent one fifth of ...

1389. Resurrection: From Slave to Child

Galatians 3:26--4:7

Sermon

Leonard H. Budd

So often a road is built upon the back of an earlier pathway - one upon the other, built up and strengthened by what went before. The busy Detroit Avenue before our church (Lakewood, Ohio) was once a Pony Express route, carrying mail toward Detroit City in Michigan. That route was earlier an Indian trail through forest lands. So it was with the road that came from Bethany, climbed across to the Mount of Olives, snaked down into the Kidron Valley, moved through the region of the Garden of Gethsemane and ...

1390. A Dead Man in a Witch’s Cave

1 Samuel 28:1-25

Sermon

R. Blaine Detrick

You will remember that, in God’s dealings with mankind, he chose one particular man, Abraham. Through that man, God intended to raise a special nation, through which he could bring his message of redemption to the whole world. God directed that nation down into the land of Egypt to preserve it during a time of world-wide famine and need. Joseph was our outstanding leader at that point. In the last chapter, God brought his chosen people back across the wilderness to the very edge of the land of promise, and ...

1391. A Shepherd Who Became a Sovereign

2 Samuel 12:1-31

Sermon

R. Blaine Detrick

In the beginning, God created his world and his people. Mankind fell into sin in the Garden of Eden. God worked out a plan of salvation. To institute that plan, he selected a man and determined that through that one man, he would build a nation - a nation to accomplish his redemptive purpose. That man was Abraham. Through the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God was building a chosen people. During Joseph’s lifetime, God preserved his people in a desperate time of famine by taking them down into the ...

1392. A Man With a Scalpel and a Pen

Acts 16:6-10

Sermon

R. Blaine Detrick

The favorite man of the Bible for this chapter is one who is rarely mentioned in the Scriptures, yet is an important Bible personality. Not only is he a biblical character; he is also one who was responsible for writing part of the Bible, one who helped to bring the New Testament into being. His name is Luke. Luke, the Doctor We could call him Dr. Luke, because we read that he was "Luke, the beloved physician" (Colossians 4:14). Actually, we know very little about the man. We do know that he was a doctor. ...

1393. Doubting Thomas

John 20:24-31

Sermon

Richard A. Jensen

"How can you believe in God in such a world as this, anyway?" Melvin asked. "I mean it’s crazy. Just look around you at the world. Does it look like a world that comes from the hand of a loving God? No way! No way! It looks like a world gone mad, a world gone out of control. I just can’t believe in God, I tell ya. I can’t believe in God’s so-called Son either. I’ve just got too many doubts about the way this world works. Too many doubts." Jeanie was beside herself. She did not know what to do. Sunday was ...

1394. Blind Bartimaeus - Model For Healing

Mark 10:46-52

Sermon

James W. Robinson

His name was Bartimaeus. He occupied the lowest rung on society’s ladder, a poor man of Bethany, who eked out a living begging at the side of the road. In his sightlessness, he was forced to depend on others to guide him to his place of business. He had never seen the smile on the lips of a child, the blush on a maiden’s cheeks, the love in his mother’s eyes. His eyes had never feasted on a sea of flowers in a field, a sky spilling over with stars, or the glorious glow of the setting sun. He had heard, but ...

1395. Inevitabilities and the Last Days

Mark 13:1-31

Sermon

James W. Robinson

Few natural phenomena are as spectacular as the storm clouds that assemble over a mountaintop. One can hear the thunder grumble ominously among them. The tempo increases until its grumble glides into a rumble and an intermittent crash. In the forest below, one feels the quickening fresh-scented breeze turn into a hard-muscled wind that bends the creaking leafy forest giants into submission. The camper cringes in his tent as, in the now imminent storm, the thunder applauds the pyrotechnics of the lightning ...

1396. Will Names Never Hurt Us?

Proverbs 10:1-32

Sermon

Edward Chinn

Mrs. Reginald VanGleason decided to give a cocktail party at her mansion for her friends. She called in Nora, her maid of many years, and said to her, "I want you to stand at the door of the drawing room. As my friends arrive, I want you to call the guests’ names." Nora smiled broadly and replied, "Oh, thank you, ma’am, for twenty years I’ve been waiting to call your friends names." "To call a person names" means to abuse that person by calling him derogatory nicknames or insulting titles. A name to us is ...

1397. Easter 7

Acts 1:12-26, 1 John 5:1-12, John 17:6-19

Bulletin Aid

Paul A. Laughlin

First Lesson: Acts 1:15-17, 21-26 Theme: Apostolic continuity Exegetical note Luke here recounts the selection of a replacement for Judas from among the disciples who had been with Jesus throughout his ministry. Notable here are (1) the need, perceived either by Peter or the author, to maintain the symbolic number of twelve; and (2) the dependence on the divine will rather than human choice in the final decision. Call to Worship Leader: Christians, we stand today at the end of a long succession of ...

1398. Looking Ahead with Hope

John 1:43-51

Sermon

Text: "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" John 1:46 The wedding march had just begun. I stepped to the center of the chancel area. In the ministry there is no moment as deeply moving as that when a wedding march begins. The groom took his place, followed by the best man, at the front of the sanctuary. Down the aisle came the ushers and the bridesmaids. Then into the Narthex came the bride - beautiful, radiant, on the arm of her father. As she moved slowly down the aisle, every eye was fixed upon her ...

1399. Which Self Are You?

Genesis 2:4-25

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

You no doubt have heard the old story of the three inmates of a mental hospital who were having a discussion. The first insisted that he was Napoleon Bonaparte. The second asked how he knew he was Napoleon Bonaparte. The first replied, "God told me!" And the third chimed in, "I did not!" And then there was the patient who appeared unexpectedly at his psychiatrist’s office, and asked what was wrong by the doctor, he replied, "I just HAD to come today, Doctor. For some reason, I just feel myself." Well, ...

1400. Joseph

Drama

Charles L. Koester

INTRODUCTION: [This portion is read from the lecturn by the introducer or narrator.] Of all the persons involved and related to the Advent, the coming, of Christ, there is one who is the "forgotten man" of the Nativity. Even the great artists of the world, many of whom have lavished their imagination upon the scene of the Nativity, have been content to make him part of the dark backgrounds of their paintings. Yet, this man was much more than just a piece of fleshly furniture. As his wife, Mary, was chosen ...

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